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BC at Work, Episode 2, was first broadcast on September 11, 1988. It was produced by Michael Morgan and Associates and Shane Lunny Productions for the BC Federation of Labour as a public affairs television program comprising 13 episodes. Twelve...Audio
Robert (Bob) Skinner (1889-1967) returned from the First World War in 1919 and worked at Woodward's retail store, where he helped organize the white-collar workers into a union. The union fought for a Wednesday half-holiday and Boxing Day. Later he...Video
Deborah Bourque’s extensive involvement in the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), includes serving as its national president from 2002 to 2008. She describes the challenges CUPW faced in negotiating collective agreements and fighting against government legislation that threatened the...Audio
Harry Haywood Woodside’s (1890-1973) first work experience was in building the Lake Buntzen diversion tunnel at Coquitlam in 1909. His next job was a miner at Britannia Mine, where he joined the Western Federation of Miners. While at Britannia Mine...Video
In this interview Blair Redlin recounts his extensive experience in the labour movement and public service. He was raised in Calgary and attended the University of Calgary in the late 1970s. He studied political science and was involved in student...Video
This video tells the life story of Lloyd O'Brien. After losing his leg in an industrial accident at 18, Lloyd recognized the critical need for proper emergency medical care, leading him to become a part-time ambulance driver.Video
In 1981, teachers in Terrace, British Columbia, went on a six-day strike, at a time when the right to strike had not yet been achieved. Local teacher associations primarily negotiated wages, with unresolved issues going to binding arbitration; working conditions...Video
This 27-minute video chronicles the immense challenges faced by the BC Government Employees’ Union (BCGEU) in the previous decade when public sector unions were under attack from neo-liberal policies of government.Video
In 2002, BC’s Liberal provincial government broke its promise to healthcare workers by tearing up their collective agreements, paving the way for widespread contracting-out and privatization in health care. This video is part of our Labour Heritage Moments series.Video
Created in 2013, this video chronicles the history of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in British Columbia (BC).Plaque
This bronze plaque is located inside the CUPE Local 15 office, 545 West 10th Ave, Vancouver BC. It was developed with the support of CUPE Local 15. The plaque was cast at Ornamental Bronze, a unionized foundry in Richmond which...Plaque
This bronze plaque is located outside the BCGEU office at 151 Oriole Rd, Kamloops, BC. It was developed with the support of BCGEU. The plaque was cast at Ornamental Bronze, a unionized foundry in Richmond which has operated since 1928....Historical materials
Ray Gardiner spent most of his life in Prince Rupert, BC, having arrived during World War II to find work at the shipyards. His union work was mainly in the United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union, serving as northern organizer...Historical materials
The Ray Whitehead fonds contains items spanning the years 1973 to 1987. Whitehead's union career included time with the Marine Workers component of the BCGEU, the BC Government Employees' Union (BCGEU) and most notably, the Canadian Union of Public Employees...Historical materials
The Hospital Employees' Union's newsletter was launched as a mimeographed publication in 1950 and then reborn as the Hospital Guardian in 1958. The name was chosen after the Manchester Guardian in the United Kingdom. Visit The Guardian digital archive (external...Historical materials
Alice was a BC union pioneer who paved a better path for working women, mostly as a formidable force within the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). In 1979, she became the first woman National Director for BC, Yukon and...Historical materials
This item is a single issue of Federation News and Views dated December 12, 1952, Vancouver, BC, a publication of the Federation of Telephone Workers (FTW), a significant labour union in British Columbia, originally chartered in 1944.Booklet
This booklet describes the history of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 15 in Vancouver, BC. The union began as the Vancouver City Hall Employees' Association (VCHEA) in 1918. Over the decades VCHEA expanded its scope to include...Booklet
In 1974, the Association of University & College Employees (AUCE) Local 1 at the University of British Columbia (UBC) made Canadian history by securing fully funded maternity leave in their first collective agreement.Booklet
This booklet describes the details of a landmark one-day strike by the Surrey Teachers’ Association in 1974. With just 48-hours notice, 1,000 teachers voted to take their dispute with the Surrey School Board to the legislature in Victoria.Audio
In this episode we tell the story of the "conductorettes" - the women who worked as streetcar conductors in Vancouver during World War II when many men were overseas fighting fascism. The conductorettes were part of a strong union: the...Teaching materials
An historical look at female telephone operators in British Columbia and some of their early activism with specific reference to the first strike in the Canadian telephone industry. What role did the women operators play in the success of the...Teaching materials
A short profile on Ethel Johns, an important figure in the history of nursing in British Columbia. See the rest of our Working People Lesson Plans here.Teaching materials
The story of company towns and their unique role and legacy in the economic and social fabric of the province, with a specific focus on the west coast town of Ocean Falls. See the rest of our Working People Lesson...Teaching materials
While documenting the events of the 1938 Relief Camp Workers sit-down strikes and occupations in downtown Vancouver, this film presents their reasons for the protest, and the radically differing reactions to their collective protest by the three levels of government:...Video
The learning curve was steep for Gary Johnson. As a young man he learned the ropes for leadership in the trade union movement starting at age 18. Before he was 20 years old he was president of Local 454 of...Video
Bob Waghorn grew up in North Vancouver. In this interview, he shares memories of accompanying his Teamster father, the last milkman in Vancouver to deliver milk by horse. He trained as a mechanic and his early jobs were as a...Video
Lorna Waghorn-Kidd was born in Prince Rupert but grew up in various towns throughout northern British Columbia. She moved to Prince George in 1976 where she got a job as a typist at an employment insurance office, then with the...Video
Terry was born and raised in Prince George, British Columbia. As a young man, he was in the Air Force for a couple of years and worked in various mills. He became a provincial government employee when he started working...Audio
Percy Trerise (1886-1965) was born in Cornwall, England and arrived in Canada around 1908. He initially worked as a granite cutter. He describes a jurisdictional dispute between granite cutters and stone cutters as the industry adopted pneumatic drills. The dispute...Article
As early as 1989 the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) had successfully negotiated medical benefits for same-sex partners into collective agreements. Without legal protection, however, recognition of these relationships was up to each employer or benefits provider. A 1991 legal victory...Article
How a childhood union button collection played a part in an epic Supreme Court of Canada decision. David Yorke began collecting union buttons at the age of 11, when his mother brought home membership pins from her work at the...Video
Gayle Nye was born and raised in Victoria, BC, as were her parents and grandparents. The earlier generations worked in the fishing industry, but a family tragedy inspired Gayle’s father to leave fishing and join the public service. Gayle’s started...Video
Russ Leech is from a family of strong trade unionists. His parents organized the Machinists’ Fitters & Helpers Industrial Union local in Victoria during World War II. Given his family’s history, it’s not surprising that when Russ got a job...Article
The Postman is a 16-foot tall carved granite bas relief by Vancouver sculptor Paul Huba and installed in 1956. An anti-Nazi deserter from the Hungarian army, Huba came to Canada in 1954. His wife and two sons joined him shortly...Article
Miners’ Union Hospitals were a radical response to the critical need for inclusive health care in B.C.’s mining communities more than 100 years ago. At least six local unions of the Western Federation of Miners established their own hospitals in...Video
George Heyman was born in Vancouver to parents who were survivors of the Holocaust. They were assisted by the Japanese Consul in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, to escape Poland. George attended high school in Vancouver, working the night shift at Safeway,...Article
A hand-painted union flag fashioned from a bed sheet became a symbol of solidarity and determination during the 1983 Tranquille Institution occupation in Kamloops, BC.Video
Randy Pearson was born in northern BC to a working-class family. He worked in the lumber mills around Prince George as a young man, before traveling, marrying and getting a unionized job with pension benefits at a BC Liquor Store....Video
In this fascinating and wide-ranging interview with Patricia Wejr, she describes her long career in communications, nursing, reproductive health, and the labour movement. Patricia attended Simon Fraser University for Communications, and while there took a co-op position at Co-Op Radio,...Article
The weather forecast for Thursday, July 7, 1983 in Prince George, BC was for heavy thunderstorms in the evening. No one expected a political tornado would be unleashed earlier that day when the newly re-elected Social Credit (Socred) government introduced...Video
Colleen Jordan was born and raised in southern Alberta. Through her early jobs she saw several examples where union members made more money than non-union, but where men were included in the unions and women were excluded. She studied at...Video
Anne Harvey was born in a tenement in Manchester, U.K. Her father made patterns out of wood for casting metal parts, and her mother sewed clothes piecework as he built his pattern making business. Anne moved to Canada with her...Video
John Calvert was born in Oshawa, Ontario and grew up in London, Ontario. In his late teens, he obtained a commercial pilot’s license, which meant that he could help pay for his post-secondary education by working as a bush pilot...Video
Patrice Pratt was born in Ohio in 1948 and grew up in Arizona in a staunchly Catholic family with five children. She attended Catholic schools and moved to San Francisco to attend the University of San Francisco, a Catholic Jesuit...Video
In this wide-ranging and interesting interview, Blair Redlin asks Judy Cavanaugh to describe the experience and identify the important outcomes and lessons learned through the many working experiences in her life. This interview was conducted by Blair Redlin on May...Video
Marion Pollack and Micki McCune both started working for Canada Post as mail sorters in the 1970s. While both were initially impressed with the union wages they were earning, they soon became union activists, given the working conditions at Canada...Video
Judy Darcy started out as an enthusiastic public speaker and leader in her kindergarten days in Sarnia, Ontario, and has never looked back. Judy was very active in the student movement and in the women’s movement, including being on the...Video
Dave Wilson grew up in Winnipeg. He was influenced by his grandfather who was active in the Winnipeg General Strike. This interview was conducted by Phil Legg on April 19, 2023 in Burnaby, BC. It is part of our Oral...Video
Barry O’Neill’s unionism began on Vancouver Island where he worked for several school districts and was rooted in workplace health and safety. He went on to hold elected positions in CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) locally, provincially and nationally....Video
Carmela Allevato was born in a small town in Southern Italy in 1962. Her family emigrated to Canada when she was 11 years old and settled in Toronto where her parents worked in manufacturing and factory jobs. After graduating high...Video
Michele Alexander was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba. She moved to the United States in the early sixties after her parents divorced and her mother married an American. She returned to Canada in 1992 seeking a better life. At the...Video
John Burrows was born in 1954 in Victoria BC. His career started at Victoria Plywood where his interest in unions was quickly ignited. John soon transitioned to the City of Victoria, progressing over the years from a casual role to...Video
Born in Newfoundland, David Gellately made his way to BC in the early 1970s. He became a provincial government employee in northern BC and an activist in his union, the BCGEU. This interview was conducted by Patricia Wejr and Donna...Article
During World War II, at the age of 16, Alice West joined tens of thousands of other BC women who went to work, doing industrial jobs that were normally filled by the men fighting overseas. She started work at Vancouver...Article
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 Telephone Company was US-owned and had put the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) through a difficult...Article
The Industrial Workers of the World, otherwise known as the IWW or the Wobblies, were the most radical labour organization North America has ever seen. They weren’t interested in reforming capitalism. They wanted to wipe it out completely, putting an...Video
Warren Williams’ labour activism came to him through his family, who has a deep connection to Canada’s Black community. Warren’s uncle, Lee Williams, fought for equal employment rights for Canadian sleeping car porters, and the formation of the Order of...Audio
The Social Credit government launched an all-out assault on social services in July 1983. When the staff of the Tranquille Institution in Kamloops learned they were to be shut down, they fought back. In this episode of On the Line,...Article
This article is based upon a conversation between Pam Moodie, a volunteer at the BC Labour Heritage Centre, and Aime Antoshchuk. Pam and Aime met at a Burnaby assisted living facility where the 83-year old Antoshchuk lives. We are fortunate...Video
Darryl Walker, of the BC Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU), served as Provincial Vice President (1999 to 2008) and President (2008 to 2014). This interview was conducted by Ken Novakowski On January 21, 2020 in Burnaby, BC. It is...Video
Dave Smith worked for Canada Post in Prince Rupert until he retired. He became President of his local of the Letter Carriers Union until it merged with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in 1989. This interview was conducted by...Video
Mary LaPlante was introduced to unions when she worked at a fish plant as a summer job. She later worked at the Prince Rupert Hospital where most staff were unionized, but not the administrative staff where she worked. Mary organized...Video
George Brandak is a key figure in the archival history of labour in British Columbia. This interview was collected by Allen Seager on May 30, 2019 in Burnaby, BC. It is part of our Oral History Collection.Video
Diane Wood spent many years as a union activist starting in Duncan where she organized the School District clerical workers and led her first strike. She then moved to northeast BC where she began her activism in the BCGEU. This...Video
Rod Hiebert became President of the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) in 1991. During his time as a union leader he was present for many pivotal issues affecting members, including pension funds, technological change and pay equity. He discusses the union’s...Video
Cliff Andstein is a seasoned activist with over 30 years’ experience in the trade union movement. He moved to BC as a young man, leaving his home province of New Brunswick where he had encountered the dangers of working as...Video
In this compelling oral history, former BCGEU Director Gary Steeves recalls his formative years, the occupation of Tranquille residential institution in Kamloops, and 25 years of his union’s remarkable evolution. This interview was conducted by Ken Novakowski on October 4,...Video
Mike Dumler’s union career in the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) included many elected and staff positions. After coming to Canada from the United States as a Vietnam War veteran, Brother Dumler joined CUPE in Nanaimo. He became President...Video
Hans Brown worked for the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) in BC for 13 years, taking the lead on pay equity and classification between 1974 and 1987. He is best known for his connections to BC’s New Democratic Party (NDP). This...Video
Muriel Overgaard was born in Elbow, Saskatchewan in 1920. She went on to become the first female President of CUPE BC, serving from 1976-1980, and ran as an MLA for the NDP. She played a significant role in establishing CUPE’s...Video
Jackie Ainsworth was born in Ontario, attending a year at the University of Carlton before joining the Anti-War Movement and moving out west to Vancouver. She is a founding member of the Association of University and College Employees (AUCE) as...Video
John Shields was born and raised in New York City by Irish Catholic parents who were both union members. He pursued a life in the Catholic church clergy, but left after disagreement with the direction of the church. He moved...
