Showing 77 results

archival descriptions
Marj Storm - Tape 1
CA SVE SD-01-02-01-18-SD_WLHP_007 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Marjorie Storm talks about her first job in Vancouver at Fraser Mills; sexual harassment in the workplace; working at Boeing main Sea Island plant as a riveter and fitter; her placement by National Selective Service at Pacific Veneer (now Canadian Forest Products) in 1946; how the I.W.A. defended the right of married women to work at her mill; attitudes of men on the job towards working women; wage differential between sexes and segregated seniority lists; increase in representation of women in the union; the winning fight for equal pay for equal work in 1966.

Marj Storm - Tape 2
CA SVE SD-01-02-01-18-SD_WLHP_008 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Marjorie Storm talks about actions by women for equal access to jobs; use of arbitration; the employers’ negative response to equal pay; pressure by women forestry workers for changes to the Human Rights Code and how, working through the union, changes were subsequently passed by the provincial NDP government. She also talks about how she got involved in the union in the 1950’s representing the 350 women working in the mill; locking down the plant to stop a foreman from taking workers’ jobs; negotiating on behalf of all workers at her plant.

Marj Storm - Tape 3
CA SVE SD-01-02-01-18-SD_WLHP_009 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Marjorie Storm describes the physical layout of the plant and its’ activities; technological change in the mill and effect on employment; being a working mother; domestic challenges; 60-pound lift limits for women under the Factories Act; arbitration cases; the strike of 1948; I.W.A. Women’s Auxiliary and her attempts through resolutions to give it more clout.

Marj Storm - Tape 4
CA SVE SD-01-02-01-18-SD_WLHP_010 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Marjorie Storm explains the importance of passing her resolution through the I.W.A. “Ladies” Auxiliary before taking it to conference; women’s support of the union and job actions; feminism and the women’s movement in the 1970’s; becoming politically active and eventually Vice-President of the NDP; the social safety net and the trade union movement.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-04-SD_WLHP_068 · Item · 17 Mar. 1990
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

(Part 1) Marge Dalskog talks about her early married life as the only woman in a small logging camp with her first husband, a gas shovel operator; living out of a tent; walking four miles in a dress to have tea with the boss’ wife; her first experience of a logger’s death; lack of compensation for injury or death in non-unionized camps; daily life of mothers in the camps; (Part 2) Expectations of women by men; social relationships between the women; early attempts to unionize the camps; stories about her father’s fight for farmer’s rights in Saskatchewan during her childhood; joining the Women’s Auxiliary after moving to Lulu Island; the end of her marriage; (Part 3) How involvement in trade unionism and the Women’s Auxiliary benefitted women and bolstered their sense of self-worth; getting a job and raising her two children on her own in North Vancouver; becoming Secretary of the Council; her work in an umbrella factory and as the boss’ driver; women not being welcome at regular meetings with the men; impressions of the federal government while serving as a delegate to Ottawa; working at Boeing near the end of the war.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-01-SD_WLHP_069 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Mrs. Atwal, Mrs Maan, Mrs. Johal talk about immigrating from India and their early years in Canada; Mrs. Gill talks about her experiences as a Canadian-born, raised and educated woman. The women talk abut their arranged marriages, their children’s rejection of the same, and about their lives as logger’s wives and living conditions in Lake Cowichan in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-01-SD_WLHP_070 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Mrs. Atwal, Mrs. Maan, Mrs. Johal and Mrs. Gill talk about managing a working class wage including not being able to afford going to a restaurant, the importance of women raising animals and gardening to feed the family, and taking on menial jobs; how despite their poverty they all enjoyed those early times; Mrs. Johal tells a story of finding her cow in the house eating her knitting; living in housing owned by the mill companies; their responsibility towards family members including helping those immigrating during their first years in Canada; their experiences working outside the home, including in nursing and as agricultural labourers.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-01-SD_WLHP_071 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Mrs. Atwal, Mrs. Maan, Mrs. Johal and Mrs. Gill talk about the dangers of forestry jobs; criticism of the union for supporting workers charged with working unsafely even if the worker is in the wrong; how the union helped them get holiday pay and retirement pensions; the ways women support the union during strikes such as feeding people on the line; how women had to be very careful of household budgeting.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-07-SD_WLHP_081 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Betty Griffin discusses her experiences working in the Boeing factory during World War II, including details about hours and wages, working with men, and her feelings towards the war effort. She also discusses her involvement with leftist politics, union organizing, and social life within the union.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-07-SD_WLHP_082 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Betty Griffin discusses daily life as a Boeing employee, including an account of her first day at work. She also discusses her experiences as union shop steward and social committee chairman, including her experiences with getting fired (and subsequently re-hired) due to her involvement with the union. Finally, she discusses her experiences with going to university after having experienced working life, the Mayday Parade, and demonstrations on the Powell St. grounds (now Oppenheimer Park).

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-08-SD_WLHP_083 · Item · 14 Sep. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Gladys Hilland discusses her early life on a farm in Dunkirk, Saskatchewan, including the work she did on the farm, unionization amongst farmers during the Great Depression. She discusses the Farmer’s Unity League, her brother’s involvement with the organization, and the impression it made on her. She also discusses her move to Vancouver, and her work as a domestic.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-08-SD_WLHP_085 · Item · 14 Sep. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Gladys Hilland discusses the position and activity of women in the union, and the exodus of women from industry after World War II. She discusses the wage freeze and the strike of 1946, as well as the structure of the union and the ways decisions were made within it. Finally, she discusses McCarthyism and tension within the union during the postwar period.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-08-SD_WLHP_086 · Item · 14 Sep. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Gladys Hilland discusses struggles over leadership within the International Woodworkers of America (IWA), the Canadian unions’ break with the international, the consequences of this break, and her own role within it. She also discusses federal legislation’s impact on union organizing, the No Strike Pledge, the war effort, and unionism as a political issue.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-14-SD_WLHP_087 · Item · 31 Aug. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Johnnie Rankin discusses the position of women within the Boilermakers Union and the types of jobs she worked at the shipyard. She also discusses childcare, equal pay, and the existence of issues specific to women. She talks about what she learned from the trade unions, and how working changed her life. Finally, she discusses working in restaurants and approaching the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-11-SD_WLHP_089 · Item · Jul. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Emily Nuttall discusses her early life, education, and her first job waitressing in 1930s Winnipeg (job search, wages, hours). She also discusses working conditions, sexual harassment in the workplace, and when she became interested in union organizing, and her early experiences in unions (Toronto, 1942).

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-11-SD_WLHP_090 · Item · Jul. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Emily Nuttall discusses her experiences in hotel & restaurant workers unions, her election to President of Local 676, working conditions, hostility towards feminism in the bartender’s unions, daily union work, the bravery and difficulty of union organizing, and the war effort.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-11-SD_WLHP_091 · Item · Jul. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Emily Nuttall discusses difficulties with organizing in restaurants (lots of turnover, its consideration as “women’s work”), changes in outlook on the profession from the Depression, her involvement with hotel organizing (particularly in the Georgia Hotel and the Belmont Hotel), and the union’s work towards shorter work weeks and the elimination of split shifts.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-11-SD_WLHP_092 · Item · Jul. 1987
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Emily Nuttall discusses pushing for legislation implementing paid transportation at the end of night shifts, women in the trade union movement and the progression of the women’s movement, the Milwaukee convention (McCarthyism, communism and red baiting), her expulsion from the union, blacklisting, and unemployment.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-03-SD_WLHP_093 · Item · [198-] or [199-]
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Ruth Bullock discusses factionalization within leftist parties and labour organizations, particularly as such factionalization affected attitudes towards the war. She also discusses how women were politicized during the war, and her experiences within women’s auxiliaries.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-21-SD_WLHP_094 · Item · 6 Sep. 1989
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Lil Godfrey discusses the Greenwall family history, including her family’s life in Extension and Wellington, mining communities near Nanaimo, BC. She talks about the effects of the 1912-1914 miner’s strike, the arrival of the militia, and the hardship on families. She mentions her father’s death in an explosion at the No. 5 Pit, Wellington Colliery in 1927. She also discusses the her teacher training, lack of jobs during the Great Depression, her marriage, and she and her husband’s move to Lake Cowichan for his logger job.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-21-SD_WLHP_095 · Item · 6 Sep. 1989
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Lil Godfrey & June Olson describe their childhood living conditions, including food and power shortages, and the work their mothers did to feed them, clothe them, and advocate for the community’s needs (for example, roads and healthcare). They describe their fathers’ experiences with logging work, including difficulties with the seasonal nature of the job, and the lack of unemployment insurance.

CA SVE SD-01-02-01-21-SD_WLHP_096 · Item · 6 Sep. 1989
Part of Sara Diamond fonds

Lil Godfrey and June Olson discuss the various issues advocated for by the IWA Women’s Auxiliary, disaffiliation with the American union, and factionalization within the union. They also discuss pensions, red baiting, and their experiences with forming a co-op grocery and credit union in their community.