Item AAAB4000 - Anna Arthur interview

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Anna Arthur : lower mainland BCGEA RECORDED: Coquitlam (B.C.), 1979-07-25 SUMMARY: Mrs. Arthur was born in Victoria BC; she graduated as a teacher during the Depression, but was unable to find work (early 1930s); she married and returned to the workforce in 1943. She began to work at the Boys' Industrial School as a special education teacher; the staff began to organise into the BC Government Employees Association, in order to have a say in teaching policy, wages and hours or work. They linked up with workers at nearby Essondale. Part of the demands made by women were for equal pay for equal work; this issue really involved Mrs. Arthur. The BCGEA workers faced many setbacks, including the hostility of employers and a refusal by the government to institute a check-off system. Anna Arthur was involved in organising the union, and was elected to the provincial executive in the later 1940s, representing the Essondale branch (1947-1949). Many of the issues concerned working conditions -- for example, the lack of decent housing for student nurses. Later, while working for the federal government, she became the local president of PSAC, organising for equal pensions for women and equal insurance benefits in the local.