Ray Haynes was head of the B.C. Federation of Labour from 1966 to 1973 and, arguably, the most influential leader in the long history of the B.C. Fed. Excerpted from a speech by Rod Mickleburgh, November 24, 2022 to the 60th BC Federation of Labour Convention, Vancouver B.C. I Read more…
October 14, 1976 – Out to Fight Controls BC workers answer labour’s call (excerpted and adapted from On the Line: A History of the British Columbia Labour Movement by Rod Mickleburgh) On Thanksgiving, October 14, 1975, fretting over sky-high inflation and soaring wage increases, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced Canada’s Read more…
Carpenters in Aprons, Metalworkers in Tin Hats and Morticians in Black by Donna Sacuta, BCLHC Executive Director Underlying Racism Excluded Many Parades – particularly Labour Day parades – were big attractions in the early years of British Columbia. While a venue for unionized workers to assert their place in society Read more…
A Formidable Force for Working Women by Rod Mickleburgh with Donna Sacuta Alice West was a BC union pioneer who died on September 17, 2021 at the age of 95. She devoted much of her working life to paving a better path for working women, mostly as a formidable force Read more…
This Day in History: Sept. 22, 1980, the TWU Struggle Against the BC Telephone Company Begins Researched and written by Bailey Garden, BCLHC Project Manager The 1980s kicked off in British Columbia with an inspiring example of workers using new tactics to cope with an aggressively anti-union employer. The BC Read more…