Item AAAB3997 - May Martin interview

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May Martin interview

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  • sound recording

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  • Source of title proper: Supplied title based on item contents.

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AAAB3997

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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

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Date(s)

  • 1979-07-23 & 25 [date recorded] (Creation)

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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.]

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Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Women's Labour History Project, 1988-06-28

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Availability of other formats

Reference cassette copy available in container 000443-212.

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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.

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General note

Accession number(s): T3603

Credits note

speaker: May Martin, interviewer: Sara Diamond

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