Inseparable from the popular history of Quebec, the matches marked the Outaouais region through their union fights in order to have better working conditions. The test To bring the matches out of the shadowsby historian Kathleen Durocher, brings to light new aspects of the daily lives of its young workers responsible for making almost all the matches in Canada.
From the mid-nineteenthe century at the beginning of the XXe century, thousands worked in harsh conditions at the EB Eddy pulp and paper mill in Hull, one of the largest match manufacturers in North America. “At the time, electricity made its appearance timidly, and homes were far from being electrified,” says Kathleen Durocher in an interview with The duty. The arrival of matches is then seen as a revolutionary invention, which allows everyone to have fire very easily, at a lower cost and within reach. »
The Outaouais is then a favorable territory for the development of industry with the presence of hydraulic energy and its affordable workforce. The area is also rich in forests and mining resources, from which wood and phosphorus are extracted for the manufacture of matches. Under the impetus of the industrial revolution, Hull is transformed into a veritable capital of matchmaking.
“So it’s no coincidence that the American EB Butler Eddy settled in Hull to found his factory in 1854, at the foot of the Chaudière Falls. His company will become in two decades the largest employer in the region, ”explains the historian.
At the time, the workforce was almost exclusively French-Canadian and Catholic, she says. Few newcomers come to live in the Outaouais, and Hull is not a high place of immigration either compared to cities like Montreal, Quebec or others in Ontario. “As for the immigrant workers present, either from Scotland or Ireland, they work in other industries such as textiles. »
The book is the fruit of an impressive research work covering different periods and drawing as much on documents from administrative, union and accounting archives as on scientific reports or old press clippings.
“Unfortunately, the matchmakers all died, regrets the historian. If my research work had been done 30 or 40 years ago, we would probably have had, thanks to their testimonies, a more precise portrait of what their daily life was like in working-class neighborhoods. »
This silence, the historian had to fill it with often fragmentary sources, because for a long time the workers were eclipsed from historical writings. By dissecting the Canadian censuses — the only way to truly identify working women — she tries to bring out a certain number of traits specific to this workforce. Beyond anonymity, she nevertheless manages to put a face to these women whose destinies tell a part of our collective history.
“The matchmakers were often unmarried teenagers and they played a crucial role in the survival of households that lived in poverty. They made it possible to bring an extra salary to the household. Often, several workers came from the same family, which contributed to concentrating a certain French-Canadian population in the same industry,” says the historian.
White phosphorus is a highly toxic substance that rots the jaws of patients. The disfigured victims were mostly young women between the ages of 16 and 20.
However, the cases studied are diverse, she adds. Some matchmakers have had this one job all their lives, while for others it was a sort of in-between period, just after childhood and before the start of life as a stay-at-home mom. “I learned that there were also men working in the company. There was a strict separation of operations. The Catholic Church kept watch. We didn’t mix the sexes. »
The evil that reaches the matchsticks
“Match makers” were employed in large numbers at EB Eddy to perform what were considered secondary tasks, that is, producing boxes and packaging. It is known, however, that the precarious trade was exercised in laborious conditions, involving many risks to their health, in particular poisoning and the harmful effects of exposure to the white phosphorus used in the manufacture of matches.
“White phosphorus is a highly toxic substance that rots the jaws of patients,” says Durocher. The impacts on the physique were visually horrible since you had to remove the infected parts. The disfigured victims were mostly young women between the ages of 16 and 20, those who worked at EB Eddy. »
The dangers associated with the substance (also used in the manufacture of rat poison) were already known by the governments of the time. From 1840, European countries were the first to ban it in the production of matches. Yet, despite the medical evidence, Canada will be dragging its feet.
If the matchmakers suffered from poisoning for several years, it was rather famous cases (reported by the popular press) that moved the government, in particular this mother from Prince Edward Island who killed her five children with toxic matches. Finally, on May 27, 1914, Wilfrid Laurier’s government passed legislation on the matter and banned white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches.
“The reasons for the slowness of the institutions are multiple, both economic and constitutional. The fact remains that silence will remain on the risks faced by industrial workers in the country. »
EB Eddy took advantage of the fact that women with jaw necrosis hid their disease in order to keep their jobs. The factory enjoyed a quasi-monopoly, a position of power that allowed it to vigorously oppose the prohibition measures, even if there was a safer material: red phosphorus.
“However, it was much more expensive to produce, but international pressure and the fact that the United States had phased out the production of toxic matches, eventually caused the company to abandon white phosphorus. »
Despite the economic pressures, however, the matchmakers did not remain passive. The two strikes of 1919 and 1924 demonstrate their desire to improve their lot. “They are the first victims of modernity and industrialization,” notes the historian. They will know meager victories and big defeats, but their militancy will be at the origin of the first women’s union in the country. »