You’d come in and punch the clock and then you’d go to our locker room to get our hats and gloves. When we went out into the packing room we had to put the gloves on because some of the ware was hot. And then you went out to the packing room and packed whatever came down. We’d be on either side of the conveyor packing and you’d try to do your share. We’d work in shifts. We’d go all day and all night.”


The job could be monotonous at times so Roberts says she and other employees would always be playing jokes on each other to break up the routine and keep everybody on their toes. Roberts still laughs when she recalls telling new employees to go find a “box-stretcher” and watching them wander aimlessly around the factory asking for something that didn’t exist. Other ladies would put sand or glue in people’s gloves when they went on break. Roberts says it was a great family atmosphere and a great place to work.


“Those three years after the factory closed — that to me was almost a death. I was in mourning. I miss the people and I still miss the job. It was a wonderful place for people to be together and


working. When it closed it was the end of an era in Redcliff.”


Redcliff Museum volunteer curator Vi Rieger’s husband Jim worked at Dominion Glass for 32 years. She also worked at the factory herself for three years in the 1970s. This gives her a special interest in preserving the memory of this important era in local history.


It was a


“We were very industrial in Redcliff once,” says Rieger. “It makes me sad to think about that era gone here in town. I think about it every time I drive by the old factory. When I go up there it takes me back to those days at Dominion Glass, but also a different time in Redcliff history. Life was slower and easier and freer. You could make a really nice life here if you worked at Dominion Glass.”


wonderful place for people to be together and


working. When it closed it was the end of an era in Redcliff.


She proudly shows off the museum’s selection of bottles, jars and other glass containers sporting the sideways Diamond D on the bottom which designates they were made right here in Redcliff. Among the more traditional bottles there are a few wonderful novelties made by Dominion glass workers over the years from hand- shaped ashtrays to manually blown glass canes, to swans made from beer bottles. The swans, in particular, were highly prized among Dominion employees in their day.


“If you kept up and you had a lot


of good ware the operators up the line would get good bonuses and they’d send you glass swans as a reward,” says Rieger. “They would send them through the lehr and the girls on the other end got them as a thank-you.”


Rieger says Dominion Glass was also important for the high paying jobs it provided for women.


“It paid very well, especially for women,” confirms Rieger. “There was a lot of single women who worked there and single moms because that was the only place they could get a decent wage. It was hard work and if you didn’t mind the fast work it was a good place to work.”


In the end, says Rieger, the demise of the Dominion Glass Factory in Redcliff was probably inevitable but that didn’t make it hurt any less for long-time employees.


“When Consumers Glass came in from the States and bought everybody out, I’m sure they bought us just to shut us all down because Canadian glass was competing with American glass at that time. Times were changing with more companies using plastic and aluminum containers. It would have happened anyway because I don’t think there is even a glass plant operating in the States today. If you buy a canning jar now it comes from China. We just wish we could have had a bit more time.” ■


Aerial view of Dominion Glass Early 1950's or late 1940's


Building of Dominion Glass, 1913


Barb Roberts worked at Dominion Glass for 31 years and helped co-author the history book "Looking Through Glass" about the glass factory in 1999.


Vi Rieger, curator of the Redcliff Museum, is an expert on the history of Dominion Glass.


our communities ❚ our region ❚ our people 55


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