The Wilmer Gold Photo Collection: Diversity, Labour Activism, and Community in the Cowichan Valley

The finding aid for the Wilmer Gold Photo Collection is now available online through our website. Although the photos themselves are not yet available online, an inventory of what is available at the museum can be viewed here, and inquiries sent to kaatzaarchives@shaw.ca. This blog post contains just a small sample of the 1,500-photo collection.

“Part 2: Union Certification Challenged from Within” by John Mountain, Digging into History 2.12 (December 2020)

Union Certification Challenged From Within Revisited – For this month’s deep dig, I’m again delving into that situation that happened sixty years ago when some IWA members – powerhouse workers – thought they would explore a relationship with another union – the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) In my November 2020 deep dig, I

“Digging into History: Suicide by Incentive” by John Mountain, Vol. 1 No 6 (June, 2019)

Suicide by Incentive Program – Incentive programs have been around for a while and can be found in the forest industry as safety incentive programs and production incentive programs. The biggest problem with incentive programs is that they do not work the way people expect them to. Programs that reward employees with monetary or tangible

“Digging into History: The IWA Employee Assistance Program”, by John Mountain, Vol. 1 No. 5 (May 2019)

Our EFAP Started as the EAP  – The year was 1990 and one of the very few areas where union and management were seeing eye to eye on was to the ongoing development of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Back then, the commitment by both sides to an EAP continued despite labour disputes during that

“Digging into History: Tony Poje and Duncan’s IWA Local Union 1-80” by John Mountain, Vol. 1 No. 4 (April, 2019)

These first few blog posts are backdated issues of John Mountain’s historical newsletter “Digging into History”. As of March 2020, John had been working on sorting the collection for over a year and a half, publishing a newsletter every month detailing his findings. Tony Poje IWA Local 1-80 President 1953–1956 – Another box, another surprise.

Introducing the IWA Collection

This blog is a collaborative effort, produced by Henry John and John Mountain as together they arrange the massive collection of International Woodworkers of America collection housed at the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives. Using this blog we will publicize updates on our progress, and will also write historical posts on important topics referenced in