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Gee, George
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Ian McDonald collection

  • RBSC-ARC-1783
  • Collection
  • [1910?]-[before 2022]

The collection contains materials related to Ian McDonald's Master's thesis research on the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 213 “Class conflict and political factionalism: a history of Local 213 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 1901-1961," and related to the activities of his father, Les McDonald, a trade union activist who belonged to Local 213 but was eventually suspended for leading the Lenkurt strike of 1966. Les McDonald was also a multi-sport athlete, and is credited with introducing the triathlon into the Olympics; some materials in the collection relate to Les McDonald's involvement in various sport and environmental organizations, as well as some of his personal papers. In addition to what he received from his father, Ian McDonald was also given papers by former IBEW Local 213 business manager Art O’Keeffe and Barry Sharbo, a board member of the Canadian Union of Electrical Workers (UE), as well as Alfie Huston, the former President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 213 from 1985-1988, which are included within the collection.

The collection is largely comprised of newspaper and photocopied journal articles, correspondence between members of IBEW Local 213, legal documentation, newsletters and other printed ephemera related to IBEW Local 213.

The collection also contains sound recordings of interviews with numerous figures in IBEW Local 213 created by Ian McDonald during his thesis research. McDonald's thesis, submitted for the completion of a Master of Arts in History at Simon Fraser University, can be found in the Summit database: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/6361.

The collection also contains background materials accumulated by McDonald while writing his book “The Red Baron of IBEW 213,” including digital sound recordings of interviews, research articles, notebooks, consent forms, a draft royalty agreement, a draft chapter and a press marketing questionnaire.

McDonald, Ian

Local 213 - Contemporary Clippings

File contains later newspapers clippings related to IBEW Local 213 collected by Ian McDonald after the submission of his Master's thesis. Also contains George Gee's obituary and memorial service program.

Pacific Tribune, 1957-1958 (strikes) re: 213

File contains photocopies of articles from the Pacific Tribune concerning IBEW Local 213's strike action against B.C. Electric, Hume and Rumble and Peterson Electric in March 1958, as well as the subsequent lockout by the Associated Electrical Contractors of B.C. in May 1958; Art O'Keeffe, John Waplington and George Gee are mentioned.

[Collected IBEW Local 213 materials, 1949-1959]

File contains affidavits, telegrams, letters and other correspondence related to political matters within IBEW Local 213 during the 1950s, including the gathering of testimony against George Gee and Alex Dorland, and IBEW representative Jack Ross reporting back to IBEW International secretary J. Scott Milne about "a good Local going bad."

Oral history and audio history material re: British Columbia Labour History

The file contains audio recordings relevant to British Columbia labour history, including oral narratives and tapings of radio broadcasts. Interviewees include numerous IBEW Local 213 figures, such as Ernie Fulton, Dusty Greenwell, Terry Simpson, George Gee, Jack Ross, Art O'Keeffe and Angus McDonald.

The interviewer on most of the cassettes is Ian McDonald; some interviews were conducted by Simon Fraser University History professor, Allan Seager, who was also McDonald's supervisor for his Master's thesis.

IBEW Local 213 papers

The subseries contains materials related to the activities of IBEW Local 213 between 1949 and 1991, predominantly between1949 and the mid-1970s, including affidavits, reports, correspondence and newspapers. Documented within the subseries is the internal conflict between the IBEW’s American leadership and trade union activists within Local 213, and attempts to unite IBEW Locals in British Columbia through a provincial council. Also contains numerous issues of IBEW Local 213’s newspaper, the 213 Live Wire, between the mid-1950s and mid-1970s, grievance reports and ephemera from the 100th anniversary of the first annual convention of the IBEW of America, celebrated in 1991.

Collected papers

The series contains materials belonging to Ian McDonald’s father, Leslie (Les) McDonald, and other figures involved in IBEW Local 213. Materials relate predominantly to the activities of IBEW Local 213, though some papers also relate to Les McDonald’s involvement in various sports and community organizations, his writings and his personal correspondence.

Materials within the series include notebooks, postcards, letters, newsletters, newspaper articles and issues, legal documents and photographs. Relative to the ‘Thesis Research’ series, many more materials are original or copies made at the time the originals were created.

Thesis research

The series contains materials collected by Ian McDonald for the purposes of writing his Master’s thesis on the history of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 213, from 1901 to 1961. Materials within the series include collective agreements, newspaper and journal articles, court case summaries, interview transcriptions, census tables, meeting minutes, correspondence and dissertations; most materials are photocopies rather than original documents, however.

Also included are materials that pertain to the Lenkurt strike of 1966, which McDonald omitted from his original thesis to limit its scope. He took up the events surrounding the Lenkurt strike in a later essay, “Spontaneity Went Out with Spartacus: IBEW Local 213, Les McDonald, and the Lenkurt Strike of 1966,” which McDonald regards as a continuation of his Master’s research; the essay is also part of the series.