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While studying at McGill University, Madeleine Parent met Léa Roback, who had made a name for herself during the 1937 midinette strike, which had been organized by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU/UIOVD). Léa became an inspiration to Madeleine. Madeleine made her first forays into the union movement as the secretary of the organizing committee of the Conseil Fédéré des Métiers et du Travail de Montréal [Montréal Federated Council of Trades and Labour]. When the war broke out and the need for labour increased, women were recruited to work in heavy industry, munitions factories, and aircraft manufacturing, as well as in traditional industries. It was also a period of expansion for trade unionism. Madeleine soon began working as an organizer at Merchants Cotton and Dominion Textile. In 1942, she met Kent Rowley, a union organizer at an explosives factory and at the Montréal Cottons textile mill in Valleyfield.

Reference : Dossier Pioneers of Feminism and Unionism : Léa Roback and Madeleine Parent