Jeanne Ouellette

Jeanne [Jean] Ouellette nee Wilson (01 February 1910 – 20 November 1986) was born in Larkhall, Scotland. The family immigrated to British Columbia shortly after she and her twin sister’s birth. She was raised in a strong trade union family rooted in the coal miners’ struggles of Vancouver Island. The family settled in Ladysmith by 1916. Her father worked in both mining and logging industries during his lifetime. Jean married Walter George Ouellete, a native of Galiano Island, in Vancouver in 1929. They soon returned to Ladysmith where he worked as a boom man in the logging industry and Jean joined the I.W.A. Women’s Auxiliary. Jean raised her two children in Ladysmith. She was widowed in 1984 and passed away in 1986.

Audio Interview [1979]

Description

Ouellette discusses how she actively supported the trade unions in the 1935 Longshore strike; her husband’s work as a longshoreman in Chemainus; their move, with other strikers, to Ladysmith to secure low-cost accommodation; supporting the men on the picket line; whist drives used to raise money for the strikers; police bringing in strikebreakers to break up the picket line; her activities in the I.W.A. Local 1-92 Auxiliary; the Auxiliary’s C.C.F. political leanings and concerns with wages, building a community, support for the 1946 strike and the march to Victoria; the decision in 1948  by the Ladysmith Auxiliary to stay with the I.W.A. despite the split and maintain control of their own finances; the reorganizing by the I.W.A. of the auiliaries following the break, making them more centralized and dismantling the sub-local structure; the negative effect of the reorganization on the Ladysmith Women’s Auxiliary.

Transcription

Full transcription: Ouellete, Jeanne