Showing 69 results

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Alice Person : rank and file -- women's issues in the wood industry RECORDED: Coquitlam (B.C.), 1978-07-28 SUMMARY: Mrs. Person has been active in the IWA. She moved to Websters Corners from the prairies during the Depression; got a job in the wood industry during the war; and was active in organizing her plant. She became a member of the plant executive. She discusses relief; agricultural labour during the Depression; the Japanese internment; working conditions in wood; organizing the IWA and her plant; equal pay for equal work; attitudes to women workers; struggles against layoffs after the war. She and her sister were in the first group of women to be hired on at Hammond Cedar in 1942. Mrs. Person, although told by co-workers that "girls don't need as much", decided that equal pay was a woman's right, and this issue became a primary motivation for her and other women to join the union. She feels that many workers were inspired by the IWA leadership. Mrs. Person served as a steward and a warden on the executive.

CALL NUMBER: T1146:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Allan Williams: Press conference about the Workers' Compensation Board RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 197702-16 & 03-17 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Labour minister Allan Williams announces the firing of the Workers' Compensation Board, 16-Feb-1977. TRACK 2: Williams press conference following a meeting with the BC Federation of Labour; also, reaction of Len Guy, BCFL secretary, 17-Mar-1977. CALL NUMBER: T1146:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Allan Williams: Press conference about the Workers' Compensation and the Revelstoke dam RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1977-02-17 & 28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Labour minister Allan Williams names the new Workers' Compensation Board, 17-Feb-1977. TRACK 2: Williams says he will not stop preparatory work on the Revelstoke Dam. Also, Williams reacts with surprise to the initial position of the IWA on their upcoming contract talks, 28-Feb-1977. CALL NUMBER: T1146:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Allan Williams: Press conference on labour and Native land claims RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1977-03-01 & 04 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Labour minister Allan Williams comments on a meeting with the BC Federation of Labour, and expresses his opposition to provincial wage controls, 01-Mar-1977. TRACK 2: Williams comments on the subject of the native land claims of the Stuart-Trembleur Indians, 04-Mar-1977. CALL NUMBER: T1146:0004 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Allan Williams: News conference regarding "cut off lands" RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1977-03-17 & 18 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Labour minister Allan Williams discusses an upcoming meeting with Native groups about "cut off lands", 17-Mar-1977. TRACK 2: News conference following the first-ever meeting between federal government, provincial government and Native groups on the subject of native land claims relating to the "cut off lands" question, 18-Mar-1977: Philip Joe, Warren Allmand, and Allan Williams. CALL NUMBER: T1146:0005 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Allan Williams: On unemployment and Revelstoke dam appeal RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1977-04-14 & 21 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Labour minister Allan Williams comments on continuing high unemployment, 14-Apr-1977. TRACK 2: Williams on the appeal by SPEC concerning the Revelstoke Dam, 21-Apr-1977. CALL NUMBER: T1146:0006 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Allan Williams: Discusses Bill 92 RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1977-10-19 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: In a news conference, Allan Williams announces the introduction of Bill 92, the Essential Services Disputes Act, and details its provisions, 19-Oct-1977. TRACK 2: Williams discusses the provisions of Bill 92 in a press conference. He emphasizes that the Bill is not intended to affect the private sector, but to prevent strikes and lockouts in the public sector, 19-Oct-1977. CALL NUMBER: T1146:0007 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Allan Williams: Discusses Revelstoke dam project and Nisga'a land claims RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1977 & 1978 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: In a news conference, Labour Minster Allan Williams announces that the Revelstoke Dam project will be allowed to proceed under BC Hydro direction. He details the functions and responsibilities of the various officials, organizations and committees involved in the project. He also suggests the creation of an organization independent of BC Hydro to estimate energy requirements, and that existing energy legislation be reviewed; 12-Sep-1977. TRACK 2: At a Federal-Provincial Labour Ministers conference, Williams releases the provincial government position on Nisga'a land claims. B.C. takes the position that aboriginal title does not exist. Williams discusses in general the status of Indians in B.C. and states that Indians themselves must be involved in any solutions. He states that it is the provincial government's responsibility to make the Indians' future a more equitable one; 25-Jan-1978.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Anita Andersen : the Trocadero strike RECORDED: New Westminster (B.C.), 1979-[09-03 & 12] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Andersen was born in Princeton, where she and her family experienced the collapse of the Princeton mines (the Granby Mines) and the disastrous economic consequences. She was subsequently orphaned and moved to Vancouver where, as a very young girl, she worked for several families as a domestic; this was one of the few alternatives for working class women who needed a place to live, food and work, and who were basically unskilled. Her sister also worked as a domestic, and they both began to radicalize, due to the influences of the longshoremen's strikes -- and for Mrs. Andersen, her interests in Yugoslavian cultural activities. She came a busgirl and organised for the HREU at the Trocadero Cafe. The Cafe was struck, and a contract was eventually achieved, but the central organisers were fired and blacklisted, including Mrs. Andersen. She continued to work for the union until she moved to the Yukon in the 1940s. TRACK 2: Returning to BC, she worked for the Jubilee Summer Camp; as a cultural organiser the Yugoslavian community; and with consumer organisations.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Anne Marshall : garment industry conditions in Vancouver - the ILGWU RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-06-11 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Anne Marshall was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1907. At the age of 14, she left there to come to BC and find work after her father died. She worked as a waitress and became sympathetic to trade unionism in 1924, during the Longshoremen's strike, through her contact with strike supporters at work. She then became a babysitter for the owner of Sweet 16 dress shops. He taught her to sew, and she began to work in ladies' ready-to-wear. She married in 1928 and stayed home until WWII when she re-entered the workforce. The organization of the industry had begun by then. Working at Jantzen, she was exposed to the Bideau piecework system for the first time, and became angered by the conditions which they imposed. She was laid off, but in the meantime was approached by the unions to organize the shop. The VTLC was spearheading the campaign at that time. The workers were organized into the United Garment Workers. Later she helped to lead the local over to the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union which she felt had better shops. TRACK 2: She became a full-time organizer for the ILGWU in 1946/47 and stayed in that position for 16 years. Central issues in her union were the protection and integration of immigrant workers; equal pensions for women; piecework; racism; wages and hours of work; policing the contract, insuring that people got lunch hours and breaks.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Barbara Stewart : organizing restaurant workers during the Depression RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-06-17 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Barbara Stewart first radicalized during the Depression. She was present in Regina in 1935 at a citizens' meeting called to protest the lack of jobs and support the On to Ottawa Trek. She was swept into the streets with many of the crowd by the attacks of the police and RCMP. She came to Vancouver in 1936 without a job, and was placed as a domestic by the YWCA. She moved on to waitress at Kennedy's, where she was laid off for her union sympathies. She then worked at the Melrose and then Love's Cafe. Waitresses worked four-way split shifts at that time. She participated in job actions like the following: waitresses wore their aprons for six weeks without washing them, to establish employer responsibility for laundry. TRACK 2: Restaurant work was very hard; it required physical labour and long hours of work. Women faced sexual harassment on the job. Some restaurants even tried to exploit waitresses as prostitutes. Most women who worked did so out of economic necessity rather than choice. Bill Stewart was the business agent of Local 28 during the 1930s and early 1940s. Mrs. Stewart later took over as business agent, traveling all over the city for twenty dollars a month. A major struggle of the union was to change the laws so that employers would have to provide transportation for waitresses after dark. Mrs. Stewart as business agent was also a delegate to the VDLC; She went into houses to organize them, and worked on the White Lunch and Trocedero strikes.

News item. Charles Barber hopes to bring together a group of Victoria business people and union members for a seminar at UVic this fall. The purpose is to find better systems of bargaining than by striking, which Barber terms "obsolete".

News item. BCGEU General Secretary John Fryer says this was the first time that the union had to negiotiate against Anti-Inflation Board guidelines. There was trouble, he says, getting the provincial government to agree on a guideline settlement, but there was 90 percent member ratification.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Bertha Souderholm : fruit and vegetable workers organize at Websters Corners RECORDED: Maple Ridge (B.C.), 1979-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Souderholm was active with Finnish community organizations in the Maple Ridge area during the war. The tape describes that community during the Depression; the cooperative movement; women's organization in the community; work and organizing at Berryland; women in the war industries; conditions in the fish canneries. Websters Corners, where she lived, had a long history of progressive organizing. Women in the Finnish community traditionally had their own organizations. Men in Websters Corners worked in industry, while women built and maintained the community. The Women's Defense League organized a defense of political prisoners during the 1930s. Later organizations gathered clothing for Finnish war relief. The unions in the 1940s established old age pensions and unemployment insurance; workmen's compensation, family allowance and medicare. The labour at Berryland was very difficult as there was little automation. Women were called in to work and received only an hour's pay if little fruit was available. TRACK 2: Women worked at Berryland on a seasonal basis, without the benefit of seniority to supplement their household income and pay taxes. Women tried to organise and several women were fired. A wildcat strike occurred later on and the union was established. This created a seniority system and year-round work.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1982-09-21 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available.];

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1986 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available.];

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Bill White : women in the shipyards in World War II RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1978-08 SUMMARY: Bill White was president of the Boilermakers local in Prince Rupert during the war at the shipyards. Many women from the community entered the shipyards in 1941-42. Mr. White was active in defending women's rights to a job at the end of the war. In this interview, he describes conditions in Prince Rupert; the growth of the shipyards; battles between soldiers, workers and Native people; racism in Prince Rupert; response to the entry of women into the yards; attitudes towards the Japanese; anti-war sentiments; the no-strike pledge and the Labour Progressive Party. Mr. White was a member of the Trotskyist organisation at this time (1943). Women were brought into the Prince Rupert shipyards as helpers or improvers, after taking a several-months-long training course in welding. The helpers strung the burners' hoses, and the women were soon proficiently stringing their own hoses and cables. The shift would get off and drink at the Savoy Hotel; it became clear that women had been accepted into the yards when the crew accepted the women buying rounds of drinks. Women served as stewards in the union.

RECORDED: [location unknown], [1979-09-05?] SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available.];

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Harold (Buster) Foster : The IAM and union women in World War II RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-06-06 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Buster Foster was an engineer; burned in an accident in the early 1930s, he was forced onto relief. Social workers harassed relief recipients throughout the Depression. During both world wars, he worked in the shipyards. He participated in the 1919 solidarity strike with the OBU in BC. During World War II he supervised thirty-five to forty women in the shipyards as steward for the union. There were few grievances filed by the women. TRACK 2: After the war, he voiced his concern that two people in a family should not be working when there were only adequate numbers of jobs for one family member. Despite the no-strike pledge, the International Association of Machinists, which he represented, went out on a seven-day job action during the war, resulting in the Richards Commission. Conflicts existed in the IAM over Canadian autonomy and control by the International over Canadian funds and policy.

Reports (not printed) to the Minister of Justice, including abstracts from evidence. (Henderson No. 91).

Purchased from Micro Media, Toronto.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1986 [summer] SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available.];

News item. NDP MLA Charles Barber is asked by reporters how much support he thinks he can get from both labour and management in the role of negotiator. He says: "Strikes and lockouts are products of the 19th century . . . and the line of thinking about them now won't serve any purpose in the 21st century." He has proposed to the Labour Council and the Chamber of Commerce that both sides get together and use some "original thinking."

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Chris Waddell : breaking the chains -- Aristocratic Restaurant workers organize in Vancouver RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-08-17 SUMMARY: Mrs. Waddell worked for the YWCA during the Depression as a dietician, and later worked in the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. She moved to Vancouver in 1947-48, and worked in the dining room of the Aristocratic Restaurant at Granville and Broadway. She was already sympathetic to trade unionism, as her father had been the leader of the OBU Streetrailwaymen in Winnipeg. She was asked to join the union (the HREU) and did so. A janitor was the main organizer, and he was later fired. Others were transferred out of the restaurant to other locations in the chain. Despite this, the application went to the LRB, which ruled that the certification was all right. As well, the union used the tactic of informational picketing. Mrs. Waddell took up the union campaign and soon signed up the new workers in the restaurant, and finally an agreement was signed. The Aristocratic workers were so enthused by their new contract that they became very active in the union, and soon made up half of the executive. TRACK 2: Flo Allen, a longtime member of the union, then suggested that Mrs. Waddell run for business agent. She did so and took the position, working for the union for twelve years.

The series consists of microfilmed copies of newspaper clipping books compiled by Paul Weiler, Chairman, British Columbia Labour Relations Board, Vancouver. The books contain reports on Bill 146, the Collective Bargaining Continuation Act (Oct - Dec 1975), the British Columbia Hospitals strike (Apr - May 1976), the Alcan strike (Jun 1976 - Aug 1977), the Hotel Vancouver strike (Jun - Jul 1977), and the British Columbia Ferry Corporation strike (Oct - Nov 1977).

This series contains copies of all collective bargaining agreements made in British Columbia between 1946 and 1971, filed as required by the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. The series also includes some routing correspondence regarding filing of the agreements. Files are arranged alphabetically by company names.

The names of Unions have been shortened in this finding aid. For full names refer to the documents.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Daisy Brown : on staff for the HREU, 1945-1949 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-07-13 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Daisy Brown was born in Saskatoon and came to BC in 1944. She found a part-time job with the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union in 1945 as an office worker, and then as business agent. In 1946-47, a joint campaign led by both the hotel union and building service union organised Vancouver hotels. Many women worked in the industry because they needed an income as single parents or deserted wives. The union in the restaurant and hotel area was weak relative to industrial unions or skilled craft unions, where workers were not isolated from each other and could stand together. Problems in organising included the transient nature of the work, and the continuous shifts. TRACK 2: Issues which came up included overtime, shift changes, uniforms and seniority. The union set a precedent in establishing a forty-hour week. The Only Fish And Chips and Love's Cafe were particularly militant restaurants. The hotel drive organised all but the Alcazar and Grosvenor hotels. The campaign included leafleting the hotels. The HREU staff was organised into the OTEU but later were shifted to the HREU. Mrs. Brown was active for a time in the OTEU. In 1948, the HREU leadership was deposed and were barred from office and membership in the union because of their left leanings. Mrs. Brown has held both staff and elected positions with the union.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1986-05-13 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available.];

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Edra McLeod : women drive for BC Electric RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-08-23 SUMMARY: Edra McLeod worked at Boeing during the war to help with the war effort. While the plant was being unionized, she questioned whether or not to join the union. A management lock-out in retaliation for a sit-down by the workers resulted in a victory; one five-minute break each day. Mrs. McLeod's husband was overseas for the duration of the war. She left the aircraft industry to find work with BC Hydro [actually BC Electric] in 1944. Only women whose husbands were overseas and who were under 25 to be hired, as conductors. After the war it took five years for women to be allowed to drive. Out of thirty women drivers, eight stayed on, two for many years. From the beginning women received equal wages to men drivers. Only one woman was heavily involved in the union, but all of the women supported it. Mrs. McLeod consistently pushed for other women to be hired as drivers, participated in the fight for better wages and conditions, and was active on the sick committee. She describes the trauma which many young women experienced during the war as a result of separation from their newlywed husbands.

Education salaries, bargaining and arbitration. Files relating to arbitration, conciliation and salary negotiation for British Columbia school teachers.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Eileen Sufrin : steel workers organize in B.C. and Ontario RECORDED: White Rock (B.C.), 1978-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Sufrin's interest in unions began with her involvement as a CCF youth activist during the Depression. She began to organize with the CCYM's trade union committee in Ontario. She was involved in the 1940-41 organizing in the banks, which reached workers as far as BC and culminated in the strike in Montreal. This strike was defeated and the drive collapsed. She continued as an organizer for the steel workers, coming to Vancouver in 1943 to train officers of the union and initiate "Steel", the union's western press. She was involved in political struggles with the LPP leadership in the unions, worked for a CCF perspective in the labour movement, and was active on the Vancouver and District Labour Council. TRACK 2: She later returned to Ontario where she led a campaign to organize Eaton's 9,600 person workforce. The drive was only defeated by 600 votes, and this because of a delay by the Labour Relations Board in certification. She returned to the USWA and worked with their office workers department. She participated in numerous campaigns, including Continental Can. Issues that were important to women in the campaigns she led included: equal pay and job classification; unionization; job ghettos; childcare and maternity leave. She always encouraged women to be active union members and officers.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1982-04-16 SUMMARY: [No content summaries or documentation available.];

CALL NUMBER: T3607:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Ellen Barber : early union organization in the laundries, 1914-1918 : [tape 1] RECORDED: Port Moody (B.C.), 1979-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Barber was one of the first women active in the Vancouver Trades and Labour Congress (an affiliate of the Trades and Labour Congress). She was involved in organising laundry and communication workers during the First World War period. In this interview, she describes union organisation during World War One; working conditions in the laundries; bargaining procedures; organising the unions; the laundry strike and its defeat; the formation of the Minimum Wage Board; the telephone workers strike. TRACK 2: Attitudes to women within the unions; working in the war industry in WWII; post-war layoffs of women workers; piecework; CCF involvement in the unions; her family's roots, and her decision to become a unionist; women's suffrage and its effects on working women; Oriental workers and parallel attitudes to women; the Shirt, Waist and Laundry Workers' International Union in the 1940s; the streetcar strike of 1918.;

CALL NUMBER: T3607:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Ellen Barber : early union organization in the laundries, 1914-1918 : [tape 2] RECORDED: Port Moody (B.C.), 1979-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Depression use of female labour; the impact of the Russian Revolution on the labour movement; shipyard conditions; accidents in the laundries; women's organisations in the 1930s. [TRACK 2: blank.];

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Emily Nuttall : organizing hotels in the 1940s RECORDED: Toronto (Ont.), 1979-12-31 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Emily Nuttall (nee Watts?) was born in Winnipeg in 1913. She worked in the trade union movement in Winnipeg and then Toronto before coming to Vancouver in 1944. This interview covers her career as a union organizer and president until 1946. She describes working in the restaurant industry in the 1930s; working in the Bartenders Union office; launching the organizing drive in the war industry canteens, restaurants and hotels; support from the Boilermakers and Machinists; winning cab fare for women working late shifts in restaurants; effect of the legalization of unions on conditions; for organisation during the war; the Georgia Hotel drive (a one-day blitz wins a contract); winning a BC master agreement; establishing shifts and hours through the first contract; thrown out of the Belmont Hotel while organising; servicing restaurants; sexual harassment; women were the best union members -- "give me a picket line of good dedicated women and they will out-picket any man". TRACK 2: Women's issues include dressing rooms; broken shifts; sexual harassment; childcare not an issue; no-strike pledge and industrial action; negotiations. Winnipeg childhood; mother was a women's rights activist, father was a trade unionist. Skills needed by organisers -- empathy. HREU International and conservative leadership; defeat of Progressives in 1946; Cold War; local under trusteeship for refusing to clean out "Reds"; Ms. Watts loses position as organiser; chauvinism towards women in the trade unions; women not taken seriously; women participate during the war; after trusteeship, male leadership.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Eva Vaselenek : organizing cannery workers for the UFAWU RECORDED: [location unknown], 1979-06-18 SUMMARY: Mrs. Vaselenek was born in Hardwick, Vermont, her father a granite cutter. She moved to Richmond in 1943 and got a job at the cannery to support her ill daughter. She first washed fish and then packed it into the cans. The conditions were very bad: the canneries were cold, with the wind coming in the cracks in the floor, and the work was both hourly and piecework. Many different nationalities worked in the canneries: Natives, Japanese, Chinese and Whites. The different races and nationalities worked on different aspects of the canning operation at BC Packers. She was asked by the workers to help them organize, as she was vocal in protesting conditions. She contacted the Fishermen's union; it took from 1944 to 1946 to completely sign the plant up. The forelady and management harassed the union militants. She was elected as a steward, put onto the bylaw committee, and then elected as a paid organizer. She was an effective organizer and signed up both fishermen and cannery workers, brought the membership out to meetings, spoke to workers on their lunch hours, and signed up all different ethnic and religious groups. She worked in the plants to start organizing campaigns, moving from the canneries into fresh fish. The union fought for equal pay for women and for the various nationalities; fought against harassment by the supervisors; fought for seniority by job category, and for uniform wages and working conditions across the province.

News item. Strike is being staged by members of the Ferry and Marine Workers Union, the CLC, and the BC Federation of Labour. Negotiations have been stalled since 01-July-1977, so employees have been without a contract since then. Labour Minister Allen Williams calls the walkout "irresponsible" and says employees could still receive pay if they agreed to continue working while negotiations continued through "the railways and ferries bargaining association." The B.C. government has declared the strike illegal, and threatens to fine strikers and their union if they continue to defy the back-to-work order. A union spokeswoman comments on how long the strike could last. Other ferry service and local airlines are doing a booming business with extra sailings and flights.

News item. A return to work injunction is brought against the strikers by order of the Lieutenant-Govenor in council, and the decision of the Labour Relations Board, forcing the union to give notice that the strike is suspended. Union members went voted against the recommendations of the executive, so they still do not have a contract.