Interviewee: Clarence Lacombe
Year: 2003
Location: Calgary
Profile: Clarence Lacombe joined the labour movement in 1961 as a shop steward with the Civic Employees Federal Labour Union in Calgary, a precursor to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). He worked for the City of Calgary from 1953 to 1971, first in the surveying department, then as a traffic department statistician. He eventually became Local 37’s Secretary while serving concurrently on the Calgary Labour Council. In this capacity, Lacombe was instrumental in organizing Calgary’s solidarity campaign with Cesar Chavez’s grape boycott.
As a CUPE national representative in the British Columbia division during the 1970s, Lacombe experienced the union’s political factionalism firsthand. A two-time New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate, Lacombe was pressured to disassociate from fellow left-wing CUPE representatives such as Dave Werlin, an avowed Communist.
Lacombe returned to Alberta in 1979 and settled in Red Deer. His wealth of experience negotiating with and leading strikes against BC’s schoolboards prepared him to aid striking municipal workers in Drumheller and Wetaskiwin. Lacombe retired from the labour movement in 1993.
Keywords: Cesar Chavez; Civic Employees; CUPE Locals 37 and 38: Federal Labour Union; Grape boycott; Municipal workers; New Democratic Party; School boards; Survey work; Traffic Department, City of Calgary.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Calgary and District Labour Council; Canadian Union of Public Employees