Article
At 12 o’clock sharp on August 2, 1918, 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 burly stevedores and shipyard workers streamed from...Teaching materials
This film looks at an important figure in BC labour history whose life and death continue to cause debate today. Ginger Goodwin’s early activism started in the coal mines of Vancouver Island and continued with the smelter workers of Trail...Video
Ginger Goodwin's murder is a cornerstone of BC's labour history, resonating for over a century. Goodwin is remembered as BC’s first labour martyr, a leader who took a principled stand against a war he didn't believe in, advocating instead for...Audio
In the early 20th C, the large, exploited workforce of the smelter at Trail was ripe for organizing. Those efforts were contentious and the politics formidable. Company unions versus legitimate unions, communist union leaders versus anti-communist union leaders, International unions...Audio
This is a joint interview with Charles McGregor Stewart (1891-1968) and Peter Campbell Munro (1887-1971), who were active in the Street Railwaymen’s Union in Vancouver, British Columbia in the early decades of the 20th century. They discuss the impact of...Audio
Joe Naylor: miner, socialist, pacifist, and comrade to Ginger Goodwin. In this episode of our On the Line podcast we shine a light on a remarkable yet overlooked figure in BC’s labour history. Less well-known than Goodwin, it was Naylor’s...Video
Roger Stonebanks grew up in a conservative family in England and attended boarding school. He learned the value of organizing when, as a young boy, he organized a boycott to demand better food at school. The boycott failed, but the...Booklet
Joe Naylor (1872-1946) was an often-overlooked but profoundly influential figure in British Columbia's labour history, remembered as a radical union leader and a committed socialist.Teaching materials
The material begins by establishing the fundamental question of why unions are needed, using interviews with contemporary individuals and historical oral accounts to introduce the idea of collective action. It then delves into the harsh realities faced by early workers...Audio
Elroy Robson (1897-1986) was a labour organizer for the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers (CBRT) who held senior offices in other central labour bodies becoming the first President of the Ontario Federation of Labour in 1944. He...Article
Frances Foxcroft probably saved the life of Vancouver Trades and Labor Council Secretary Victor Midgely on the afternoon of August 2, 1918. Despite her heroism, Foxcroft has received little historical attention. A rampaging mob of angry ex-soldiers had descended on...Historical materials
The Labour History Association was formed within the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) in 1976. It produced this series of newsletters which remain a valuable source of labour history in British Columbia.They focus on promoting and integrating labour history into the...Historical materials
Originally started in 1907 by the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council as the Western Wage Earner, the British Columbia Federationist was a weekly labor newspaper published in Vancouver, BC. Visit the British Columbia Federationist digital archive (external link).Teaching materials
This unit was developed for BC’s Social Justice 12 course by the Labour History Project, a partnership between the Labour Heritage Centre and the BC Teachers’ Federation with additional support from the BC Federation of Labour and the SFU Labour...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,...Video
George Hewison grew up in Campbell River where he learned his unionism and politics at “the kitchen table” during the Cold War years. He was an organizer and executive member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU) for...Video
Sy Pederson was born into a logging family of fallers in Courtenay and followed the family tradition when he turned 21. Falling was a dangerous job and Sy recognized the hazard posed by the piecework system. He organized fallers in...Audio
This interview with Ernest Leslie (Les) Walker (1899-1974) details the history of the Mine-Mill union in Trail, British Columbia, its struggles against the anti-labour environment and the attempts by the Steelworkers union to take over its jurisdiction. It describes how...Video
Terry Engler recounts his experiences growing up in a working-class family in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and his involvement with the Local 400 union, which represents tugboat workers on the West Coast. He describes the day-to-day work of a tugboat cook,...Audio
H.R. (Harry) Neelands (1881-1974) was born in Ontario and came to BC as a child. He apprenticed as a printer in Victoria and moved to Vancouver in 1905 to work at the Daily Province. He was Secretary of the International...
