Nicholas Fast

PhD Program

Campus

Fields of Study

Areas of Interest

Unionism in the Canadian meatpacking industry; labour and economic history; social movements

Biography

After spending four years in a grocery store meat department, two of which were spent meat cutting, Nick realized that he was not cut out for the retail industry and instead set his eyes on graduate education. His MA thesis explored the tensions between the Canadian Farmworkers Union (CFU) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) during the early 1980s as a result of the CLC's decision to adopt a community union model for organizing. His PhD research returns to his roots at the cutting block to explore unionism in the meat packing industry after World War II in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Publications

"Farm Workers in Western Canada: Injustices and Activism" book review for BC Studies no. 202 Summer 2019, 187-188.

Education

MA History - Simon Fraser University
BA History (Hons.) - Simon Fraser University