Nicole Turenne has been working on the same production line for 56 years. 73 years old, she does not talk about retirement. “It’s because I’m happy that I’m here. »
She was still a teenager when she started working as a seamstress at Chemise Empire, a company in Louiseville, Mauricie, specializing in the manufacture of uniforms, particularly intended for police officers, firefighters and paramedics (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Sûreté du Québec , etc.).
At Chemise Empire, there are employees assigned to the cutting of the material, others to the installation of the collars, the buttons and the pockets of the shirts. Nicole Turenne has been installing cuffs on shirt sleeves since joining the company in the summer of Expo 67.
“I was 17 when I started here. I didn’t like school. Back then, it wasn’t high school. I was going to go up to 10th grade. That summer, I asked a friend to tell her mother that she gave my name to her employer, Empire Shirt. The response was instantaneous: let her come tomorrow,” says Nicole Turenne.
“I didn’t even know how to sew. All I knew was that after a needle there was what is called an eye for threading thread. The first week, I almost dropped out to go back to school. It was not easy. There was plenty to know for someone who had never sewn. »
She gave herself two weeks to try and see if she would continue or continue her studies. She mastered her sewing machine so quickly that it didn’t take long for management to come up with a rather complimentary nickname for her.
She was making 90 cents an hour when she started at Empire Shirts for 40-hour weeks doing shirt cuffs. Nicole Turenne now admits to making $23.25 an hour. “I don’t mind saying it. I didn’t steal it! »
Separated from the father of her daughter since 1989, Nicole Turenne now works at the factory generally three days a week. Sometimes four. “I like it because when my day is done, my exercise is done. I don’t need to go to the Nautilus or roll a little ball. It also gives me a discipline in my life because I am a bit of a delinquent. When you have dinner at noon, you don’t have dinner at 3 p.m.! “, she says.
“It also makes me do my social. I don’t need to go to the grocery store to say my only hello or my only word of the day. There are lots of good things about working here. It’s a family to me. I love that. »
Her colleagues speak of her as a hard-working, efficient woman with a big heart. Two colleagues point out that Nicole Turenne came to bring them soup when they were sick or recovering.
At one time, he was frequently asked to stay at the factory at the end of the day and sometimes even in the evening to work overtime.
“Back in the day, on a good day, I could make 560 shirts a day or so. That’s over 1100 wrist raises, that, you know, because a shirt has two sleeves! I could work on 80 shirts in an hour! I was giving you that,” she says.
If Nicole Turenne obviously has a lot of experience and seems well appreciated by her colleagues, she does not hide having certain fears.
“In the general idea of the world, 73 is synonymous with underachievement. That’s what I’m afraid of. The minute my mill breaks or breaks, I get stressed out because I’m afraid my age will be associated with the outcome of my day’s production,” she says.
“The day I realize that I no longer have my place and that I am no longer performing, I will not wait to be told and I will leave. But if I don’t notice it, tell me, I won’t want to stay. They don’t want me to quit, so guess I’m still doing the trick! »
“In the old days, we weren’t allowed to go and smoke in the toilets. But my boss at the time often went to the toilet to smoke. Today, some are warned because they are going to text in the bathroom. It’s not smoking anymore, it’s texting! There are some that when they are constipated, they are constipated for a long time! “says Nicole Turenne laughing.
In 56 years in the business, Nicole Turenne says she has suffered a limited number of small accidents. “Maybe five tops. I remember two among others. I once stuck a needle in myself an inch from edge to edge. And another time I had stitches in a finger. »
Nicole Turenne
Age: 73
Place of birth: Louiseville
Place of residence: Louiseville
Child: 49-year-old girl
Occupation: seamstress
Employer: Empire Shirt