Service Office and Retail Workers Union of Canada

In September 1972 and then again in September 1973, clerical and library workers met and formed the Association of University and College Employees (AUCE) at the University of B.C.

In October 1972, members of the WWA met and formed the Service, Office and Retail Workers Union of Canada. (SORWOC).

Both SORWUC and AUCE would go on to organize previously unorganized women workers, lead high profile strikes, win wage increases that set records in their respective industries and sign union contracts that included unprecedented new rights for women workers.

Related materials:

An ‘Entirely Different’ Kind of Union: The Service, Office, and Retail Workers Union of Canada (SORWUC), 1972 to 1986 by Julia Smith in Labour/Le Travail, Spring 2014

“Unions Aren’t Native”: The Muckamuck Restaurant Labour Dispute, Vancouver, B.C. (1978 to 1983) by Jan Nicol in Labour/Le Travail, Fall 1997

“Women must do it for themselves”: Organizing Working Women into SORWUC (1972 to 1986) by Jan Nicol in Women & Environmental International, December 2013