Edra McLeod

Mrs. Edra McLeod was born about in Rowland, Manitoba about 1916. The family eventually moved to Winnipeg where her mother worked as a substitute teacher for a time and then at the kitchen at Hudson’s Bay department store. Edra graduated high school in 1934. Her father was laid off during the Depression and took a job delivering coal. The family moved to Vancouver in 1938. Her father took a job fumigating and then went to Britannia Mines to work as a miner. Edra took a job at Woodward’s, however, when she married later that year, she was laid off as a result. She and her husband lived in the boarding house her parents ran. Her husband joined the Reserve Army and then enlisted in service for WWII around the time their first child was born. Edra got a job at Boeing as a spray painter, leaving in 1944 to become one of the first conductorettes hired by the B.C. Electric Railway [later B.C. Hydro]. By the 1950’s she was working as a driver and began organizing.

Audio Interview [1979]

Description

McLeod discussed her family’s life and work history during the Depression in Manitoba and British Columbia; difficulties of finding work in Vancouver; her work as a spray painted at Boeing after her husband enlisted; her initial reluctance to join a union at Boeing; a sit-down  and management lockdown during the organizing process at Boeing; joining B.C. Electric Railway (BCER) as a conductorette; the personal requirements BCER placed on female hires; becoming one of the first female drivers at B.C. Hydro in the 1950s; unionization at B.C. Hydro; the fight for better wages and conditions; her activities on the sick committee; the trauma many young women experienced during the war as a result of separation from their newlywed husbands.

Transcription

Full transcription: McLeod, Edra

Title: [Edra McLeod – 1/4]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: McLeod, Edra

Subject: Women–Employment–British Columbia ; Women labor union members–British Columbia ; Women–Employment–British Columbia–History–20th century

Date Created:1979-08-23

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: OBJ_646_sideA_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: Simon Fraser University Archives. Sara Diamond fonds

Rights: Media provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy or otherwise use of this media must be obtained from the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives.

Title: [Edra McLeod – 2/4]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: McLeod, Edra

Subject: Women–Employment–British Columbia ; Women labor union members–British Columbia ; Women–Employment–British Columbia–History–20th century

Date Created:1979-08-23

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: OBJ_646_sideB_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: Simon Fraser University Archives. Sara Diamond fonds

Rights: Media provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy or otherwise use of this media must be obtained from the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives.

Title: [Edra McLeod – 3/4]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: McLeod, Edra

Subject: Women–Employment–British Columbia ; Women labor union members–British Columbia ; Women–Employment–British Columbia–History–20th century

Date Created: 1979-08-23

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: OBJ_647_sideA_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: Simon Fraser University Archives. Sara Diamond fonds

Rights: Media provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy or otherwise use of this media must be obtained from the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives.

Title: [Edra McLeod – 4/4]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: McLeod, Edra

Subject: Women–Employment–British Columbia ; Women labor union members–British Columbia ; Women–Employment–British Columbia–History–20th century

Date Created: 1979-08-23

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: OBJ_647_sideB_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: Simon Fraser University Archives. Sara Diamond fonds

Rights: Media provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy or otherwise use of this media must be obtained from the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives.

Photographs

Courtesy of Edra McLeod. Sara Diamond fond.