Meet activist Jill Jones (article)

"Meet Peterborough Activist Jill Jones: Stickin' to the Union

In the early 1970s, a worker sweeping the floors of the Canadian General Electric (GE) factory in Nogojawanong/Peterborough, Ontario, earned a higher wage than a skilled machinist — if, of course, the sweeper was male and the machinist was female.Jill Jones was a feisty young woman who had trained at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Peterborough to be a machinist, and, in 1973 at age 19, was hired at GE . . . and she didn’t much care to see a sweeper take home more money than she did. So, she did something about it. She joined the union.Read more of Jill's story and her years of staunch advocacy for numerous causes — affirmative action and employment equity for women, health and safety, child care, Take Back the Night, housing co-ops, older women’s issues, the training of women to be union leaders “to get our issues front and centre” — and much more."

Find the article here.

- written by Melodie McCullough, publisher/editor/senior writer of JOURNEY Magazine Ptbo