Date: 2023-05-08
Name(s): Novakowski, Ken, Ross, Andy
Description: Andy Ross was born in Newcastle, England. Growing up he was surrounded by unionized workplaces, from coal mines to industrial enterprises. Emigrating to Canada, he became a bus driver in Vancouver and was a member of the bus drivers' unions, ATU [Amalgamated Transit Union], then ICTU [Independent Canadian Transit Union], becoming involved in the un-strike. Andy was a transit instructor where he became a member of the OTEU [Office and Technical Employees Union] Local 378, eventually becoming…
Date: 2023-06-06
Name(s): Harvey, Anne, Legg, Phil
Description: 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 husband and children in the 1970s and sought work as a journalist in radio and then print journalism. She eventually got a job at B.C. Hydro writing the employee newsletter. After that she went on union leave to write a newsletter for her union, the OTEU Local 378 (now…
Date: 2019-09-06
Name(s): Mickleburgh, Rod, Nagy, Arnie
Description: Arnie Nagy has Haida heritage from the maternal side of his family, and grew up in Prince Rupert. He worked in the fish canneries and was an active UFAWU member. He recalls the years when the fishing industry was booming on the north coast. He also discusses the decline of the industry and the impacts on the community.
Date: 2016-04-05
Name(s): Kube, Art, Novakowski, Ken, Yorke, David
Description: Art Kube was born in Poland where he attended a socialist kindergarten. He joined the Metalworkers Union in 1949 and became a member of the socialist faction of the Metalworkers Union. His mother was a socialist and trade unionist who had to raise her two children alone because Art's father was a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union. He left in 1954 to "see the world" and wound-up landing in Quebec, Canada where he became a member of the United Steelworkers union (USW). Art soon became involved…
Date: 2019-10-23
Name(s): Garden, Bailey, Keely, Audrey, Wejr, Patricia
Description: At the time of this interview, Audrey Keely was over 100 years of age. She spent her early life with her family in the Cariboo and shares some of those experiences and personal tragedies. She received formal education up to Grade 8, and then enrolled at Sprott Shaw College in Vancouver to learn bookkeeping and typing skills in exchange for office cleaning. Married twice, Audrey had four children. She was an active member of the Labour Progressive Party during the 1940s. She worked in…
Date: 2017-09-20
Name(s): Kirk, Bernice, Novakowski, Ken, Redlin, Blair
Description: Bernice Kirk began her union career at the Coquitlam School Board, and became the Secretary-Treasurer and President of CUPE BC, as well as a Vice President of the National CUPE Board. She was a leader in the fight for pay equity for women workers and worked full-time for the union for 20 years. "It was a big part of my life, but I really liked what I was doing. I liked helping people. I appreciated the work that everyone did." Bernice Kirk passed away on May 5, 2022.
Date: 2024-01-22
Name(s): Legg, Phil, Routley, Bill
Description: Bill Routley was born in 1948 in Chatham, Ontario. He was the son of two ministers who raised him in Duncan, on Vancouver Island. The treatment of employees at a shoe repair business in Victoria kindled his interest in workers' rights. After leaving that job, he started working at the B.C. Forest Products Youbou sawmill, where he soon became concerned with safety hazards and the lack of training. Routley was elected chair of his local's (IWA Canada, Local 1-80) safety committee and then as…
Date: 2019-09-06
Name(s): Mickleburgh, Rod, Sacuta, Donna, Smith, Bill
Description: Bill Smith was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and grew up in Dallas, Texas. He moved to British Columbia in 1970 and subsequently spent more than 40 years working as a commercial fisherman in Prince Rupert and the North Coast. In this interview, he discusses his early years in the industry when it was still booming and his later years when the industry was in decline.
Date: 2016-06-06
Name(s): Griffin, Sean, Keeton, Dan, Zander, Bill
Description: Bill Zander was born at home in the small town of Myrtle, Saskatchewan in 1934, but spent his childhood in Vancouver, B.C. He started working in a lumber mill after returning from the Royal Canadian Airforce, and became a plant representative with the IWA. He eventually became President of the Provincial Council of Carpenters.
Date: 2025-04-10
Name(s): BC Labour Heritage Centre, Novakowski, Ken, Redlin, Blair
Description: 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 activism, campaigning against tuition increases. He served in student government, including being elected as the president of the Federation of Alberta Students.
Blair worked as a legislative intern in NDP leader Grant Notley's office, and…
Date: 2023-06-05
Name(s): Legg, Phil, Pearson, Bonnie
Description: In this interview, Bonnie Pearson talks about growing up in Saskatchewan and the early influence of her activist parents. Bonnie details her early union involvement as a national representative with CUPE in 1980s, the Devine government and privatization, her move to a job with HEU in Kelowna during a time of re-structuring and changes within the post-secondary and health care fields over the years.
She describes the struggle to gain a provincial agreement for college educators, with the…
Date: 2019-11-29
Name(s): Griffin, Sean, Hamaguchi, Brian
Description: Brian Hamaguchi worked in fish canneries in the lower mainland and was a shop steward and executive member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU). Previous generations of his family also worked in the fishing industry and were interned during the Second World War. He was also a director of the Gulf & Fraser Fishermen's Credit union for over 30 years.
Date: 2023-06-06
Name(s): Legg, Phil, Nasu, Brian
Description: Brian Nasu, born in Tofino, B.C. and raised in East Vancouver, grew up in a family deeply connected to the fishing industry. As a young person, Brian started working at an IGA grocery store that was in the process of organizing. Brian signed up to join the union and, despite employer resistance, the drive was successful.
Brian recalls what it was like to be one of the very few people of colour in the UFCW (Union of Food and Commercial Workers) at the time. He was eventually elected to an…
Date: 2022-10-03
Name(s): Allevato, Carmela, Novakowski, Ken, Redlin, Blair
Description: 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 school, she went to the University of Toronto, and then studied law at the University of British Columbia. She became active in B.C. politics when Rosemary Brown ran for the leadership of the NDP in 1972. Carmela was called to the bar in 1979. By this time, she was…
Date: 2017-08-23
Name(s): Askew, Carolyn, Garden, Bailey
Description: Carolyn Askew was a lawyer and the first Legislative Counsel for the BC Federation of Labour, beginning in 1972. She explains she was one of only a few women law school graduates and women had difficulty getting articles with firms. In the late 1960s she established the Community Legal Assistance Society with Mike Harcourt and Ian Waddell. She taught at the People's Law School. At the BC Fed, Askew was involved in establishing the first Women's Committee. She offers recollections of behind the…
