Dorothy Power Lawson: A pioneer for women and unions

On January 28 this winter, New Brunswick lost one of the women pioneers in the history of organized labour in the province. Born in 1925, Dorothy Power Lawson rose to prominence in her own union, was the first woman president of the Moncton and District Labour Council, and also served as an officer of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour. In another achievement well worth recalling on International Women’s Day, she helped convince the provincial government to establish an Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

It was not an easy road for her generation of women labour activists, and Dorothy Power Lawson’s experience reflected the changing times of the past century.

To begin with, her first job as a telegraph operator for Canadian National came to an end after the Second World War, as CN refused to continue to employ married women after the war. When she was hired as a typesetter by the Moncton Times and Transcript, Power Lawson discovered a union that was, as she put it, “ahead of its time”. As a member of the International Typographical Union, she benefited from the union’s long-established policy, dating back to the 1880s, of requiring equal pay for equal work, which entitled her to the same union rates as male typesetters. She worked there for the next thirty-eight years.

Why did she become involved in her union? In a 2006 interview conducted by Mélissa Duguay for the New Brunswick Labour History Project, Power Lawson recalled some of her feelings as a young single mother: “Well it was because it was necessary. I needed to have something in my life that was constructive and important. I was at a very low part of my life when I went to work. We’d just been beaten right down, my son and I. It made a light at the end of the rainbow and if I worked for it I could get different things. It was good for me and it opened so many doors for me. . . . I’ve made my spot in the union world and I feel very proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish.”

As an activist in ITU Local 636, Power Lawson held several posts, including treasurer, secretary and president. She remembered the reaction of the international office when she was elected president of her local: “My president called me from Colorado Springs — it was before the days of email and all those great things — and he said ‘Dorothy I am extremely disturbed with you.’ I knew what his trouble was. I said ‘What is the trouble, sir?’ He said ‘You! I’ve got a note on my desk to say that you have been elected president of your union,’ and he said, ‘that’s the first woman in Canada,’ and he said, ‘I’m extremely disturbed with you, you should be home in the kitchen washing the dishes.’ And I said, ‘Mr. President, I love you, too.’” She laughed as she finished the story: “And we did just fine from there.”

On another occasion, she was nominated to be president of the Maritime Typographical Council, the regional unit of the union. Her boss at the newspaper called her in: “He said, ‘Dorothy we understand you’re going to Saint John for the weekend.’ I said ‘yes.’ Well, he said ‘we understand you’ve been nominated for president,’ and I said ‘yes’. And he said ‘you know we would rather you didn’t take it.’ I said to him ‘well you know you just made up my mind I’m going to be president.’ I was president and I think that it worked out better than if some of the others had gone.”

Later she served internationally on the ITU Pension Board for fifteen years and, after the union merged in 1987 with the Communications Workers of America, chaired the Canadian section and the union’s Laws Committee. In the early 1990s, she was appointed to represent Canada as one of the country’s two labour delegates to the International Labor Organization.

Power Lawson also played a leading part in raising the profile of women at the New Brunswick Federation of Labour. Women delegates were few and far between in the early history of the Federation, and there was not much encouragement for women to take on leadership roles. In 1962 her first attempt to win election as a trustee failed. The following year there was a tie vote for the position, which was decided against her on the toss of a coin. She was finally elected in 1964, becoming the first woman officer in forty years. She continued to take on responsibilities into the early 1980s. By this time, the Federation had established a Women’s Committee to advocate for the growing number of women members, and Power Lawson was appointed one of the first members.

The equality of women and men in the workplace was one of the issues that always had her attention: “I sort of felt prejudiced toward that where my union — in all the cases my union was the only union that paid equal pay for work of equal value. So I pushed towards that — don’t know that I got a lot done — but I pushed towards it. I was very biased in that; I’m still biased in that. I don’t think the workplaces should look to see if you’re a male or female. If you do your work you should get equal pay, that’s what I feel.”

In the 1970s, Power Lawson’s union experience was sought out by the next generation of women activists in the province, who recruited her to co-chair the ad hoc committee that lobbied for a New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, which was established in 1975. As the number of women in the paid labour force continued to increase, the Council pushed for changes in policies and attitudes — but was unexpectedly abolished by the provincial government in 2011.

An admirer of Shirley Carr, the first woman president of the Canadian Labour Congress, Power Lawson served for three years on the CLC’s Standing Committee on Equality and Equal Opportunity for Women Workers in Canada.

She also recognized the importance of labour education in preparing younger citizens for the world of work. Although her own basic schooling ended with high school and business college, she went on to complete courses at the Atlantic Region Labour Education Centre and the Labour College of Canada. In retirement, she had advice for the education system in New Brunswick schools: “I’m a strong believer that one of the courses in high school should be on labour and on government’s involvement with labour and employees’ involvement with government. I think that should be a course that is taught . . . . I think we need that. I don’t think a lot of people know the ins and outs and the requirements of a labour union if they don’t learn it when they are in school.”

On her retirement as president of the Moncton and District Labour Council in 1975, the Moncton Transcript congratulated Power Lawson for her responsible leadership as well as her encouragement of labour involvement in community affairs: “Under her guidance the Moncton and District Labour Council did not hew narrowly to matters solely related to labour. She broadened the purview of the local movement to express its stands on many important social, cultural and economic issues.” She set a standard herself by serving on the Moncton Hospital Board and the Greater Moncton Planning Commission, among many examples of her community activity.

Power Lawson left a large legacy of achievements and challenges for working people in New Brunswick. Generally she counted herself a pragmatist and an optimist in labour relations: “I think we can learn to work with each other. Management may not always have its way, labour may not always have its way, but sit down at the table and talk it out. I think this is what’s important.” But she had no doubts about how much unions were capable of accomplishing : “I think a living wage under union management has been a good thing.  I think that we’ve been able — maybe not so much lately — but we were able to have our voice heard in the province.”

David Frank is the author of Provincial Solidarities: A History of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour (2013).