However, conditions were not as advertised. Long hours with few breaks, low wages, and constant supervision – to force the women to work harder and not use time to speak with one another – soon frustrated many operators. By 1918, most telephone operators were employed by the Manitoba Government Telephone System. That year they joined other government employees in a general strike that set the stage for the confrontation of 1919.

In May 1919 most operators, in Winnipeg and in the many rural telephone exchanges, left their switchboards and joined the General Strike. This meant there was no telephone service in Manitoba for most of the first week of the strike. The Citizens’ Committee arranged for replacement workers to re-open the telephone exchanges and paid them much more than the striking operators. Some services were provided but the system remained disrupted until the strike was over. Operators who struck for the duration of the General Strike were fired and blacklisted.

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