“A Duty to Organized Labour and Workers Throughout the Whole Dominion” When the Winnipeg General Strike began on May 15, 1919 sympathy strikes in communities across Canada soon broke out. In British Columbia, the heroic Vancouver sympathy strike and Victoria’s four day stoppage are often cited as examples. (see bibliography). Read more…
April 23, 1935 In April 1935 thousands of single unemployed men organized by the Relief Camp Workers’ Union went on strike to demand “Work and Wages” as the Depression wore away at the country. “Hunger marches, demonstrations, tin-canning, large public rallies and boisterous snake dances through downtown streets became as Read more…
1. Indigenous women played a critical role in the development of BC’s fishing industry starting in the 1880s. They worked alongside family members in boats harvesting salmon and provided labour in the canneries that dotted the province’s coast. Indigenous women also participated in other industries such as mining. 2. Helena Read more…
Emmitt Andrew Holmes came to British Columbia in the 1940s from Saskatchewan and was the only black member of the Vancouver Local of the International Woodworkers of America (IWA Local 1-217) when he joined in 1944. Holmes incorporated his trade unionism with black activism in Vancouver for a period spanning Read more…
Lloyd Edwards immigrated to Canada in 1953 from his birthplace in Trinidad and Tobago. After obtaining a degree from the University of British Columbia he became a teacher and eventually became active in both his local union and the BC Teachers’ Federation. Edwards’ father had been a teacher and a Read more…