Skip to content

Provincewide LCBO strike affects 130 workers locally

The province-wide strike affects approximately 130 employees in Greater Sudbury, with workers hitting the picket line at The Kingsway and Barrydowne Road on Friday morning
050724_tc_brief_lcbo_strike-1
Striking LCBO workers are pictured at the picket line at The Kingsway and Barrydowne Road in Sudbury on Friday morning.

Striking LCBO workers hit the picket line this morning provincewide in a strike action affecting more than 9,000 employees, including approximately 130 in Greater Sudbury.

Employees from Sudbury’s three major LCBO outlets gathered at the intersection of The Kingsway and Barrydowne Road this morning to help make their message known.

Central to stalled contract negotiations is the government’s plan to allow beer, wine and ready-made cocktail sales at grocery and corner stores, which they’ve refused to veer from.

“The liquor control board of Ontario returns $2.5 billion to the taxpayer, and we’re against those monies being privatized,” strike captain Doug Giblin said. “We’re fighting, in the end, for our jobs here, whether it’s gradual or sudden we’re against privatization.”

Giblin is a customer service representative at the LCBO on Lasalle Boulevard, where he said approximately 70 per cent of employees are casual, without guaranteed hours.

050724_tc_brief_lcbo_strike-2
Striking LCBO workers are pictured at the picket line at The Kingsway and Barrydowne Road in Sudbury on Friday morning. Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com

Job stability is another key component of strike action.

“This has been a longstanding issue, there have been a number of contracts where that hasn’t budged, and we want that changed,” he said of job security.

Similar picket lines are forming in outlying communities, he said as part of a broader strike action reaching across the province.

Picket signs included such messages as “Dear Doug Ford, Hands off the LCBO,” “Keep it Public,” and signs noting it’s going to be a “dry” Ontario until liquor stores reopen.

In a media release issued on Thursday, OPSEU, the union representing striking workers, noted that strike action would commence at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, after talks broke down at the bargaining table.

A key sticking point is Premier Doug Ford’s push to add beer and wine into convenience stores.

“Doug Ford wants to make life better for his wealthy friends,” OPSEU president JP Hornick said in the media release. “It’s why he’s wasting upwards of a billion dollars of our money to fast-track privatized alcohol sales and hand more of the public revenues generated by the LCBO over to the CEOs and big box grocery and convenience chains like Loblaws and Circle K.” 

Throughout negotiations, OPSEU proposed alternative plans to Ford’s alcohol everywhere plan, and made it clear they were willing to strike over it, the media release noted.

050724_tc_brief_lcbo_strike-3
Striking LCBO workers are pictured at the picket line at The Kingsway and Barrydowne Road in Sudbury on Friday morning. . Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com

LCBO issued their own media release, in which they affirm that OPSEU made it clear “numerous times” that they’d take their members on strike “solely” over Ford’s alcohol everywhere plan.

Their latest offer, issued at 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, included wage increases of 2.5 per cent in year one, followed by 2.5 per cent and two per cent.

They also proposed converting approximately 400 casual employees to permanent full-time, improving access to benefits for casual part-time employees, and letters of agreement to limit LCBO convenience outlets, limit contracting out and increase the volume of product at warehouses serving retail outlets.

The alcohol everywhere plan — OPSEU’s chief point of concern — was not addressed.

Ford’s alcohol everywhere plan includes a one-time payout to The Beer Store of $225 million, though the Ontario Liberal Party estimated the total cost will be just greater than $1 billion, dubbing it the “billion-dollar booze boondoggle.”

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.



Comments

If you would like to apply to become a Verified Commenter, please fill out this form.