Year: 2023
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Alex Grimaldi spent decades as an Alberta union activist who stressed cross-union solidarity during strikes and political campaigns. Born in southern Italy, Grimaldi came to Edmonton in 1959 at age 5 with his parents and siblings. Five siblings had died in Italy as stillbirths or from double pneumonia. Illiterate and without English, his dad worked first as a hotel dishwasher, and then in construction. Grimaldi studied social services at Grant MacEwan Community College and then worked at the Maple Ridge Residential Treatment Centre for Wayward Girls. Finding that work stressful, he worked as a cement finisher. When he became a City of Edmonton outside worker, shop stewards invited him to CUPE Local 30 meetings. Viewing the Gainers strike police violence caused Grimaldi to become involved. He became president of Local 30, and later began a long period as EDLC president. Because of his focus on solidarity, he urged the United Nurses of Alberta to join EDLC and fought the CLC when it disallowed Edmonton firefighters from remaining in EDLC. In his interview, Grimaldi elaborates on the Calgary laundry strike, the Calgary Herald strike, the Shaw strike, and the struggle against Ralph Klein’s Bill 11with its two-tier healthcare plans for Alberta.
Keywords: Bill 11; Calgary Herald strike; Cement finisher; Doug O’Halloran; Firefighters; Maple Ridge Residential Treatment Centre for Wayward Girls; NAFTA; Shaw Conference Centre strike; Social services; Strike solidarity.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Alberta Federation of Labour; Calgary Laundry Workers Strike; Canadian Labour Congress; Canadian Union of Public Employees; Edmonton and District Labour Council; Summer of ’86 in Alberta