Study of the strike at Canada Safeway by Local 175 of the United Food and Commercial Workers / by William P. Vinh-Doyle.

Abstract

"This study began in 2004, two years after the Canada Safeway Strike had concluded. At the time of the strike, I was completing my undergraduate degree in Education at Lakehead University. ... Two local newspapers. The Chronicle Journal and the Thunder Bay Post provided substantial coverage of the strike. Besides clarifying some basic facts, the editorials and letters to the editor provided feedback from the community and members of Local 175 of the UFCW. Efforts to enlist the help of the UFCW and Canada Safeway proved disappointing, as each side contended that it was looking to move on since the strike ended. Both refused to participate in the study.The UFCW history of the Canada Safeway Strike in Thunder Bay, newspaper articles, and interviews with UFCW members provided plenty of evidence on the Canada Safeway strike. For many of the employees included the feelings of bitterness, shame, anger, disappointment, and joy they all felt towards each other while on the picket line. Those people I contacted nevertheless remained fearful the company and union would find out about their participation and would retaliate against them. The subjects whom I interviewed thus remain confidential, unless they gave me explicit permission to use their name. While the interviews followed specific questions, neither the interviewees nor I were tied to them, as I allowed each interview to follow its own path. Some interviews lasted only forty-five minutes, but on the whole those I interviewed spent hours discussing the strike. The interviews conducted during this thesis provided information that could never be found in a newspaper, book or other written record." -- Preface