About these Collections
The principal focus of the collections at Rare Books is British Columbia: history, exploration, settlement, business, politics, ethnicity, and labour. A major part of British Columbia's history was shaped by labour relations, and this is reflected in the extensive collections at RBSC related to unions, organizing, and workers. Below the fonds of several unions are listed, but this is not an exhaustive list. Please search the RBSC database for access to all relevant archival material.
Image source: [Unknown]. (1929). View of fishermen and fisherwomen gathered on wharf during fishermen’s strike at False Bay [P]. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0013842 (Original work published 1929)
Archival Collections: Labour Unions, Labour Relations and the Labour Force
- Alexander Stephen fondsThe fonds consists of records pertaining to Stephen's literary work and his social concerns, including the Canadian depression of the 1930s and the world rise of fascism. The papers contain issues of the British Columbia "Job-Seekers" Journal (1938), Post Office "Sitdowner's" Gazette (1938), and the Victoria Jobless Journal (1938). The fonds also includes two scrapbooks containing letters, clippings, photographs (including Norman Bethune) and related materials. Another scrapbook (1928-1963) was completed by Stephen's wife after his death.
- Al King fondsThe fonds consists of agreements and printed material detailing the activities of the United Steelworkers of America in British Columbia (1966-1973) and personal correspondence relating to King's activities (1973-1975).
- Amalgamated Transit Union fondsThe fonds includes minutes of regular meetings (1898-1976), executive committee minutes (1907-1974), membership and dues ledgers (1901-1966), records books [working conditions affecting members of Division 134] (1931-1947), and Sick Benefit Association (1913-1919, 1950-1954). The fonds also contains office subject files such as general correspondence (1908-1970), correspondence with B.C. Hydro and Power Authority (1962), meeting attendance records (1957-1961), political education committee records (1957-1961), and minute books, correspondence and attendance books relating to Pacific Stage Lines (1935-1979).
- British Columbia Electric Railway Company fondsThe fonds consists principally of bound and filed correspondence of the Company (1896-1914), early minute books and accounting records of the BCER and related companies, as well as scrapbooks and clippings on microfilm which reflect the growth and diversity of the Company. Also included is a valuable collection of 650 maps, diagrams, and engineering and architectural plans.
- British Columbia Federation of Labour fondsThe fonds consists of research files compiled during the writing of Paul Phillip's No Power Greater: A Century of Labour in British Columbia, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, political education material, history questionnaires and minutes of the Federation and affiliated associations. Five subsequent accessions have resulted in the deposit of office files, financial records, briefs, convention proceedings, speeches, memoranda, photographs and sound recordings reflecting the wide scope of activity and interest pursued by the Federation
- C.D. Orchard fondsThe fonds consists of subject files, sound recordings, photographs and maps relating to the history of forestry in the province, which Orchard created while under contract to University of British Columbia. Some of the files consist of research material he collected concerning hand-loggers, camp living conditions, and wages and salaries.
- Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers fondsCAIMAW was formed in Winnipeg in 1964, merged with the Canadian Electrical Workers Union (CEWU) in 1969, and after 1971, reorganized structurally and relocated in Vancouver. In 1991 CAIMAW merged with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). The fonds consists of records of the National Secretary-Treasurers office and various staff representatives.
- Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1004 fondsThe Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1004 was established in 1966. It had several predecessor bodies including the Vancouver Civic Employees' Union Trades Labour Congress Local 28 (Outside Workers) est. 1919 and the Municipal Employees' Co-ordinating Conference (M.E.C.C.). During its history it was suspended by the Trades Labour Congress in 1951 and survived raids from other unions. Local 1004 remains a distinct union from that of the inside workers, which are represented by the Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees' Union, but the two unions negotiated jointly in several major labour disputes, beginning in 1972. The union's recording secretary, Jack Phillips, and its Business Officer, Doln Guise, both served from 1947 to 1967 and were prominent in the union's activities.
- Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union fondsThe fonds consists of correspondence and subject files, minutes, financial records, printed material and ephemeral items relating to the activities of the Refinery Workers Union, chiefly dealing with Imperial Oil Ltd.
- Consolidated Employees Benevolent Society fondsThe Consolidated Employees Benevolent Society was established in 1921 or 1927 to augment health insurance provided by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada (CM&S, later known as Cominco) in Trail, B.C. The Society administered a co-operative plan, i.e., a plan run by the employees themselves rather than their employers or health service providers. The Society disbanded in 1975 and officially dissolved in 1978. The fonds consists of medical claim files collected between 1939 and 1974 for CM&S workers in Trail, B.C. Files include claim forms with doctors’ certificates, checks to sick accounts, correspondence between the Society and worker and/or worker’s doctor, medical examination sheets, and other material produced by workers’ participation in the claim process.
- Food and Service Workers Union fondsThe fonds consists of correspondence, minutes, case files, convention material and other textual records relating to the activities of the Food and Service Workers of Canada Union and its predecessor unions, the Canadian Food and Associated Services Union and the White Spot Employees Union.
- Frank Sherman fondsFrank Sherman arrived in the Crow's Nest Pass coal fields from Wales in 1903 and worked as a coal miner and check weighman in the mines at Morrisey. After the organization of the United Mine Workers of America in the areas he became the first elected President of District 18, a position he held until shortly before his death.
- Harold Thayer fondsHarold Thayer was a member of both the CCF and the NDP and was an active member of the International Association of Machinists in Manitoba and B.C. as well as being appointed as an international representative. He served as director of the Canadian Machinists Political League (1967- 1970), president of IAM Lodges 456 (1947-1951) and 692 (1959-1961) and vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour in the 1960s. He also participated in various CCF and NDP organizations at the local, provincial and federal levels.
- Hotel, Restaurant and Culinary Employees' and Bartenders' Union, Local 40 fondsThe Hotel Industry was one of the first industries unionized in B.C., the first charter being granted in 1900 to the Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union Local No. 28. Gradually the smaller locals began merging until 1974, when the Beverage Dispensers' Union, Local No. 676, and the Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union, Local No. 28, merged to become the Hotel and Restaurant Employees' and Bartenders' Union, local No. 16. The final province-wide merger occurred in 1976 with the creation of the Hotel, Restaurant, and Culinary Employees' and Bartenders' Union, having 12,000 unionized employees under this local.
- Ian McDonald collectionIan McDonald was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia to parents Monique and Les McDonald. Inspired by the labour activism of his father, he dedicated his graduate studies to the plight of electrical workers involved in International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 213 and received a Master of Arts in History from Simon Fraser University in 1986. Ian McDonald’s father, Les McDonald, was a trade union activist with the IBEW Local 213 and past-president of the International Triathlon Union.
- Industrial Workers of the World Vancouver Branch fondsEstablished in Chicago in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World sought to unionize industrial workers. The Vancouver branch was founded ca. 1911. After the Branch's demise in the early 1970s, it became active in the 1980s under new leadership. The fonds consists of a variety of materials, once housed in the Vancouver offices of the IWW, including correspondence, newspapers, convention reports, brochures and cash books, posters, sound recordings of IWW songs, two glass panels from the Vancouver office with IWW insignia, charter and postcards. Fonds includes correspondence, subject files, minutes, photographs, posters and periodicals relating to labour and political issues ca. 1986, such as those relating to Expo '86, and includes correspondence of Bill Culp, Pam Tranfield, and Tom Wayman.
- Insurers' Advisory OrganizationThe fonds consists of minutes, financial records, inspection records, printed material, constitutions, by-laws, and correspondence of the association. Also included are rate manuals for fire and auto insurance, cannery inspection records, the University Endowment Lands properties and the Royal Canadian Navy at Esquimalt. In addition, maps of cities and towns in B.C. relate to the inspection reports of buildings in those centres.
- International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Lodge 692 fondsThe International Association of Machinists was organized in the American South and Midwest in the 1880s. The name, IAM, was adopted at a Cleveland convention in 1891. In 1964 IAM incorporated the aerospace workers into an expanding union.
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 213 fondsThe International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 213 was formed in 1901. The following year, women telephone operaters were organized into an auxiliary of 213, one of the first successful attempts at organizing women workers in British Columbia. Strained relations between the local and its international headquarters were marked by such events as the suspension of its charter in 1919 and allegations of communist sympathies in the 1950s.
- International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Canada) fondsThe fonds consists of records from the International Office (Denver), national office (Toronto), B.C. District Union files, Western District Union Files, and records of Canadian locals, the Western Federation of Miners, District No. 6 and its locals, the Sandon Miners Union, and the Metal Miners Union of the One Big Union (1920-1933). Records of individual locals vary from minute books and financial records, reports, and correspondence to extensive subject files and financial reports for larger locals. The fonds also includes a substantial photograph collection documenting union activities (1944 to 1962), tape recordings, films, charters, badges, official seals and recordings of Paul Robeson Peace Arch concerts (1950s).
- J.H. Todd and Sons fondsThe fonds consists of correspondence (1916-1952) and legal records (1910- 1952) pertaining to the fishing operations of J.H. Todd and Sons, Ltd. These include records of subsidiary companies: Klemtu Cannery Ltd. (1927- 1938), Provincial Cannery Company Ltd. (1917-1939), Sooke Harbour Fishing and Packing Company (1937-1953), and Western Fishing Company (1945-1950), relating to their fishing operations. There are also pilot diaries, payroll sheets, ledgers, plans and blueprints.
- Japanese Canadian research collectionThe Japanese Canadian research collection includes records of the Camp and Mill Worker's Federal Labour Union, No. 31, Vancouver, 1920-42, and letters, notes and documents relating to the activities of the Skeena Fisherman's Association, 1929-42.
- John Stanton fondsJohn Stanton served as legal counsel for numerous industrial trade unions in British Columbia including the International Woodworkers of America, International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union and International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. Stanton worked for the Vancouver Community Legal Assistance Society from 1976 to 1984.
- John Wallace de Buque Farris fondsThe fonds consists of correspondence (1888, 1922-1969), personal and business subject files, legal files and opinions, financial records, addresses, journals, scrapbooks, clippings, memorabilia, photographs, printed materials and subgroups of and relating to Jacob Kierstad, Elias Kierstad, Evelyn Fenwick Farris, John D. Farris and John Lauchlan Farris.
- Labour research collectionThe collection consists of typescript interviews relating to British Columbia labour history and labour education conducted by Colleen Toppings and Paul Phillips in 1964. Also includes typescripts of Paul Phillips' "No Power Greater - A Century of Labour in B.C." (1967) and press clippings discussing the interview project.
- Patrice Pratt fondsPatrice Eileen Pratt was both in Akron, Ohio, USA on March 17, 1948. In 1969, she immigrated to Canada, and attended the University of Manitoba in 1970. In the mid-1970s Pratt relocated to British Columbia where we worked with the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) from 1976 until 2007. She held several positions within the Union as committee chair and member, Staff Representative, Officer, and Director. Pratt was also involved in the B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFed), including as Coordinator of Operation Solidarity in Victoria, B.C. in 1983. She was elected to the Executive Council in 1987, Vice-Chair of the Women’s and Political Action Committee, and served on the Resolutions, Education Political Action Committees. In 1999, she campaigned for President of the B.C. Federation of Labor.
The fonds reflects Patrice Pratt’s political and labour union careers and her community organization involvement. Records in the fonds relate to Pratt’s various roles within the Federal and Provincial NDP, as President of the BCNDP and as a constituency, committee, council, and party member, the BCGEU and BC Federation of Labour. - Prince Rupert Trades and Labour Council fondsThe Trades and Labour Council of Prince Rupert represented 2,000 workers in Prince Rupert in 1955 and was affiliated with other workers groups, such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The fonds consists of minutes of Council (1937-1947) and correspondence (1916-1930, 1942-1943) related to its activities. Also included are minutes and correspondence of the Prince Rupert Civic Employees Union No. 20 (1922-1923) and a scrapbook of clippings.
- Ron Johnson fondsThe fonds reflects Ron Johnson's involvement with the New Democratic Party (NDP) predominantly from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. Records include materials related to Johnson’s service as President of the British Columbia Young New Democrats in 1970 and his own campaigns running as the NDP candidate for Federal Member of Parliament in the riding of Vancouver Centre in the 1970s. Records also include his collection of campaign and labour ephemera, predominantly from the 1960s and 1970s, and materials representing Johnson’s communications and strategy work on numerous political campaigns from the 1960s through the 1980s.
- Telecommunications Workers Union research collectionThe collection consists of records covering the period from the granting of the Victoria and Esquimalt Telephone Company charter in 1880 to 1982 when B.C. Telephone Company employees were laid off without notice. It includes union minutes, arbitration details, correspondence, press clippings, constitutions, agreements, and financial reports relating to the Telecommunications Workers Union of B.C.
- Thomas Ladner fondsThe fonds consists of a letter book (outgoing) pertaining to Ladner's activities as a manager of the Wellington Packing Company at Canoe Pass near Ladner on the Fraser River (1892-1896).
- Tom McGrath fondsBorn in Saint John, New Brunswick, Tom McGrath had a long and distinguished career in the labour movement. He was active in a Canadian Seamen's Union strike in South Africa in 1949. He was a delegate to the founding convention of the West Coast Seamen's Union which replaced the disbanded CSU on the West Coast. After the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver in June, 1958, he refused to take his men back to work, was dismissed by the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Ironworkers Union, and organized the Canadian Ironworkers Local No. 1 and became its Secretary. He was President of Local 400, Seamen's Section of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers, 1970-1982, as well as serving as an Inspector for the International Transport Federation in Vancouver. He served as National Vice-President for the CBRT in Ottawa for 12 years and became President of the Canadian Merchant Navy Association in 1990. He died in 1996 after a prolonged battle with cancer.
- Tom Wayman fonds - Industrial Workers of the World subfondsIn the late 1960s, Tom Wayman, along with a group of other young activists, resuscitated the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the Vancouver area. The organization-which was founded on the principle of organizing all workers into “one big union”- enjoyed a vibrant period of activity from 1905 to 1930, attracting tens of thousands of members throughout North America’s mid west and west coast. By the 1950s, however, the IWW had declined in size and vigour. Inspired by the social movements of the 1960s, Wayman and his Vancouver colleagues sought to bring the principles of the IWW to a new generation of young workers. The local organization for the Vancouver area in the 1970s was termed a General Membership Branch (GMB). Among other activities, the GMB recruited construction crews to the IWW, organized an IWW musician’s local, produced pamphlets on various labor and political issues and published a monthly newsletter entitled Solidarity Bulletin from 1972-1973. This subfonds consists of records that document the Vancouver GMB’s internal business, its relationship with other IWW bodies such as the GEB, its publications and its external activities.
- Trade Union Research Bureau fondsOriginally established as a Canadian branch of the Pacific Coast Labour Bureau in 1938, the Trade Union Research Bureau (TURB) was re-organized in 1946 as an independent, locally-owned company. As an independent labour research organization, TURB has served Western Canadian trade unions for many years.
- United Transportation Union, Local 422 fondsThe fonds consists of handwritten notes, printed material and subject files made or created in the course of practial activities by the UTU, Local 422. In addition, the fonds consists of the records of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (.27 m, 1942-1968), the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (5.25 m, 1919-1969), the Vancouver Joint Council of Railway Unions (.55 m, 1971-1984), and the Vancouver Rail Task Force, (1 m, mainly 1977-1982).
- Vancouver, New Westminster and District Union Label Trades Council fondsThe Vancouver, New Westminster and District Union Label Trades Council was organized in 1939. The objectives of the Council were to promote a greater demand for products bearing the union label and for labour performed by union workers. Activities were promoted on a national scale with the creation of the Union Label Trade Department of the Canadian Labour Congress, in 1956. The Council was superseded by the British Columbia Union Label Trades Council in 1980.
- Vancouver Centennial Labour History Project fondsThe Vancouver Centennial Labour History Project was founded in June 1984 at a meeting of labour representatives and interested persons. The purpose of the Project was to raise public awareness about the history of the labour movement in Vancouver. The Project operated under the Vancouver Centennial Commission and had both paid and volunteer staff. The fonds consists of records created or received by the committees and individuals working for the Labour History Project under the Centennial Commission and Centennial Labour Committee. Fonds includes minutes, agendas, correspondence, publications, posters and other advertisements for events and meetings, reports, newspaper clippings, typescripts and manuscripts, including a graduate thesis on union history. All type- and manuscripts are related to the history of various unions in Canada and British Columbia.
- Won Alexander Cumyow fondsThe fonds consists of correspondence, journals, scrapbooks, photographs, diplomas, certificates and reference and printed materials relating to Cumyow's activities and interests among the Chinese-Canadian community of Vancouver. The activities of his family are also reflected in the fonds.
Archival Collections : Political Parties, Movements and Organizations
- Angus MacInnis memorial collectionThe collection consists of records of the provincial office of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and general research material pertaining to socialism and the labour movement. It consists of minutes, scrapbooks, office correspondence and files relating to party organization and records of committees, CCF clubs, constituencies, federal ridings and election. The collection also includes records generated by Arthur Turner as CCF Whip and Arnold Webster as a provincial party leader. Subject files pertaining to early socialists and clippings about international affairs were created by Dorothy Steeves. Subsequent accessions added to the collection have included the records of Angus MacInnis, Francis McKenzie and former provincial leader Ernest Winch.
- Charlton family fondsOrmand Lee Charlton was one of the first organizers of the British Columbia CCF party in the early 1930s. The fonds consists of papers of the Charlton family principally generated by Ormand Lee Charlton and his son Darwin, who in turn functioned as custodian of the records. The records themselves generally relate to the early CCF movement in British Columbia, and other socialist and labour movements across Canada. Papers include information about the Canadian Cooperative Society (Ruskin Mills) and the Industrial Union (Ruskin) in the 1890s. The fonds also includes several copies of the CCF news, the party newspaper, as well as scrapbooks, clippings, drafts of speeches and addresses, correspondence and photographs relate to the family's involvement in socialist politics. The fonds also includes a collection of CCF poems written by Charlton's wife Annie, and essays written by famed socialist thinker Mildred Macleod.
- Dorothy Gretchen Steeves fondsThe fonds consists of records chronicling the growth of socialism in Canada and the formation and history of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the New Democratic Party, as well as with various aspects of the issues of human rights and of peace and disarmament. There is also autobiographical material and records pertaining to Unitarianism.
- Ernest E. Winch fondsThe fonds reflects Winch's various interests in the cause of humanity ranging from capital punishment to the protection of fur-bearing animals. The files also contain much valuable information on the activities of the C.C.F. and his role within the party. To a lesser extent, the files contain information on his earlier activities within the labour movement and events during the depression of the 1930's.
- Evelyn Smith fondsEvelyn Smith joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in 1933 but later disagreed with the movement for what she believed were its departures from the principles of the Regina Manifesto. She later became a strong environmental activist. The fonds consists of correspondence and clippings pertaining to the CCF political movement and Smith's newsletters, newspaper columns and submissions to various commissions. Fonds also includes a transcript of an interview with Evelyn Smith conducted by Rachel Epstein.
- Francis J. McKenzie fondsFonds consists of records that reflect McKenzie's law and political career. Records include correspondence, speeches and articles, ephemera collected by him, scrapbooks documenting various campaigns and printed materials related to C.C.F. and labour movements.
- Frederick Howay fondsThe fonds consists of correspondence, subject files, financial records, speeches, photographs, notes, and a journal, pertaining to Howay, as well as manuscripts and essays on B.C. history and exploration and marine trade off its coastal waters. In addition, Howay created subject files on historical sites and monuments throughout Western Canada, including Barkerville, the Cariboo, Fort Langley, Cut Knife Hill, Nootka Sound, Fort Steele, and Fort Walsh. The fonds include many documents specific to British Columbia history, including typescript of trials resulting form the Ladysmith riots in 1913, at which Judge Howay presided, dealing with a turbulent period in the coal miners' struggles on Vancouver Island.
- Garth Brown fondsGarth Brown a founding member of the NDP, ran as a candidate for Point Grey in 1966 and was active in TEAM campaigns from 1968 to 1972. He chaired the NDP Labour Policy Committee (1973-1979) and was a campaign chairman in 1981-1982 for Vancouver/Little Mountain. Brown worked at the Eburne Sawmill as Plant Chairman and headed the Plant Committee through most of the 1970s, and was an active committee member in the 1980s. As Regional Co-ordinator of the LESC/CLC (1979-1982), Brown was at the centre of labour education in B.C., co-ordinating CLC programs and advising other organizations.
- Leonard Shepherd fondsThe fonds consists of biographical material, correspondence (1928-1946), minutes, subject files, clippings and printed material pertaining to the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in British Columbia. Amongst Shepherd's papers are those of his wife, Dorothy H. Shepherd, which relate to her work as an executive member of the South Westminster CCF Women's Club (1942-1959).
- Lyle Telford fondsLyle Telford was born in Vallens, Ontario and came to British Columbia in 1913 to establish a medical practice. Soon after his arrival Telford gained recognition for his support of labour and socialism in the province. One of the foremost proponents of the CCF in the 1930s, Telford also hosted his own radio program three nights a week. He organized CCF Clubs throughout the province and published his own monthly paper The Challenge. Telford served as the MLA for Vancouver East from 1937 to 1941 and later as mayor of Vancouver. The fonds consists of the texts of two of Telford's radio broadcasts (1935) about socialism and materials collected pertaining to the Joseph McCarthy investigations of Corliss Lamont in 1953.
- Malcolm Bruce fondsThe fonds consists of minutes, correspondence, speeches and printed material of the Political Committee of the Labour Progressive Party (1957-1966) with various records relating to the League for Socialist Action, Revolutionary Worker's Party of America, Spartacus League, Socialist Workers Party, Canadian Socialist Educational League and American Committee for the 4th International.
- Patrick O'Neal fondsThe fonds consists of records pertaining to O’Neal’s work as a union organizer and representative, primarily, though not exclusively, for the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers. The fonds consists of correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, memos, newspaper clippings and press releases, labour agreements and negotiation records, and CCF to NDP transition records. Unions represented in the fonds include the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers, the United Paper Workers International Union, and a number of B.C. locals, including Local 603, Local 612, and Local 695, among others.
- Simon Fraser Tolmie fondsThe papers of Simon Fraser Tolmie, Premier of British Columbia, 1928-1933, contain subject files and newspaper clippings referring to unemployment, 1931-33, correspondence with the Department of Labour, 1930-1933, and a file marked, "Aliens," 1918-1919, created during his tenure as a Victoria MP, 1917-1928.
- William Bennett Memorial CollectionWilliam Bennett was a former leader of the B.C. Communists. Collection (1931-1955) contains documents and leaflets relating to communist movements in British Columbia, Canada, and internationally, from the collection of William Bennett, as well as others - Bert Padham, Bill Shaw, Ken Gibson, and Alf Padgham.