Aug 20, 2021 | Oral History Project, Video
This interview follows Phyllis Benedict’s (Lennox) career as a teachers’ union leader. As a classroom teacher, she was a member of the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario (FWTAO). She became a voluntary member of the Ontario Public School...
Aug 16, 2021 | Oral History Project
Dave Lennox was President of the Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation (OPSTF), the men elementary teachers’ union, in the early 1980s. He became the union’s secretary-treasurer in 1987, a position he held during the 1997 two-week strike against...
Jul 22, 2021 | Oral History Project, Video
If there was one teachers’ union president who created controversy during the 1997 two- week strike against the Mike Harris government, it was Earl Manners, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF). Manners’ career path began as an early...
Jul 8, 2021 | Oral History Project, Video
British-born John Humphrey was an activist in the United Steelworkers, and was president of the large local at Ontario Store Fixtures, which grew to 1,500 members before the company shut down with two hours’ notice in 2003. In this interview, he focuses on his work in...
Jun 30, 2021 | Oral History Project, Video
Eileen Lennon was the president of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) during the controversial 1997 two-week strike against the Conservative government of Mike Harris. She was the spokesperson for all five of the teachers’ unions. Her position as the president of...
Dec 2, 2018 | Oral History Project
Norman Appleton, born in Trinidad in 1927, describes the various jobs he held before coming to Canada in 1957, where he eventually became a welder and union steward at Canada Packers in the Toronto stockyards area. He later worked at DeHavilland (now Bombardier) in...
