Crescent Cafe Strike Feb 11-15, 1937: Media coverage
Item
Descriptive Metadata
- Identifier
- Crescent Cafe Strike - 1937
- Title
- Crescent Cafe Strike Feb 11-15, 1937: Media coverage
- Description
-
On Feburary 11, 1937, non-union waitresses of the Crescent Cafe, 251 East Hastings, went on strike for higher wages. The Crescent Cafe was part of the relief restaurant network. The waitresses joined the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 28 shortly after walking out and Business Agent William "Bill" Stewart completed the initial negotiations on February 15 for a 2-week contract setting a union wage scale of $14 per week for experienced waitresses, $12 for new waitresses, and meals. This contract was "pending further investigations on the cost of its operation." [15 Feb Local 28 Regular Meeting minutes]. There is no follow-up in later minutes.
In an unrelated news article the cafe manager is recorded as Mr. Jean Ming, suggesting the Crescent was Chinese-owned. If so, this might have been the first of its kind to be signed by Local 28.
Newspaper coverage was minimal with The Province covering the start and end of the strike. Coverage by The Lumber Worker detailed the tactics of the striking waitresses and how the HREU negotiated with a reluctant employer. - Format
- PDFs, 3
- Type
- Newspaper articles;
- Date Created
- 2024
- Date
- 1937 February
- 1930s
Research, Contributions, Curation
- Sub-theme
- Trade Union Organizing
- Places, Locations and Nations
- Vancouver, Canada.
- Note
- Unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Source
- Provenance
- The Lumber Worker article was clipped by the Women's Labour History Project as part of their research. The WLHP materials were one part of the accrual of the personal fonds of Dr. Sara Diamond to the Crista Dahl Media Library and Archive (VIVO Media Arts Centre) in 2018. The Province articles were downloaded by the Case Study 1 researcher from newspapers.com.
- Access Rights
- Open access
- Rights Holder
- Ancestry.com
- Resource class
- Document
Interpretive Analysis
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