Items

• Waitresses Protest New Budget Imposts
• Hotel Vancouver c.1939 basement floor plans and architectural drawings

  Partial floor plan of the Hotel Vancouver [Owned by CN Railways opened 1939] basement. Includes parts of the cafeteria, the Men's Tavern, and the Barber Shop. The images are part of a Fairmont Vancouver Hotel webpage "THE VIBRANT GAY BAR OF HOTEL VANCOUVER IN THE 1940S".
• Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, Local 28 Meeting Minutes - Researchers' Notes

  Researchers' notes on the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 28 minute books. Select years: 1932-1933, 1935-1937, 1943, 1946-1948. The original meeting minutes are held at the UBC Rare Books and Special Collections, part of the Original HREU Local 28 minute books Fonds RBSC-ARC-1255 - Hotel, Restaurant and Culinary Employees' and Bartenders' Union, Local 40 fonds.
• You Can't Scare Me...I'm Stickin' to the Union: Women in British Columbia During the Great Depression

  A history of the organizing women in the 1930s. Constraints on labour, Women's labour leagues, fishing industry militancy, restaurant strikes, domestic workers conditions, garment workers, saleswomen,
• 1931 Vancouver Waitress Strike: News and opinion sample

  Samples of letters to the editor and news reports about the Vancouver 1931 waitress strike. The strike was called on February 3, 1931. The strike was only minimally covered by the two leading newspaper publishers in British Columbia: The Province and the The Vancouver Sun. Responses to letters to the editor and their replies show a back and forth both sides of the battling parties. Examples of how union members use public forums to educate and rebutt. Feb 4 - Feb 25, 1931.
• Crescent Cafe Strike Feb 11-15, 1937: Media coverage

  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.
• VDTLC Minutes - Research selection 1947-1949

  VDTLC scanned minutes various years, related to Case Study 1 research spreadsheet CVA VDTLC Minutes 1930-1948 . This research selection covers the Vancouver and New Westminster District Trades and Labour Council meeting minutes from 1947-1949.
• VDTLC Minutes - Research selection 1944 - 1946

  VDTLC scanned minutes various years, related to Case Study 1 research spreadsheet CVA VDTLC Minutes 1930-1948 . This research selection covers the Vancouver and New Westminster District Trades and Labour Council meeting minutes from 1944-1946.
• Jonnie Rankin Interview [Parts 2 and 3]

  In Part 2 of 3, Johnnie Rankin discusses the position of women within the Boilermakers Union and the types of jobs she worked at the shipyard. She also discusses childcare, equal pay, and the existence of issues specific to women. She talks about what she learned from the trade unions, and how working changed her life. Finally, she discusses working in restaurants and approaching the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union. In Part 3 of 3, Johnnie Rankin discusses organizing in restaurants, going to business school, the 1946 strike and the role of women within it, the creation of the Labour Theatre Guild, and the political impact working during the war had on her.
• [CVA VDTLC 1944 Jul-Dec]

  Minutes of the Vancouver and New Westminster District Trades and Labor Council. Researcher scan of microfilm reel, part of City of Vancouver Archive Fonds AM307, Vancouver and District Trades and Labour Council fonds : 1889-1961.
• Daisy Brown Interview

  Daisy Brown was the office manager of the Hotel, and Restauarant Employees Union Local 28. She discusses her years with the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union and building service union’s joint campaign to organize Vancouver hotels 1946-1947; the high number of single women parents and deserted wives working in the industry; the weakness of the union in comparison to industrial or skilled craft unions due to isolation of the workers; the difficulties the transient nature of the work and continuous shifts posed for organizers; issues of overtime, shift changes, uniforms, seniority; establishing the 40-hour work week; The Only Fish and Chips and Love’s Cafe, Vancouver; deposing the local HREU leadership in 1947 barring them from the office and membership in the union because of their left leanings.
• Elizabeth Wilson interview

  Audio and transcript of Sara Diamond's interview with Elizabeth Wilson.
• Researcher notes: Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 28 activities

  Notes by researcher Sara Diamond from her late 1970s-early 1980s Women's Labour History Project. Diamond's notes are written in cursive and assembled in three parts. Does not always follow chronological order. 1930s-1940s
• Union Men In Fistfight in Red Dispute: Faction regains seized offices

  International Union reps expell alleged Communist officers of HREU Local 28 from the headquarters. These included Emily Watts, local union president and May Ansell, local Businessness Agent. Vancouver Sun October 30, 1947
• Case Study 1: Oral Histories Research document

  A thematic guide for the Women's Labour History Project oral histories. This work is ongoing. As of March 2024, we have drawn on oral histories from VIVO Media Arts Centre, SFU Archives, and newspaper interviews . We will soon be working on additions from other archives, like the BC Labour Heritage Centre. This multi-sheet xls spreadsheet includes (1) Object metadata for all interviews; (2) Interviewees biographical details; and (3) Research notes: select excerpts from the interview(s) and details related to our research questions (one sheet per interviewee) ID structure (1) Each interviewee is assigned a letter which is their "Subject ID" (A,B,C, etc.) (2) Each Object (research resource) is assigned an "Object ID" : a combination of the "Subject ID" and a number assigned to delineate each research resource (ie A1, A2, A3, etc). (3) Individual interviewees research sheet is identified using the individual's Subject ID followed by a colon and their surname (ie, A: Fawcett) About our Interviewee Biography sheet Drawing on publicly available resources and implementing genealogical strategies and proof standards, Knights expanded the biographies of the oral history participants. This assisted the researchers with clarifying timelines, locations, and confirming identifies. This latter step was required to ensure that we were researching the correct individual. The women regularly went by nicknames, middle names, maiden names if married, divorced surnames if single, Mrs or Miss irrespective of their actual marital status. It also gives insight into the way waitresses shifted marital status for protection, anonymity, or hirability. The biographic and demographic material also informs the interviewees own statements on why they became involved in union activity or activist movements.
• Executive of HREU Local 28 c.1947

  SD_WLHP_MM3_006 Executive of H.R.E.U. Local 28 elected June 1947 [serving 1947-1948]. [Back row from left] Jimmy Lyons, Trustee; Bob Annola, Trustee; Margaret Shelton, Chairman [sic] of Education and Publicity; Gertrude Philip, Chairman of Social Committee; Roy Moore, Inspector. [Front row from left] Babella [Isabella] Beck, Recording Secretary; Emily Watts, President; Bob Williams, Vice President; May Ansell [Leniczek][Martin] , Secretary Treasurer and Business Agent.
• Outstanding and fiery unionist supported our amalgamation

  A reprint of an article by unionist William "Bill" Stewart on the challenges of organizing, published in commemoration of the amalgamation of Hotel, Restaurant and Employees Union Locals 676 an 28.
• Dishing it Out: Waitresses and their Unions in the Twentieth Century

  Back when SOS or Adam and Eve on a raft were things to order if youwere hungry but a little short on time and money, nearly one-fourth of all waitresses belonged to unions. By the time their movement peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, the women had developed a distinctive form of working-class feminism, simultaneously pushing for equal rights and pay and affirming their need for special protections. Dorothy Sue Cobble shows how sexual and racial segregation persistedin wait work, but she rejects the idea that this was caused byemployers' actions or the exclusionary policies of male trade unionists.Dishing It Out contends that the success of waitress unionism wasdue to several factors: waitresses, for the most part, had nontraditionalfamily backgrounds, and most were primary wage-earners. Theirclose-knit occupational community and sex-separate union encouragedfemale assertiveness and a decidedly unromantic view of men andmarriage. Cobble skillfully combines oral interviews and extensivearchival records to show how waitresses adopted the basic tenets ofmale-dominated craft unions but rejected other aspects of male unionculture. The result is a book that will expand our understanding offeminism and unionism by including the gender consciousperspectives of working women. [Source: UI Press]
• CVA VDTLC Minutes 1930-1948: Researchers Notes

  Researcher notes taken from Vancouver District Labour Council Minutes 1930-1948.
• VDTLC Minutes - Research selection 1937-1941

  VDTLC scanned minutes (June 1937-June 1941) various years, related to Case Study 1 research spreadsheet CVA VDTLC Minutes 1930-1948 . Issues relevant to Case Study 1 include: 1931 Feb 3, Chinese cooks support the waitress strike; 1937 May 3, Restaurant Employers and their association attempt to form parallel restaurant sector unions to undermine the HREU. 1938, Dual organizing (related to the communist contingent) begins 1938 Mar 15, A pushback against "anti-orientalism" begins from Asian HREU members and others, Like Bill Stewart. 1939 Mar 21, HREU is given jurisdiction over apartment hotels, and the Fish and Oyster Bar goes 100%union. 1940 Feb 6, Communist party expelled; Feb 20 showdown between communist leaders/dominant 1940 Oct, dual council in city with CIO established (communism) 1941 Feb 4, Report on hotel strike and settlement of the Hotel Vancouver 1941 Trouble with union houses
• Emily Nuttall Interview (3/5)

  Emily Nuttall discusses difficulties with organizing in restaurants (lots of turnover, its consideration as “women’s work”), changes in outlook on the profession from the Depression, her involvement with hotel organizing (particularly in the Georgia Hotel and the Belmont Hotel), and the union’s work towards shorter work weeks and the elimination of split shifts.
• Union Urges Cafe Night Shifts

  A newspaper article documenting the HREU (AFL)'s call for changes to shift work in cafes and restaurants, following the murder of waitress Olga Hawryluk by a customer. She had been returning home from work at 3am. Speaking for HREU are Mrs. Emily Watts, HREU organizer, and Mrs. May Ansell [AKA Martin], HREU Business Agent.
• Barbara Stewart interview

  Audio and transcript of Sara Diamond's interview with Barbara Stewart.
• May Martin interview

  Audio and transcript of Sara Diamond's interview with May Martin.
• Emily Nuttall interview

  Audio and transcript of Sara Diamond's interview with Emily Nutall.