On the Line: Stories of BC Workers
Canadian labour history storytelling podcast, produced by volunteers & staff of the BC Labour Heritage Centre on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) territories. Hosted by labour reporter & author Rod Mickleburgh.
Episodes
28 episodes
Ep. 28 - Union Women in the Fishing Industry
In Episode 27, we brought you stories from women who worked in the province's once numerous canneries and fish processing plants. For some, this was a stepping stone to working on the fish boats. In Episode 28, we hear from Barbara Stevens, who...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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29:28
Ep. 27 - Canning Salmon
This is the first of a two-part series on the role of women in BC ‘s once thriving fishing industry. This episode hears from women who worked in the fish canneries that once lined the west coast of BC. They bring to life a time when BC fish hel...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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32:15
Ep 26: Lenkurt Electric - Turning the Tide
A 1966 wildcat strike* by 400 mostly women members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) at Lenkurt Electric in Burnaby, BC was a turning point for the province's labour movement. This was a time when courts and police r...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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30:05
Ep. 25: A Struggle Too Long: Paul Robeson Sings at Peace Arch Park
This episode features two larger than life historical figures: Harvey Murphy, regional director of the International Union of Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union and Paul Robeson, Black American superstar known around the world for his powerful...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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23:57
Ep. 24: Tatsuro Buck Suzuki: Community advocate, union activist, environmentalist
We celebrate the life of Tatsuro 'Buck' Suzuki, who spent his life advocating for the West Coast fishing community, first as a young liaison between Japanese Canadians and an industry dominated by Whites, then as a strong trade unionist, and fi...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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34:26
Ep 23: Teamster Diana Kilmury: B.C.’s Tough and Fearless Truck-Driving Woman
In this episode of On the Line, we present a compelling tale of British Columbia's Diana Kilmury, a bold and fearless truck driver who became immersed in the murky male dominated world of the Teamsters Union back in the days when women behind t...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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39:38
Episode 22: Darshan Singh Sangha: A Human Spirit that Transcended Boundaries
This episode chronicles the exploits of someone who made a huge contribution to the early organizing efforts of the International Woodworkers of America and campaigned relentlessly for justice for South Asians like himself during the 1940s. Tha...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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25:53
Episode 21: Construction Unions, the False Creek Rumble and Expo 86
We look at the valiant efforts during the 1980s by B.C.'s unionized building trades to fight off the anti-union Social Credit government determined to break their hold on major construction projects in the province. It all came to a head ...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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26:45
Episode 20: Grit and Working-Class Solidarity: B.C. Workers Respond to the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike
This episode highlights a remarkable but relatively unknown chapter of working-class solidarity. While waves of sympathy strikes to support the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike took place across Canada, the most pronounced of these was in Vancouver...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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19:26
Episode 19: Union Maids in Action - The 1918 Steam Laundry Strike
A five-month long strike in 1918-1919 by Vancouver laundry workers, most of whom were women, is told through the words of one of its leaders. Ellen Goode began working in a steam laundry at 15, toiling over 10 hours a day, sometimes 60 ho...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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22:06
Episode 18: How Many Deaths Will It Take? Remembering the Canadian Farmworkers Union
This is the inspiring tale of a group of dedicated individuals who took up the cause of BC’s Fraser Valley Farmworkers who toiled in dreadful, unregulated conditions in the 1970s and ‘80s. It is a saga with death and violence and courageous uni...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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33:38
Episode 17: Asbestos - A Lethal Legacy
This episode looks at the grim toll taken by exposure to carcinogenic fibres of asbestos. Because it often takes decades for diseases such as mesothelioma - a cancer caused by asbestos exposure - to develop, its legacy is ongoing.&n...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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23:21
Episode 16: The Union Archive That Almost Didn't Make It
In 2019, former members of the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) along with community historians opened the IWA Archive in Lake Cowichan BC. Located at the K...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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27:27
Episode 15: Smelter Wars
The workers at the lead-zinc smelter in Trail, British Columbia have a long history of overcoming formidable obstacles to unionization. Contentious politics, a company union and two World Wars are some of the issues discussed in this epi...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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40:35
Episode 14: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
As Black History Month comes to a close, On the Line marks the occasion with a fascinating look back at the history of train sleeping car porters, almost all of whom were Black. It's a story that has only recently started to be told, and combin...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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26:29
Episode 13: Relief Camps of the Great Depression
Featuring archival audio interviews and labour songs of the time, this episode examines the so-called "Dirty Thirties" or "The Great Depression" and the forced labour relief camps the Federal Government of Canada set up in response. We include ...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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25:31
Episode 12: The Battle of Blubber Bay, BC, 1938
An epic confrontation just before WWII between mine workers fighting for justice and an arrogant company with authorities in their hip pocket. This is the story that has come to be known as The Battle of Blubber Bay.Once a whaling station o...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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19:06
Episode 11: Chinese Farmers of "Celery City", Armstrong BC
The small community of Armstrong, BC, just north of Vernon in the province's Interior, was once "the Celery Capital of Canada". Armstrong's early agricultural success owes much to the hard working Chinese immigrants who cultivated the city's fe...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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18:34
Episode 10: 'Pins & Needles' - A 1930's Garment Workers' Musical
After a brief summer break, On the Line is back with more BC labour history! In September 1938, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) brought their theatrical musical hit “Pins and Needles” to Vancouver, BC, whe...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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17:05
Episode 9: Indigenous Longshoremen & the I.W.W.
This edition of On the Line takes note of Indigenous History Month in June with a different aspect of BC's Indigenous history: one that is not very well known. We examine the contribution of Indigenous workers to the port of Vancouver, pa...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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22:06
Episode 8: Uniting Woodworkers Across Ethnic Divides
May is Asian Heritage Month; last month was Sikh Heritage Month. Both groups are justly celebrated for their contributions to the fabric of BC. At the same time, they also suffered many years of exploitation and discrimination, much of it in th...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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29:07
Episode 7: Bea Zucco's Fight for Silicosis Compensation
April 28th marks Canada's annual Day of Mourning. Of course, industrial accidents are not the only risk workers face; occupational diseases, brought on by hazardous workplace conditions, have also claimed a terrible toll. One of the worst has b...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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21:53
Episode 6: AUCE Achieves Full Maternity Benefits, 1974
In 1974, years before other Canadian unions won maternity leave benefits in collective agreements, the Association of University & College Employees (AUCE) Local 1 at the University of BC (UBC) made history. In its first collective agreemen...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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29:42
Episode 5: The 1921 New Westminster Teachers' Strike
In this episode, we look back one hundred years to Valentine's Day, 1921. On that traditional day of romance, a group of courageous public school teachers in New Westminster, BC did the unthinkable: they went on strike. Their walkout had a last...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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27:10
Episode. 4: The Vancouver Island Coal Strike
From the 1870's on, the coal miners of Vancouver Island had fought strike after strike to force the hardnosed coal barons to recognize a union. Thanks to strikebreakers, blacklists, anti-union courts and the forces of so-called law and order, t...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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23:56
