Canadian Union of Public Employees BC (CUPE BC) Collection Index
Published: November 10, 2026
Authors:
An index to the oral histories, articles, videos, archival records and historical resources in the BC Labour Heritage Centre collection that relate to CUPE BC, the provincial division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents municipal, school, library, university, health-care and other public-sector workers in British Columbia. Browse the interviews by person, follow a subject such as Operation Solidarity or pay equity across every kind of source, or browse the archival records.
Jump to: Interviews | Other Materials | Selected Topics | Teaching Resources
The collection records CUPE BC through the people who built it: provincial presidents and officers, municipal, school and ambulance local leaders, plus the 1983 Operation Solidarity movement, public-sector pay equity, and HEU’s return to CUPE. Local histories sit alongside the interviews, including a century-of-service booklet for CUPE Local 15 and the story of the 1974 AUCE maternity-leave win at UBC.
What’s in the collection:
- Seventeen interviews with CUPE BC leaders, local presidents and activists, and with researchers, lawyers and others who worked closely with the union
- A 27-minute video history of CUPE BC, a booklet on CUPE Local 15, and two bronze plaques at CUPE offices
- Articles on the CKLG radio strike, private-hospital organizing, anti-apartheid solidarity and early women’s union wins
- An archival fonds (Ray Whitehead) and two 1988 episodes of the TV series BC At Work with CUPE members
How to use it:
- To find a person, use the table in “Interviews by person.”
- To see everything that isn’t an interview, go to “Articles, videos and historical materials.”
- To follow a subject such as Operation Solidarity or pay equity, use “Browse by selected topics,” which gathers the interviews, articles and videos on each one.
- Teachers can start with “Using this material in the classroom.”
Interviews by person
Seventeen people are interviewed here, listed alphabetically by surname: CUPE BC leaders, local presidents and activists, along with researchers, lawyers and others who worked closely with the union. Many other interviews in the collection mention CUPE briefly; those mentions can be found with the site-wide search. Mike Kramer’s is a 1989 audio-only interview focusing solely on his Operation Solidarity participation.
| Person | CUPE connection | Interview date |
|---|---|---|
| Michele Alexander | CUPE BC Diversity Vice-President; started with the City of Vancouver’s Equal Opportunity Employment Program; racial justice advocacy | Apr 29, 2022 |
| Carmela Allevato | Led HEU when it returned to CUPE and describes why it left in 1970; worked as CUPE in-house counsel from 1996 for 12 years | Oct 3, 2022 |
| John Burrows | City of Victoria sanitation worker; president of CUPE Local 50 since 1994 | Apr 28, 2022 |
| John Calvert | CUPE researcher who went on to public policy work and teaching at SFU; free-trade opposition | May 29, 2023 |
| Judy Darcy | Toronto library worker; CUPE national secretary-treasurer (1989) and president (1991); later HEU Secretary-Business Manager and BC cabinet minister | Apr 20, 2023 |
| Mike Dumler | Joined CUPE in Nanaimo; Local 401 president; first full-time president of CUPE BC; Operation Solidarity | Feb 28, 2018 |
| Joey Hartman | Member of the Vancouver Municipal and Regional Employees Union (now CUPE 15) from 1978; the 14-week 1981 strike and its pay equity clause | Apr 19, 2024 |
| Gary Johnson | President of CUPE Local 454 (Municipality of Delta) before he turned 20; municipal workers | Sep 24, 2024 |
| Colleen Jordan | Joined CUPE at the Burnaby School Board; CUPE BC Secretary-Treasurer; Burnaby city councillor; women’s rights and pay equity | Jun 22, 2023 |
| Bernice Kirk | Began at the Coquitlam School Board; CUPE BC Secretary-Treasurer and president (1991 to 1997); national vice-president; pay equity leader | Sep 20, 2017 |
| Mike Kramer (audio) | CUPE national representative and BC Federation of Labour Secretary-Treasurer; interview covers only Operation Solidarity (1983) | May 30, 1989 |
| Leo McGrady | Acted as lawyer for many CUPE locals | Jul 8, 2024 |
| Barry O’Neill | School district worker on Vancouver Island; health and safety; CUPE BC president; national executive | Mar 20, 2023 |
| Muriel Overgaard | First woman president of CUPE BC (1976 to 1980); founded its Women’s Committee; municipal pension plan; NDP candidate | Jan 28, 2017 |
| Blair Redlin | CUPE research representative in BC, Alberta and at the Ottawa national office; campaigns on free trade, P3s and water privatization | Apr 10, 2025 |
| Bob Waghorn | Prince George garbage-truck driver and CUPE Local 399 member from 1974; later a CUPE district leader on safety and worker rights | Dec 4, 2024 |
| Warren Williams | President of CUPE Local 15 (City of Vancouver inside workers); nephew of sleeping car porter organizer Lee Williams | Feb 19, 2021 |
Articles, videos, and historical materials
About The Guardian. HEU’s newsletter began in 1950 as a mimeographed publication and was relaunched as the Hospital Guardian in 1958. This archive is the largest primary-source resource on HEU on the site. Issues after 2002 are on the current HEU website, which the archive page links to.
Browse by selected topics
Each topic lists the interviews first, then related articles, videos and other material.
- CUPE BC leadership and history: Interviews with Barry O’Neill, Bernice Kirk, Muriel Overgaard, Mike Dumler, Colleen Jordan and Michele Alexander. Also the video CUPE BC: 50 Years of Public Service Solidarity and the Ray Whitehead fonds.
- Municipal, school and local union life: Interviews with John Burrows (Victoria), Gary Johnson (Delta), Bob Waghorn (Prince George) and Warren Williams (Vancouver). Also the CUPE Local 15 booklet, the Local 15 plaque and BC At Work, Episode 7, which profiles a CUPE Local 1004 gardener.
- Operation Solidarity (1983): Interviews with Mike Dumler, Mike Kramer and Norm Richards. Also the Operation Solidarity key topic page.
- Pay equity and women in the union: Interviews with Bernice Kirk, Muriel Overgaard, Colleen Jordan and Joey Hartman (the 1981 Vancouver municipal strike and its pay equity clause).
- Maternity leave at UBC (AUCE Local 1, now CUPE 2950): The podcast AUCE Achieves Full Maternity Benefits, the booklet First Fully Funded Maternity Leave, the UBC plaque and the article Union Women Who Made a Difference.
- HEU and CUPE: Interviews with Carmela Allevato, Kristina Vandervoort and Colleen Fuller on HEU leaving and returning to CUPE. Also the article Union Organizing in BC’s Private Hospitals, about workers who joined CUPE Local 1731. For HEU’s own history, see the HEU Collection Index.
- Strikes and support from other unions: The article The Day Led Zeppelin Became Part of the Union (CKLG radio, 1975); interviews with David Chudnovsky, Ken Novakowski and Jinny Sims on the 2000 and 2005 education-sector strikes.
- Vancouver municipal workers and the VMREU: Interviews with Ray Haynes (Part 1), John Rogers (an early case for the union), Geoff Meggs (CUPE absorbing the Vancouver Municipal Employees’ Union and the Compensation Employees’ Union) and Joey Hartman, who was a member of the Vancouver Municipal and Regional Employees’ Union, now CUPE 15.
- Legal and arbitration cases: Interviews with Leo McGrady, who acted as lawyer for many CUPE locals; John Rogers; and Carmela Allevato, who was CUPE in-house counsel.
- Health and safety: Interviews with Barry O’Neill and Bob Waghorn, and, on the national side, Amber Hockin (CUPE Airline Division).
- Research, policy, training and campaigns: Interviews with John Calvert and Blair Redlin, on free trade, public-private partnerships and water privatization; and David Fairey, who runs training schools for several of the big CUPE locals.
- Anti-apartheid solidarity: Interview with Colleen Jordan. Also the article B.C. Unions Take a Stand Against Apartheid in South Africa and the podcast Taking a Stand: Union Solidarity Against Apartheid.
Teaching Resources
Two existing lesson plans pair well with the material above.
| Lesson | Connection | Pair it with |
|---|---|---|
| Operation Solidarity | The 1983 Solidarity Coalition that CUPE helped lead | The Mike Kramer and Mike Dumler interviews |
| Social Justice 12 Labour History |
Within this unit, CUPE BC examples fit Lesson 8 (Workers and the Law) and Lesson 9 (Labour Leaders) |
The Muriel Overgaard and Bernice Kirk interviews; the CUPE BC 50 Years video |
Use and Citation
© BC Labour Heritage Centre. All rights reserved. The interviews, transcripts and summaries in this collection may be used for research. For any other use, including publication, broadcast or commercial use, please contact us.
Transcripts have been edited with a “clean verbatim” style. If you are quoting an interview, please check the passage against the recording.
To cite an interview: [Interviewee], interview by [Interviewer(s)], [date], Oral History Collection, BC Labour Heritage Centre, [URL of the interview page].
Example: Mike Old, interview by Ken Novakowski, May 5, 2025, Oral History Collection, BC Labour Heritage Centre, https://www.labourheritagecentre.ca/collection/mike-old-interview-a-remarkable-career-at-the-heu/