LCBO workers are now on strike for the first time in the liquor monopoly’s history.
More than 9,000 LCBO workers hit the picket lines at midnight on Friday after talks between the Crown corporation and its employees broke down just hours before the deadline.
As of Friday, LCBO stores will be closed for 14 days, followed by a partial reopening. Online ordering and free home-delivery services are still available.
“Tonight, Ford’s dry summer begins,” OPSEU bargaining committee chair Colleen MacLeod said at a news conference Thursday evening where Ontarians were urged to voice their displeasure to Premier Doug Ford.
The union reiterated that the fundamental issue is job security, expressing concern that thousands of jobs will be lost in the coming years due to the government’s expansion plans for alcohol sales in the province.
“We haven’t even got to the wages and benefits portion of it … that’s not what this is about,” MacLeod said. “If we don’t have a job on the go-forward, a wage increase really doesn’t make much of a difference.”
OPSEU president JP Hornick said the union has a “very healthy strike fund” and that “we can weather a strike as long as necessary.”
Hornick described the LCBO as facing an existential crisis. “Do we want to have a public provider of alcohol as we’ve had for the past hundred years, or are we just moving into a wild west private model?”
The LCBO said in a statement Thursday evening that OPSEU’s leadership made clear “numerous times” at the bargaining table that workers would strike “solely over their demand” that the government reverse its decision to expand the sale of ready-to-drink beverages like coolers and seltzers in grocery and convenience stores.
The Crown corporation said it tabled its latest offer just after 4 p.m. on Thursday, which included wage increases for the next three years (2.5 per cent in years one and two, and two per cent in year three), and converting about 400 casual employees to permanent full-time positions.
Instead of presenting a counterproposal, the union held a news conference, the LCBO said.
“The LCBO is calling on OPSEU’s leadership and bargaining team to counter our latest offer and work with us to achieve a negotiated agreement and avoid a strike.”
The LCBO has said that 32 stores will reopen July 19 for limited shopping every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It also said that the strike does not impact 2,300 private retail points of sale across the province, including LCBO Convenience Outlets, grocery stores, The Beer Store, and bars and restaurants.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s office said Thursday evening it was disappointed in the union’s decision to walk away from the bargaining table.
“We are particularly disappointed that OPSEU is opposed to giving people in Ontario the choice and convenience of buying ready-made drinks, like coolers and seltzers, in grocery and convenience stores,” said a statement from the minister’s office.
“We are more committed than ever to fulfilling our promise of choice and convenience by expanding access to beer, cider, wine and ready-to-drink beverages in convenience, grocery and big-box stores starting later this summer.”
OPSEU has repeatedly criticized the provincial government’s decision to open up Ontario’s alcohol retail market, arguing that it puts LCBO jobs and profits at risk, while helping private retailers, including grocery and big box stores, as well as convenience stores.
The union was proposing to add more LCBO stores and increase operating hours to meet demand and improve convenience.
OPSEU also says that 70 per cent of LCBO workers are “casual,” meaning they have no guaranteed hours, benefits or sick pay. The LCBO, meanwhile, said that casual employees do have access to benefits and at least 50 per cent of them are guaranteed at least 1,000 hours per year.
The union says LCBO wages range from $17.65 an hour to roughly $30. The LCBO says the range for customer service representatives goes from $17.85 to $32.58.
Liberal MPP Stephen Blais, the party’s critic for labour issues, called on the government to make a deal.
“LCBO workers deserve job security, livable wages and fair treatment. Doug Ford needs to do the right thing and come to a fair deal that respects workers, keeps Ontario working and doesn’t disrupt the lives of hardworking Ontarians,” Blais said in a written statement. “We know OPSEU workers are at the table ready to bargain for a fair deal, the government needs to do the same.”
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said in a statement Thursday, “The chaos in the beverage industry is entirely the Ford government’s doing, and now Ontarians are the ones paying for it.
“The premier’s rush to get beer into corner stores without proper planning or consultation has upended the industry and raised workers’ fears about job security in an uncertain future,” said Schreiner, adding “the Ford government needs to step up and ensure that workers get a fair deal that protects jobs and provides stability in a changing industry.”
It’s a more complicated set of negotiations than typical contract talks, where the main bone of contention is strictly money, noted labour relations professor Rafael Gomez.
“Because of all the changes in alcohol retailing, the union knows that there will be fewer workers at the LCBO by 2030. And likely, fewer LCBO stores,” said Gomez, director of U of T’s Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources.
“The government is going to push the union to either have high wages in return for less job security, or low wages and higher job security,” Gomez said. “Either way, through attrition or store closures, the government will have fewer LCBO outlets and fewer LCBO employees by 2030.”
