Interview with Cathy Walker

Cathy Walker was born in Vancouver, BC in 1949 and grew up in Burnaby. Her father was a member of the Machinists Union which influenced her perspective while growing up. She attended Simon Fraser University (SFU) during a time of fervent political activism by students and became involved in the Young New Democrats (YND) during the same time. She left school to pursue a working-class experience and began working at Cascade Electronics where she quickly became involved with the union, then the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers (CAIMAW). She became vice-president and eventually president of CAIMAW Local 1, along with running the union newsletter and actively servicing members through negotiations, grievances, workers compensation appeals etc. She later became Vice-President of Health, Safety & Environment for CAIMAW and came on full-time in that role when the union merged with the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) in 1992.