Date: 2023-06-01
Name(s): Novakowski, Ken, Steves, Harold
Description: Harold Steves was born in Vancouver in 1937 and grew up on his family's farm in Steveston. It was a diverse farming and fishing community of Japanese, Chinese, Ukrainian, and First Nations families. An early memory of Harold's just before his fifth birthday is of his childhood friend giving him her teddy bear when the government's internment of people of Japanese origin forced her family to leave their home.
After finishing high school, Harold attended the University of British Columbia,…
Date: 2019-09-06
Name(s): Mickleburgh, Rod, van der Wiel, Henry
Description: Henry van der Wiel first came to Prince Rupert in 1963 to work on a fish boat, and relocated permanently in 1966. He eventually bought his own gillnetter. When he became a member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU) he had never belonged to a union before. He had been fired from a job in Houston, B.C. for trying to organize a union at the sawmill where he worked. Henry sat on the UFAWU General Executive Board for many years, and was also an organizer for the union for a…
Date: 2025-03-31
Name(s): BC Labour Heritage Centre, Lanzinger, Irene, Novakowski, Ken
Description: Irene Lanzinger grew up in Kelowna, B.C. She studied physics at the University of British Columbia and worked as a meteorologist before becoming a teacher. She taught in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Abbotsford, and Vancouver.
Irene's union activism with B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) started with the teachers' 1993 strike. Fascinated with collective bargaining, she volunteered to be on her school's bargaining and status of women committees. She was president of the Vancouver Secondary Teachers'…
Date: 2023-06-21
Name(s): Legg, Phil, Limpright, Ivan
Description: Ivan Limpright was born and grew up in the Fraser Valley. After working for his father driving truck and front-end loaders, he graduated from high school and started working at the Overwaitea warehouse in Burnaby. Ivan's union activism began when the company contracted out the warehouse work to Loman. He rose from shop steward to chief shop steward to union executive member and staff of the UFCW, representing members and bargaining contracts on Vancouver Island, the Interior, the Lower Mainland…
Date: 2017-01-28
Name(s): Ainsworth, Jackie, Folvik, Robin, Nicol, Janet
Description: 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 well as United Bank Workers [UBW] Local 2 of the Service, Office and Retail Workers' Union of Canada [SORWUC].
Date: 2016-06-08
Name(s): Griffin, Sean, Keighley, Jeffrey William, Nicol, Janet
Description: Jef Keighley was born in Vancouver, BC in 1950. He spent time working in Jamaica through the Canadian University Service Overseas. He worked in the automotive and construction industries before becoming involved in the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers [CAIMAW], which amalgamated with the Canadian Auto Workers Union [CAW]. He served as a national representative for the union and was heavily involved with the Solidarity
Date: 2018-02-24
Name(s): Griffin, Sean, McDonald, Ian, Succamore, Jess
Description: Jess Succamore arrived in Canada from England in 1952. He worked in a variety of jobs around British Columbia. He is best known for leading the campaign for independent Canadian unions. In this lengthy interview, Succamore recalls his relationships with many labour figures, strikes, organizing and internal disputes spanning more than five decades. His support for women workers and racialized workers was ahead of his time. Throughout Jess's involvement in the union movement, he exemplified self…
Date: 2023-06-27
Name(s): Novakowski, Ken, Sinclair, Jim, 1954-
Description: Jim Sinclair was born and raised in Ontario, where his early work experiences brought him into conflict with employers and demonstrated the need to advocate for workers.
He moved to Vancouver and worked there for Co-op Radio and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and in Nelson for the Nelson Daily News. Jim then organized workers and bargained collective agreements for fishers and shore workers in the fishermen's union and worked on their paper. Jim was committed to improving health and safety…
Date: 2023-11-14
Name(s): Bowman, John, Legg, Phil
Description: John Bowman grew up in the north end of Winnipeg and went to the University of Winnipeg studying labour history and journalism. He became active in progressive issues. John edited the student union newspaper while taking a full course load. He later worked for CUP for a year. While editing the student newspaper at U of W, John participated in many picket lines at the Griffin Steel Foundry where the issue was the CAIMAW foundry workers opposing compulsory overtime. It was a long battle against…
Date: 2022-04-28
Name(s): Burrows, John, Wejr, Patricia
Description: 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 supervisor in the sanitation department. John was active in his union and was voted president of CUPE Local 50 in 1994, a position he still holds today. In this interview, John reflects on more than four decades in the labour movement. Championing fairness, Local 50…
Date: 2023-05-29
Name(s): Calvert, John, Novakowski, Ken
Description: 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 during the summers in Northern Ontario. John attended the University of Western Ontario for his bachelor's and master's degrees and then moved to London, England where he obtained his doctorate at the London School of Economics. His thesis was on industrial democracy,…
Date: 2016-04-08
Name(s): Jensen, John, unknown
Description: John Jensen was a Danish-born union and community activist in Northwestern B.C. He was an active member of the Carpenters' Union and a delegate to the Kitimat and Terrace District Labour Council for 50 years. He became coordinator of the Labour Studies Program at the Northwest Community College soon after it was established. Jensen also describes his environmental activism, and the accomplishments of the Northwest Study Conference which developed very early and lasting relationships between…
Date: 2019-02-05
Name(s): Griffin, Sean, Radosevic, John
Description: John Radosevic was born in Croatia (former Yugoslavia) before moving to Canada as a young boy. As a teenager he worked on an uncle's ranch in Alberta and in the dangerous job of tie-up man in seine fishing in B.C. In 1971, he began working as an organizer for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU). He later became a business agent, secretary-treasurer, and president of the union. When he retired after 34 years in the industry, he continued working on the Union Protein Project (…
Date: 2024-02-15
Name(s): Allevato, Carmela, Rogers, John
Description: John Rogers was raised in Kamloops, BC. His father was the local welfare officer and John remembers some of the cases his dad was involved in. He also recalls the First Nations community on the other side of the river. He describes playing basketball against the boys from the Indian Residential School team, who disappeared at age 15 when they could finally escape the residential school.
John went to McGill on a scholarship but failed and came back to B.C. to woo Brenda, his teenage…
Date: 2016-11-23
Name(s): Garden, Bailey, Novakowski, Ken, Shields, John
Description: 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 to Vancouver and became a social worker, and continued his social activism, eventually becoming President of the B.C. Government Employees' Union from 1985- 1999. In this interview, Shields talks extensively about how his beliefs intersected with his union activity. He…
