SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Barbara Stewart : organizing restaurant workers during the Depression RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-06-17 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Barbara Stewart first radicalized during the Depression. She was present in Regina in 1935 at a citizens' meeting called to protest the lack of jobs and support the On to Ottawa Trek. She was swept into the streets with many of the crowd by the attacks of the police and RCMP. She came to Vancouver in 1936 without a job, and was placed as a domestic by the YWCA. She moved on to waitress at Kennedy's, where she was laid off for her union sympathies. She then worked at the Melrose and then Love's Cafe. Waitresses worked four-way split shifts at that time. She participated in job actions like the following: waitresses wore their aprons for six weeks without washing them, to establish employer responsibility for laundry. TRACK 2: Restaurant work was very hard; it required physical labour and long hours of work. Women faced sexual harassment on the job. Some restaurants even tried to exploit waitresses as prostitutes. Most women who worked did so out of economic necessity rather than choice. Bill Stewart was the business agent of Local 28 during the 1930s and early 1940s. Mrs. Stewart later took over as business agent, traveling all over the city for twenty dollars a month. A major struggle of the union was to change the laws so that employers would have to provide transportation for waitresses after dark. Mrs. Stewart as business agent was also a delegate to the VDLC; She went into houses to organize them, and worked on the White Lunch and Trocedero strikes.

The item consists of an audio interview with Edith John recorded in Victoria, B.C. on July 18, 1984.

Tape summaries:
T4162:0010 track 1: Edith John was born in Victoria in 1919. Her father worked on the CPR boat "Princess Adelaide". Her mother took care of a farm on Vincent Avenue in the Gorge area and earned the family's rent by taking care of the animals. She describes the farm. Parents divorced when Edith was nine. Mother and children moved around a lot, from one rented home to another. Mother trained as a hand laundress in England, so in order to support her children she took in laundry. Worked as a day housecleaner and ran a boarding house. Also speaks about the jobs Edith and her brother did to help out the family.

Track 2: Continues the description of her domestic chores. Talks about different places that donated food to poverty-stricken families. Talks about her domestic science class. Left home at age 14 and worked as a live-in domestic servant. Married in 1938 at the age of 18.

T4162:0011 track 1: Edith John describes her work as a live-in domestic servant.

CALL NUMBER: T3720:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Hong Len Jung : Chinese at work in B.C. : shingle mill worker PERIOD COVERED: 1898-1920 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1980-06-04 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Describes background: born in Yen Ping, Kwantung, China, 1898; immigrated to Canada 1912 on merchant's visa. Description of voyage to Canada on Empress of India: living conditions, food, fellow passengers, gambling on board, staff sell "black-market" food. Description of Immigration Building in Vancouver: detention in the building for one month, "graft" by Chinese interpreter. Stayed with father in Nanaimo, where his father owned large dry goods grocery store. Went to public school for 3 months but his father removed him from the school because he was worried Hong Len would not return to China if he had too much education. Work as a houseboy in Shawnigan Lake District. Father sold business in Nanaimo and went into managing gambling houses. Refers to the murder of a white woman by her Chinese houseman; after this, no Chinese can get work in Victoria (ca. 1914). Went back to China to marry; marriage arranged by parents. Returned to Canada and soon worked in a shingle mill. [TRACK 2: blank.]; CALL NUMBER: T3720:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Hong Len Jung : Chinese at work in B.C. : shingle mill worker PERIOD COVERED: 1920-1960 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1980-07-16 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Describes third trip home to China (1921-22), daughter was born; fourth trip home to China, second daughter was born; fifth trip home to China, purchased more property and business; sixth trip home to China, married a second wife in hope of producing a son. Present (second wife) left for Hong Kong after Chinese Civil War, 1949. Jung applied for Canadian citizenship and sent for his two "paper" sons and wife to come over. Purchased house on Gore Street. Wife worked as a farm day labourer and at the fish canneries. Shingle mill in 1950s had very little work for him; he was earning only $200-$300 a month. In 1954, purchased "paper son" papers and sent for nephew. In 1957 purchased 1st hotel/rooming house. Describes visit to village in mainland China, first since Communist take-over. Speaks of his father and grandfather, their work in Canada, and their subsequent retirement to China. Speaks of the domination of the shingle mill trade by Chinese of the Toy San and On Ping District. TRACK 2: Started in shingle mill in 1915. Talks about his work at the shingle mill: wages; accommodations; food; workmen's compensation and accidents at work; racial mix of workers; distance of mill from town. Saved money for trips to China and sending remittance home by dividing and budgeting wages into four equal portions. Unionization of shingle mills. Teamwork of shingle bolt cutter, sorter and piler. Comparison of wages earned by shingle mill workers, lumber mill workers and restaurant workers. CALL NUMBER: T3720:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Hong Len Jung : Chinese at work in B.C. : shingle mill worker PERIOD COVERED: 1918-1949 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1980-07-16 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Worked 6 days a week at shingle mill. Leisure activities after work. Kept room in Chinatown even when out of town or in China. Soup lines in Chinatown during Depression. Description of "fong"; rooming/commune style of living. Victoria CCBA send destitute Chinese back to China at this time. Talks of head tax, poll tax, lasting until 1949. Description of voyages back to China on CPR Empress lines and Blue Funnel lines. Description of the Chinese Theatre and the Cantonese Opera company. Member of the Hung Ming (Triad) Society in China before he came to Canada, member of the Chinese Freemason in Vancouver. Active in Vancouver as a member of the Jung Family Association, Yen Ping Locality Association. In 1918, he listened to Sun Yet Sun speak. Was involved with Freemasons as executive and organizer. Purchased $1000 worth of Kuomingtang bonds. Sent money home to China via San Francisco during Sino-Japanese War. Voted in every election in Canada when Chinese were re-enfranchised. TRACK 2: Speaks of Tong fights between Kuomingtang Society and the Chinese Freemasons: explains the differences between the two fractions. Discusses mortgaging of Freemasons in Vancouver; buildings in Victoria and collection of money for the revolt against the Manchus. Speaks of Christian faith, Chinese ancestral worship, and his views of both. The Chinese were not as badly off during Depression as white community. Prosperous Chinese in Vancouver purchased homes outside of Vancouver Chinatown (prior to 194(). Chinese businessmen bringing "false" wives to Canada, and selling these women to other businesses, or into marriage. Looking after the "dead"- Ching Ming commemorates the dead. CALL NUMBER: T3720:0004 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Hong Len Jung : Chinese at work in B.C. : shingle mill worker RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1980-07-17 SUMMARY: [No summary is available for this interview.]

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Josephine Hallock : the Union label committee RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-09-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Hallock was born in Nottingham, England, and raised in Scotland. She came to Canada in 1931 to marry. The marriage did not occur and she entered the workforce, supporting herself thro;ugh work as a grocery clerk, a housekeeper and later, a hospital worker at the General Hospital. She became involved in organising domestic workers with the Trades and Labour Congress in 1943. The campaign centered on inclusion in the BC Labour Code, minimum wage legislation, raising wages and securing decent conditions. The provincial cabinet rejected proposals for these improvements on the grounds that the government could not intervene into a man's home to organise or affect his servants: a man's home was his castle. The campaign eventually faded out. Mrs. Hallock and her husband opened a small business and took out cards with the HREU. TRACK 2: She had been involved with the Women's Unit of the Civic Employees Association at the hospital and considered returning to work, but did not do so. Mrs. Hallock was active later on in organising office workers into OTEU Local 15. She served on the VDLC for many years and in 1954 became active in the Union Label Committee. She has focused on the union label work for many years and has popularized the notion of buying union and displaying the union label.

CALL NUMBER: T3621:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Marion Sarich : organizing working women in the 1930s and 1940s RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-08-31 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Ms. Sarich was born in Princeton, BC and later moved to Saskatchewan, later returning to BC. She started work as a domestic at the age of thirteen for five dollars a month and then moved on to several different positions. She began organizing domestics in the 1930s and worked with the Housewives' League to get a charter from the AFL. The TLC could not decide which union should receive jurisdiction and the campaign died. Ms. Sarich then began working as a busgirl at the Trocedero Cafe, helping to organize it. The cafe was struck and she and her sister, Anita Sarich, were blacklisted, but the strike helped to initiate a campaign to organize the restaurants. During the strike they received extensive support from the public. She also participated in drives to organize Army/Navy and Woolworth's helping whenever organizers were needed, and taking no pay. TRACK 2: The HREU fought for special classes for women; equal pay, protection at night for waitresses getting off shift and requiring transportation. Ms. Sarich participated in pickets of restaurants which were guilty of unfair labour practices. She also supported the unemployed men in the post office. Local 28 tried consistently to join with the Bartenders local 626, but the latter refused amalgamation. In the 1940s she assisted in the organization of the Canadian Seamen's union, which later became the SIU (1948). CALL NUMBER: T3621:0002 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-08-31 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Sarich remembers Norman Bethune's visit to Vancouver; solidarity with Spanish orphans through the Girls Brigade to Aid Spanish Orphans. In the 1950s she became a postal worker and has been active in the unions. [TRACK 2: blank?]; CALL NUMBER: T3621:0003 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), [date unknown] SUMMARY: [No content summary available for this tape.];

RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1984-03-13 SUMMARY: Born 1921. Family history, from China to Canada. Work in home as a child. Mother's work in home. Growing up in Victoria's Chinatown on Fisgard and Cormorant Streets. Shopping for food daily in Chinatown. Kindergarten at Oriental [?] Home. Education at Chinese school and public school. Chinese women working in stores as clerks; their chores and responsibilities. Farm work in Saanich. Tea room women in restaurants. Nancy as an adult. Foot binding -- mother. Kitchen technology. Nancy's experience as a domestic. The discrimination she experiences as a Chinese woman.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Ruth Bullock : women in the C.C.F. and workforce, 1935-1950 RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-07-25 SUMMARY: Ruth Bullock grew up in Beaton, B.C. She attended school until the age of 10 and a half, when her father was killed in a mining explosion, leaving her mother as the single support of five small children. The family later moved to a sheep ranch on Saltspring Island. At 17, she left the farm and became a domestic in Hatzic for $15 a month. Later, she moved to another farm for $20 a month. There were no unions for domestics and they were not protected by government legislation. She first married in 1929 and soon had a daughter. Ruth grew up in the radical Scots tradition, first becoming interested in birth control after her daughter's birth and difficult delivery. She joined the newly formed C.C.F. in 1932-33, where she met Vivian Dowding of the Parent's Information Service. At this time, unions were very weak. The Spanish Civil War further radicalized her and she helped to support the struggles of the unemployed and the Longshore Strike. She later left her husband. In 1944 she became interested in the Trotskyists, disagreeing with the Labour Progressive Party's no-strike policy in the war industries. She worked in a canning factory where the workers resisted speed-ups and the distribution of poor quality food to the rank and file soldiers and high quality food to the officers. She was a member of the I.W.A. Women's Auxiliary, and assisted in organizing clerical workers at Burrard; Drydocks in the 1950s.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Sara McKinnon : shift work and low wages - organizing St. Paul's Hospital RECORDED: Aldergrove (B.C.), 1979-08-20 & 09-07 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. McKinnon moved to BC in 1937, where she lived for a year on Stewart Island. She married in 1938 and worked in The Only [a Vancouver restaurant]. She worked occasionally as a domestic, for $3.50 a day, while raising her small children. She began to work at Vancouver General Hospital in the laundry in the late 1940s and then moved over to St. Paul's. The shift work was very hot and heavy in the laundry, where the majority of workers were female. She had considered herself United Farmers of Ontario as a child in Ontario, despite her conservative family, and was sympathetic to the CCF. At St. Paul's she became involved in changing the company union into a really representative union; one which would fight for more than a 3% increase per year. Workers compared their conditions and wages to those of VGH and joined the union. Organisation was facilitated by one of the nuns, Sister Gertrude, who was known for her progressive ideas. She blocked the the personnel manager's attempts to intimidate union sympathizers. The issues were basic bread and butter issues; hours, wages, holidays and shifts. TRACK 2: Union organizers faced a strong ideology of commitment to the hospital service fostered by the hospital. Mrs. McKinnon was active on the education committee and elected to the executive as trustee and warden. The shift work made it difficult to involve many workers in union activity.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-10-07 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Sophie King recalls early memories of the Beaver Point area of Saltspring Island. She was born in 1880 of an English father, [Percer], and a native Indian mother. She attended St. Ann's; School from 1883 to 1897 in Duncan, and describes the school and life there. Eventually she returned to the family farm on Saltspring and lived with her brothers. During this time she also worked as ;a domestic for several families in Victoria. She married Mr. King, whose family had been homesteaders in the Beaver Point area. Mr. King worked as a logger; fisherman and boat builder. She recalls neighbours; the Beaver Point area; her life with her family; working their farm; helping her husband build boats; the Ruckle family; the closure of the Beaver Point store and post office; and their relocation to Fulford and Ganges. [TRACK 2: blank.]