Items

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• [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.
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• [Union Hotels as at August 11th 1947]

  List of union hotels as of August 11th, 1947. The HREU was undertaking a major campaign to unionize them.
• 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.
• 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.
• [H.R.E.U. Milwaukee Convention April 7, 1947]

  An image shows a table of men celebrating at the Milwaukee Convention 1947. Courtesy of Edra McLeod.
• Women's Labour History Project: Summer 1979 Guide to Collection: Provincial Archives of British Columbia; SFU; BC Federation of Labour

  Oral history summaries / guide to collection. Missing pages 21-24.
• Women's Labour History in British Columbia: A Bibliography, 1930-48

  Bibliography of Women's Labour History in British Columbia, 1930-1948 compiled by Sara Diamond. Includes general sources, the depression years, the war years, and the immediate post-war period.
• Women's Labour History Project Guide to the Collection (1978-1979) Prepared by Sara Diamond

  Women's Labour History Project Guide to Collection (1978-1979) prepared by Sara Diamond including women's labour history project interviewees and descriptions.
• Suzie Fawcett Interview [Women's Labour History Project]

  An interview of Suzie Fawcett conducted by Sara Diamond. Fawcett discusses the difficulty of attaining training as a working class woman; waitress work at the Hotel Vancouver; working conditions in CNR owned hotels; the HREU’s attempt to organize the hotel in 1942; subsequent radicalization of staff; the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway and Transport and General Workers organizing CNR hotels; improvement in wages; Fawcett’s opposition to political unionism; raising two children while working full-time.