Date: 2019-09-06
Name(s): Mickleburgh, Rod, Sacuta, Donna, Thorkelson, Joy
Description: In this 1.5 hr conversation, Rod Mickleburgh and Donna Sacuta interview Joy Thorkelson. Joy is a resident of Prince Rupert and held positions as organizer and president of the UFAWU (United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union). Joy describes how she came to Prince Rupert, some of what she experienced as a shoreworker doing multiple types of jobs in the canneries and her evolution as a labour activist. Throughout, her love of the fishing industry comes through clearly as she recounts wonderful…
Date: 2023-05-11
Name(s): Cavanaugh, Judy, Redlin, Blair
Description: In this wide-ranging and interesting interview, Blair Redlin asks Judy Cavanaugh to describe the experience and identify the important outcomes and lessons learned through the many working experiences in her life. She speaks succinctly, providing description and insights about her early administrative jobs, her university experiences as one of the SFU 18 arrested for their defence of AUCE Local 2, several years as a key organizer with the Canadian Farmworkers Union, Executive Director of the…
Date: 2023-04-20
Name(s): Darcy, Judy, Redlin, Blair
Description: Judy Darcy started out as an enthusiastic public speaker and leader in her kindergarten days in Sarnia, Ontario, and has never looked back. Judy was very active in the student movement and in the women's movement, including being on the Abortion Caravan in 1970. This activism set the stage first for her rank-and-file involvement with CUPE as a library worker in Toronto, then leading her local union, eventually heading the Metro Toronto CUPE Council, and then sitting on the CUPE National…
Date: 2016-11-08
Name(s): Bauder, Ken, Braid, Kate, Garden, Bailey
Description: Kate Braid is a carpenter and a poet, writing about her experiences as a female working in the male-dominated construction trades. She was born in Calgary, AB and was elected to the executive of the BC Regional Council of Carpenters.
Date: 2017-08-02
Name(s): Bauder, Ken, Garden, Bailey
Description: An East Van boy, Ken Bauder initially worked in construction before ending up in longshoring. He was Secretary Treasurer of ILWU Canada from 2004-2010. He was instrumental in a project called Reclaiming the New Westminster Waterfront. In this interview, Bauder talks about many of the union issues he was involved in during his time with ILWU, locally and internationally.
Date: 2017-05-07
Name(s): Georgetti, Ken, Legg, Phillip
Description: Ken Georgetti's life as an elected union representative spans over 40 years. Beginning as a proud member of Trail, BC's United Steelworkers Local 480, Brother Georgetti rose through the ranks to become Local Union President, President of the BC Federation of Labour and ultimately, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. As the BC Fed's youngest President ever, he led workers through times both daunting and transformational. His "intelligent militancy" moved to the national scene in 1999,…
Date: 2018-08-01
Name(s): Isomura, Ken, Wejr, Patricia
Description: Ken Isomura began working in the forest industry at 17. He credits growing up, living and working in Revelstoke with his later involvement in unions and community organizations because it gave him a sense of community. After relocating to the lower mainland, Isomura became financial secretary of IWA Local 1-357 (New Westminster). He was introduced to the United Way and eventually went to work for the labour participation program. He retired after 17 years with the United Way and continued to…
Date: 2019-09-05
Name(s): Maclean, Ken, Mickleburgh, Rod, Sacuta, Donna
Description: Ken MacLean was a member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 505 located in Prince Rupert for 25 years and never missed a union meeting. He held the position of Secretary Treasurer/Dispatcher for 12 years. During his time, MacLean saw the membership of the local union grow from 29 to over 400. Early dispatching was done first by "cutting cards" and then by using blackboards to record names and shifts. Containerization and technology changed longshoring in his time. He…
Date: 2023-04-27
Name(s): Vandervoort, Krinstina, Wejr, Patricia
Description: Kristina Vandervoort was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She moved to British Columbia with her parents when she was eight and they settled in North Vancouver. After high school, Kristina started her first job at Lions Gate Hospital and that is where she first became active in her union, the Hospital Employees' Union (HEU). She served as a trustee of her local, then secretary-treasurer, and she was very active in the HEU's 1976 strike. Following the strike, she took union leave to work in the HEU…
Date: 2025-04-30
Name(s): BC Labour Heritage Centre, Kuehn, Larry, Novakowski, Ken
Description: The interview covers Larry Kuehn's extensive involvement with labour and social justice organizations beyond his work with the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF).
Kuehn discusses his work with Operation Solidarity and the Solidarity Coalition in the 1980s, including the People's Commission that examined alternatives to neoliberal policies. He also describes his roles with the Pacific Group for Policy Alternatives, the anti-apartheid movement, and the Canadian Teachers' Federation's support…
Date: 2024-03-19
Name(s): Loftus, Lee, Novakowski, Ken
Description: In this far-reaching conversation, Lee Loftus discusses his experiences as a third-generation insulator, and union member and executive with the Heat and Frost Insulators Union Local 118 in British Columbia.
Throughout his career, he was involved in negotiating pension plans, working to make regulatory changes to improve union contracts, coping with the impacts of B.C. Labour Code changes in the mid-1980s, and helping to create the Canadian Federation of Labour – then later rejoining the…
Date: 2023-11-15
Name(s): Griffin, Sean, Harding, Leila
Description: Leila Harding was born into a naval officer's family in Nova Scotia but moved to Victoria as a child. As a young adult, she moved to Vancouver and worked for Fred Deeley Motors, where she had her first involvement with a union. She also volunteered on Tom Berger's MLA campaign. Not long after that she moved again – this time to London, England, where she worked for BC House (a trade organization) and was mentored in feminist ideals and community development by an activist friend.
Leila…
Date: 2017-08-23
Name(s): Edwards, Lloyd, Garden, Bailey, Novakowski, Ken
Description: Lloyd Edwards came to BC from Trinidad in 1953 and got his first teaching job in 1957 on Texada Island. He taught in several BC communities before settling in Surrey. As President of the Surrey Teachers' Association in 1974, he led a one-day teachers' strike that resulted in reduced class sizes across the province. Edwards was also responsible for establishing the first staff committee in a BC school. At Prince Margaret High School in Surrey, he established a school Committee Against Racism. He…
Date: 2019-12-17
Name(s): Burrows, Mae, Garden, Bailey, Griffin, Sean
Description: Mae Burrows details her early life and influences, and then her work with the Labour Environmental Alliance Society (LEAS) which brought together trade unionists and environmentalists at a time when logging companies were instigating the "war in the woods." The work evolved into grassroots education and campaigns for the "right to know" about exposures to toxic chemicals and carcinogens. The organization transformed into Toxic Free Canada but became dormant after the 2008 recession, which…
Date: 2023-05-17
Name(s): Cornes, Al, McCune, Micki, Pollack. Marion
Description: Marion Pollack and Micki McCune both started working for Canada Post as mail sorters in the 1970s. While both were initially impressed with the union wages they were earning, they soon became union activists, given the working conditions at Canada Post. These included sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, sexism, racism, and arbitrary and unfair management. As feminists, they advocated for the formation of women's committees in unions and engaged in many campaigns to advance the…
