They powered Montreal's garment industry. One woman is trying to honour them
The hands that operated Ida del Pinto Mosesso's bra manufacturing machine are elegant in their old age but riddled with arthritis after four decades of work in Montreal's garment district.
Her right index finger bends away from her, mimicking the curve of underwire as she assembled bra after bra for eight hours a day.
"Now I can see the aftermath," she said, gesturing to her inner thighs. They also curve out from years of straddling the powerful machine.
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One day, in the late '90s, she showed up to Smart Brassieres Inc. for her shift only to find the doors locked. Just like that, the factory, like hundreds before it on the once booming Chabanel Street, was no more. It defaulted in 1999, according to Quebec's business registry.
Mosesso, who had spent 35 years doing piecework for the company, was never compensated for her last three weeks of work and lost her vacation pay.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/garment-industry-montreal-women-workers-1.7070893