Working as a counter at the Rolland Company

Denise Grignon, Monique Thibodeau and Cécile Labelle, seated facing the camera, speak in turn. Interview conducted at the Rolland Company retirement home. 

[Denise Grignon] I’m Denise Grignon. I started work at Rolland in 1959. I sorted paper for 16 years, until ‘75. They closed the sorting department that year.  I applied for a man’s job, and went to work in small formats—they called them Lennox— until June 2, 1998. Then I stopped.

[Monique Thibodeau] I started in 1958 and ended up a sorter, counter, and inspector—no more, no less. I finished in 1975.

[Cécile Labelle] I’m Cécile Labelle. My first job was at the Rolland Co. in Mont-Rolland, 1957 to 1965. Then in Saint-Jérôme, 1966 to 1971. Then in ‘71, back to Mont-Rolland till ‘76.

Three scrolling black & white photographs during Monique Thibodeau’s and Denise Grignon’s explanations. In order, they show a female employee counting a stack of sheets, the counting room at the mill, and an inspector checking sheets. 

[Monique Thibodeau, offscreen] It was fun learning to—

[Denise Grignon, offscreen] —to count, turn sheets over, see which were OK.  For the ones that weren’t, we had a basket. We’d toss them in, and afterward, we’d count. We counted out reams of paper. We stacked them on another shelf, with pallets, and we counted them. And then a man would take them and put them on a wooden skip.

It was fun. We really enjoyed ourselves. There was an inspector, and she would check our reams. If they weren’t nice and had faults, she’d mark them with a little line and we would start over.

The three women stand behind a table on which a stack of sheets has been placed. They handle the paper and explain their tasks. 

[Monique Thibodeau] I examine the paper to check for small defects. Sometimes it’s black spots; sometimes it’s breaks.

[Cécile Labelle] Sometimes it was one sheet at a time. But do it as if it weren’t.

[Interviewer] What do you mean by ‘breaks’?

[Monique Thibodeau] When a crease forms in the paper, they call it a break. Sometimes, there are little black spots. It depends, I guess, on which machine made it. Besides that… what faults can there be? Stains!

[Cécile Labelle] Holes.

[Monique Thibodeau] Holes. And afterward, well, that’s it. Once you have a good bunch of sheets, you count. So, let’s say you… To get to 500 sheets, you count them by fours. [Demonstrates the technique.] Like this. Up to 125, which was 500 sheets. You fan it like this, and count four sheets at once.

Black & white illustration of a Rolland Company advertisement showing different uses of paper.

[Denise Grignon, offscreen] When people older than us went in front and sorted the paper, it was one sheet at a time. They had to sight-check it.

[Monique Thibodeau, offscreen] It was called mirage.

[Denise Grignon, offscreen] You would inspect it properly, like this. If there were no faults, you would put it down here.

[All three in unison] That was for quality paper.

[Denise Grignon] Sometimes there were stains. They called it triage [sorting]. Very strict. If the sheet wasn’t right, we’d toss it in the basket, like this.

Camera on Monique Thibodeau, giving explanations. 

[Monique Thibodeau] Well, when they closed the finishing department for the girls, it wasn’t for nothing. There was an automatic sorter/counter that did the job of many women. They found it was more economical for the company to stop having the women sort and count the paper. The machine was more profitable.