“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…
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…
by Rod Mickleburgh Originally published in the Mickleblog August 2, 2018 At 12 o’clock sharp on Aug. 2, 1918 – one hundred years ago today –Vancouver transit operators stopped their streetcars in mid-route, drove them to the barns and walked home. The city’s normally bustling waterfront fell silent, as 2,000 Read more…
The International Longshore Association disappeared from the waterfront in BC following their 1923 strike. The union was broken by employers in the Shipping Federation of BC, and a company union was put in place. Favouritism in hiring was rampant. As the economy worsened in the 1930s new militant longshore unions Read more…