Telephone Operators played an important role in the Winnipeg General Strike. Since the 1880s in Canada, the job of an operator had become primarily women’s work. Groups of women would sit at a switchboard with headphones on, and connect different callers. This work was seen as prestigious by many because the operator was key to connecting individuals through communication technology and they were also a source of general information for callers (McLean, 376). The 1919 Strike was not the first time that telephone operators had rebelled against their employers. Two years earlier in 1917, Winnipeg women had been a part of union disputes when they fought for a salary increase of fifteen to forty percent (Horodyski). On May 1^st, 1917, operators conducted a three-hour strike to gain their employer’s attention. When disputes began in the summer of 1919, many operators were comfortable and familiar with having conflict with their employer.

Telephone operators were crucial in starting the city-wide strike. On May 15^th, 1919, five hundred telephone operators walked out and pulled the switches which left a majority of Winnipeg with no phone service. There were no workers that came in to replace them. At this point, the only strikers were the metal and building trades workers and around five hundred female bakery and confectionary workers who were on strike because their employer was refusing to negotiate with the union (McMaster, 135). By midnight on May 15, over 20,000 people had joined the strike (McMaster, 135). Employees from shops, factories, offices, railyards, restaurants, theatres, and fire halls had left their postings (Horodyski). All telephone lines in the province were shut down by May 26^th. Some women did come back to work as operators mid-way through the strike, as they were offered plenty of money and some people’s financial situations had become dire after several weeks with no pay. Volunteers joined in as well, although they were overwhelmed with the work (Horodyski).