Marian Jago, Live at the Cellar: Vancouver’s Iconic Jazz Club and the Canadian Co-operative Jazz Scene in the 1950s and ‘60s

摘要

porters as historical agents, who engaged in persistent political activism. He details how Black porters established their own unions, the first in 1917 when the Winnipeg-based Order of Sleeping Car Porters was formed. Then in 1939 Black porters sent a letter to Asa Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in the United States and prominent Black civil rights activist, asking for his assistance in mobilizing porters to join the bscp. The union for Black railway employees became certified in Canada on May 18, 1945. The bscp operated six divisions that served its Black members across Canada until 1978. The union negotiated contracts with the railway companies that resulted in some improvements and benefits in the collective agreement for Black porters. Changes included better working conditions, sleep breaks, and fairer and more transparent disciplinary measures. Other gains included pay increases, overtime pay, paid vacation, and the ability to place name plaques in sleeping cars so that passengers would know their names.