Canada: Possible liquor board strike could make Canada Day weekend a dry one

MLive

By Benjamin Raven

June 12, 2017

While talks between the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union carry on, the calendar inches closer to 12:01 a.m. June 26.

That time matters, because it’s legally when 7,500 Crown Corp. employees could go on strike and halt alcohol sales in Ontario. Add in the fact that Canada Day weekend (July 1) is quickly approaching, and the situation becomes much more time sensitive.

“We have workers trapped in so-called casual positions for decades, working seven days a week, and bringing home an average of less than $30,000 a year,” the Union’s bargaining team chair, Denise Davis, said in a news release of the possible strike.

“And we have seasonal workers sitting at home while underpaid temp agency workers do their jobs. The status quo isn’t sustainable – and management’s proposals would make an already difficult situation worse.”

The rate increase won’t stop there, as these jumps will be “followed by annual increases at the rate of inflation.”

Union President Warren Thomas tells CBC that he believes 84 percent of the liquor board’s payroll consists of part-time employees. He adds that 80 percent of those part-time employees are women.

Thomas said to CBC that he understands the public’s fear ahead of the long Canada Day weekend, but that “the public might get a little ornery with us but I would ask them to try to understand and what they would do if they were in that position.”

“I think everyone’s going to be affected by it,” Claudia Pedraza, a customer seen stocking up on alcohol, told CBC. “It’s summer, everyone goes to the LCBO at least once a week, I feel.”