Marge Dalskog

Marjorie “Marge” Elizabeth Dalskog nee Stock (1912-1998) was born in Swift Current, Saskatchewan into a farming family. By 1920, they had moved to North Vancouver where her father worked as a cooper. Marge married William D. Croy, a gas shovel operator in 1930. Their first home was a tent in a small Vancouver Island logging camp. The Croys subsequently moved to two acres of farmland on Lulu Island. This is where  Marge first joined the IWA Ladies’ Auxiliary. Following the couple’s separation in the mid-1940’s, Marge returned to North Vancouver, taking menial jobs to support her children and continuing her Auxiliary work. She was elected Secretary by 1947. Marge married her second husband, IWA District boss Karl Einer “Ernie” Dalskog (1904-1982), in 1949 following her divorce and his release from prison. He had been jailed as the result of a dispute with the local IWA. Dalskog had broken away from the local to head a new union – Woodworkers’ Industrial Union of Canada. Ernie was blacklisted and spent some years logging for small outfits, including on Cortes Island, and Marge went back to work to help make ends meet. The couple retired at Fanny Bay, Vancouver Island.

Audio Interview [1979]

Description

Dalskog describes logging camps in the 1930s; raising children in the wilderness; women’s community spirit in camps; work at Boeing during WWII.

Transcription

Edited by Subject: Dalskog, Marge

 

Title: [Marge Dalskog – 1/2]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: Dalskog, Marge

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

Date Created: 1979

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: SD_WLHP_461_01_sideA_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: The VIVO Media Arts Centre. Crista Dahl Media Library & 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.

 

Video Interview [1990]

Title: [Marge Dalskog – 2/2]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: Dalskog, Marge

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

Date Created: 1979

Type: Audio recording

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 audio cassette

Format: audio/mp3

Language: English

Identifier: SD_WLHP_461_01_sideB_01

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: The VIVO Media Arts Centre. Crista Dahl Media Library & 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.

Description: (Part 1) Marge Dalskog talks about her early married life as the only woman in a small logging camp with her first husband, a gas shovel operator; living out of a tent; walking four miles in a dress to have tea with the boss’ wife; her first experience of a logger’s death;  lack of compensation for injury or death in non-unionized camps; daily life of mothers in the camps;  (Part 2) Expectations of women by men; social relationships between the women; early attempts to unionize the camps; stories about her father’s fight for farmer’s rights in Saskatchewan during her childhood; joining the Women’s Auxiliary after moving to Lulu Island; the end of her marriage; (Part 3) How involvement in trade unionism and the Women’s Auxiliary benefitted women and bolstered their sense of self-worth; getting a job and raising her two children on her own in North Vancouver; becoming Secretary of the Council; her work in an umbrella factory and as the boss’ driver;  women not being welcome at regular meetings with the men; impressions of the federal government while serving as a delegate to Ottawa; working at Boeing near the end of the war.

Title: [Marge Dalskog – 1/3]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: Dalskog, Marge

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

Date Created: 1990-03-17

Type: Moving Image

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 Betacam videotape

Format: video/mp4

Language: English

Identifier: SD_WLHP_068

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: The VIVO Media Arts Centre. Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives. Sara Diamond fonds.

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

Description: Marge Dalskog talks about how she met her second husband during the IWA’s fight to leave the International (1946); writing and reporting for the Richmond Times and writing her column  “Hold the Line, Please” for the union paper; life on Lulu Island in the 1940’s; how women reacted to the changes in the workplace post-war; how working women found childcare; disputes with the press during the 1946 International fight; reasons for the local IWA wanting to leave the  US-based International; attacks on union organizers for their political beliefs.

Title: [Marge Dalskog – 2/3]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: Dalskog, Marge

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

Date Created: 1990-03-17

Type: Moving Image

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 Betacam videotape

Format: video/mp4

Language: English

Identifier: SD_WLHP_366

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: The VIVO Media Arts Centre. Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives. Sara Diamond fonds.

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

Description: Marge Dalskog talks about her husband Ernie’s work with the Woodworker’s Union of Canada around 1947 and subsequent blacklisting; her participation in the radio show “Five Minutes with Mona” (Mona Morgan); and why the Auxiliary was important to the union and the women who participated.

Title: [Marge Dalskog – 3/3]

Creator: Diamond, Sara

Contributor: Dalskog, Marge

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

Date Created: 1990-03-17

Type: Moving Image

Genre: Interviews

Extent: 1 Betacam videotapef

Format: video/mp4

Language: English

Identifier: SD_WLHP_367

Is Part Of: Sara Diamond fonds

Series: Women’s Labour History Project

Source: Original Format: The VIVO Media Arts Centre. Crista Dahl Media Library & Archives. Sara Diamond fonds.

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