The Eaton Drive: The Campaign to Organize Canada’s Largest Department Store 1948 to 1952

"The Eaton Drive is an epic story, recorded with compassion by Eileen Tallman Sufrin, who headed the drive. Not only were hundreds of trade union officials involved, but literally thousands if individuals who carried the mundane load of leaflet distribution at all hours through all kinds of weather for four years. For the general reader, this volume is a readable slice of the social as well as the trade union, history of the day. But for trade unionists and working people in general, it is both an inspiration and an organizational handbook depicting both the nature and the proportions of the challenge facing them" Toronto Star, 1982

Eileen Taliman Sufrin became active in socialist politics in the 30s. Her career in the trade union movement began in 1940. She helped to organize bank clerks, munition plant workers, office staff in steel mills, and led the long, spectacular, but unsuccessful, drive to unionize Eaton employees in Toronto. This is her memoir of that extraordinary chapter in retail unionism and Canadian labour history. In October 1979 she was one of seven women awarded the Governor-General s medal, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Persons Case. ＂