Community Life
Community member Janice Melnychuk describes what it was like as a child in Northeast Edmonton in the 1960s – feeling protected, having a sense of community, a sense of place and a sense of belonging.
Sisters Doris Wigemyr and Shirley Mozak describe the fresh food and company offered in a café that their parents owned, and their mother operated with her sisters, in the former North Edmonton Post Office on Fort Road in the mid-1950s.
Former plant worker Vicky Beauchamp describes how families thrived and the community grew through the labour of neighbours working at Burns or Canada Packers in the post-war period.
Sisters Doris Wigemyr and Shirley Mozak describe skating as teenagers with hockey star Johnny Bucyk on an outdoor rink, and using frozen horse manure for a puck, in the 1950s.
Meatpacking Industry
Former Swift’s worker John Ventura describes how the plants bought cattle and hogs and held them before butchering.
Joe Holoiday describes boning hams at Swift’s from 1942, how difficult and dangerous it was, and demonstrates how to use a steel to sharpen the knives.
Mary Ewasiw describes the monotony of working at Burns in the late 1950s where she cut and packaged wieners on the wiener line.
Gerry Beauchamp talks about moving to Edmonton in 1952 and being advised to look for a job in a packing plant – and that if one plant wasn’t hiring another would.
As a meat inspector Jerome Bidulka worked in all the plants and heard the workers talk about their companies with pride.
Workers in the Plants
John Ewasiw started working at Swift’s in 1957 and describes the hard physical work and different environments in various departments but said that it was good pay.
Ellen Bullock describes some of the male chauvinism she experienced at Burns in the mid-1960s, when working in pork cutting, a predominantly male task.
Sheryl Ackerman, who worked at Canada Packers as a summer student in the early 1970s, talks about the dignity of the people with whom she worked.
Gainer's Strike, 1986
Renette Peevey started working at Gainer’s just months before the strike but took a very active role and talks about how the strike impacted her life.
Community member Janice Melnychuk describes what it was like as a child in Northeast Edmonton in the 1960s – feeling protected, having a sense of community, a sense of place and a sense of belonging.
Sisters Doris Wigemyr and Shirley Mozak describe the fresh food and company offered in a café that their parents owned, and their mother operated with her sisters, in the former North Edmonton Post Office on Fort Road in the mid-1950s.
Former plant worker Vicky Beauchamp describes how families thrived and the community grew through the labour of neighbours working at Burns or Canada Packers in the post-war period.
Sisters Doris Wigemyr and Shirley Mozak describe skating as teenagers with hockey star Johnny Bucyk on an outdoor rink, and using frozen horse manure for a puck, in the 1950s.
Meatpacking Industry
Former Swift’s worker John Ventura describes how the plants bought cattle and hogs and held them before butchering.
Joe Holoiday describes boning hams at Swift’s from 1942, how difficult and dangerous it was, and demonstrates how to use a steel to sharpen the knives.
Mary Ewasiw describes the monotony of working at Burns in the late 1950s where she cut and packaged wieners on the wiener line.
Gerry Beauchamp talks about moving to Edmonton in 1952 and being advised to look for a job in a packing plant – and that if one plant wasn’t hiring another would.
As a meat inspector Jerome Bidulka worked in all the plants and heard the workers talk about their companies with pride.
Workers in the Plants
John Ewasiw started working at Swift’s in 1957 and describes the hard physical work and different environments in various departments but said that it was good pay.
Ellen Bullock describes some of the male chauvinism she experienced at Burns in the mid-1960s, when working in pork cutting, a predominantly male task.
Sheryl Ackerman, who worked at Canada Packers as a summer student in the early 1970s, talks about the dignity of the people with whom she worked.
Gainer's Strike, 1986
Renette Peevey started working at Gainer’s just months before the strike but took a very active role and talks about how the strike impacted her life.
