Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
May Martin interview
General material designation
- sound recording
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Supplied title based on item contents.
Level of description
Item
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1979-07-23 & 25 [date recorded] (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Custodial history
c/o Sara Diamond
Scope and content
CALL NUMBER: T3603:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): May Martin : industrial organization in the hotel and restaurant industry, 1940s RECORDED: North Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-07-23 & 25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: May Martin (nee Ansell) came from Capetown. She left school at the end of grade 9 and worked as a grocery clerk, hotel worker, and waitress. She moved from Canada to the U.S.; then to Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, and Windsor, where she stayed until 1941. She then drove west with her husband, searching for work. Her first interest in the HREU came as a result of working in a restaurant where the women union organisers were being harassed by the boss. She went down and joined the HREU and worked in the union houses. She moved to the Yukon in 1942 and organised for the HREU in Whitehorse. In 1944 she was elected business agent upon her return to Vancouver. Mrs. Martin was a strong proponent of industrial organisation, although the HREU was a member of the craft-oriented TLC. From 1945 to 1946, the HREU signed a master agreement with the majority of restaurant employers and began to organise the hotels. The union helped to establish a new and better minimum wage law for women, as well as restrictions on women working late hours, which forced the employer to furnish better shifts. TRACK 2: Mrs. Martin attended the 1946 convention of the union at which the syndicates threatened the internal opposition and retained control of the International. Mrs. Martin and other Canadian delegates were physically threatened, and the opposition leader was shot. Soon after this, the International organised to remove her and Emily Watts, despite membership protests. CALL NUMBER: T3603:0001 RECORDED: North Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-07-23 & 25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: In 1946, before she was removed, Mrs. Martin spoke on the radio defending a woman's right to a job and a union, as a union member and official. [TRACK 2: blank.]
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Women's Labour History Project, 1988-06-28
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Reference cassette copy available in container 000443-212.
Restrictions on access
No access restrictions apply.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
- Copying Restriction: None.
- Use Restriction: Released "for placement in public archives; transcription, editing, and publication; and use in educational programming and broadcasting."
- Copyright Status: Copyright Sara Diamond.
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Accession number(s): T3603
Credits note
speaker: May Martin, interviewer: Sara Diamond
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
- Collective bargaining--British Columbia
- Depressions--1929--Canada
- Hospitality industry--British Columbia
- Labor unions--Organizing
- Strikes and lockouts--British Columbia--History
- Waitresses
- Women in the labor movement--Canada--History
- Women labor union members
- Women--British Columbia--Social conditions--1918-1945
- Women--Employment--British Columbia