The union representing LCBO workers says it plans to strike beginning Friday morning, claiming the Crown corporation responsible for selling alcohol has failed to meet its demands.
Although members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the LCBO will remain at the bargaining table until a midnight deadline, union leaders said they expect to strike.
Bargaining chair Colleen MacLeod said at a press conference on Tuesday evening that the Ford government had rejected requests to modify its plan to liberalize the sale of alcohol, by expanding beer, wine and pre-mixed drinks to corner stores, and an agreement looked like it couldn’t be reached.
“Tonight, Ford’s dry summer begins,” MacLeod said, arguing that allowing wider alcohol sales will reduce the money spent at the LCBO and cut the money it makes for the government.
“Front-line LCBO workers are proud that the revenues we help to generate give back to communities across Ontario. We know that the LCBO is Ontario’s best-kept secret and we’re fighting to protect it.”
MacLeod said after 6 p.m. on Thursday that talks “haven’t even got to” the discussion of wages yet.
A source with knowledge of the discussions told Global News the sale of pre-mixed drinks at corner stores was a key sticking point.
Ontario Public Service Employees Union president JP Hornick said the union wasn’t telling the government not to sell alcohol in convenience stores but suggested the sale of pre-mixed drinks away from the LCBO could cost “thousands of jobs.”
A spokesperson for the Ford government said they were “disappointed” the union had indicated it planned to strike.
“We urge OPSEU to return to the negotiating table and work towards a deal that prioritizes Ontario consumers and producers,” they said in a statement.
“In the meantime, we encourage people across Ontario to take advantage of the thousands of available options, including local breweries, wineries, cideries, distilleries, restaurants, bars, LCBO convenience outlets, grocery stores, and The Beer Store.”
Throughout the week — with the strike deadline at 12:01 a.m. on Friday — both the union and the LCBO have stayed tight-lipped. The two sides have been locked in fruitless talks for weeks, with little progress to show.
The industrial action will be the first LCBO strike in provincial history.
What happens during the strike?
The LCBO has said a strike will force it to close all of its stores for two weeks before it begins to run weekend-only hours at a select number of locations.
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That plan, the union said, is not how the LCBO had prepared for the prospect of strikes in the past when it had apparently planned to run stores using non-unionized managers throughout a strike.
This time, the LCBO will have all its stores closed beginning Friday, July 5, if no deal is reached in the final hours.
From July 19, if the strike is still ongoing, 32 stores will open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a limited number of hours.
The Crown corporation said it will still be selling alcohol by other means, including directly from its website and its app for free home delivery.
The LCBO will also continue to deliver as a wholesaler to other locations. Those places, which will remain open, include LCBO Convenience Outlets, some grocery stores, The Beer Store and both bars and restaurants.
Hours were extended in the run-up to the strike, with 10 p.m. the closing time set on Thursday for all stores ahead of the strike.
The Beer Store as well as local craft brewery bottle shops and wineries will remain open even if the LCBO strike goes ahead.
What are the issues on the table?
The union representing LCBO workers has put the Ford government’s plan to allow convenience and grocery stores to sell some alcohol at the heart of negotiations.
MacLeod said it was “clear” that expanding alcohol sales to thousands of new, non-government stores would lead to LCBO cuts.
“You can’t add 8,500 more locations to sell alcohol in this province and expect that the LCBO will still be around,” she previously told Global News. “There will be store closures, that’s clear.”
The idea of a separate, LCBO-centred plan to expand alcohol sales was first raised at a union press conference in mid-June. It is a plan the LCBO said had been pitched to it less than 24 hours earlier, without written details at the time.
“OPSEU did not provide written proposals on these priorities, nor did it provide details of an ‘alternative model’ for beverage alcohol sales,” the LCBO said on June 18.
“OPSEU has been aware of the Ontario Government’s plan to expand beverage alcohol sales, including ready-to-drink beverages, to convenience, grocery, and big box stores since December 2023.”
The union — which has also mentioned terms for casual employees and job security as other issues — has tried to lay the issue of a potential strike at the feet of Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“It’s on Premier Ford and the LCBO to bargain in good faith and make sure that public services and good jobs don’t get left behind,” the union said. “It is on Premier Ford to avert a strike.”
That position was repeated on Thursday evening, with union leaders saying it was on Ford to walk away from parts of the alcohol expansion policy and avert a strike.
“We’re not bargaining with the employer at this table — we have a ghost at the table in the form of the premier,” president Hornick said.
“He has a particular agenda that he’s trying to force upon us. We see this as an existential crisis for the LCBO.”
MacLeod and Hornick argued that the Progressive Conservative promise to liberalize alcohol sales had revolved around beer and wine, not pre-mixed drinks. They said they would support that expansion but did not want to see the latter category included.
In its statement on Thursday evening, the Ford government showed no signs of backing away from the policy.
“We are particularly disappointed that OPSEU is opposed to giving people in Ontario the choice and convenience of buying readymade drinks, like coolers and seltzers, in grocery and convenience stores,” the statement read.
“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 said other issues, including wages, were secondary to their concerns about how pre-mixed drink and spirits sales could impact the future of LCBO stores.
“We haven’t even got to the wages and benefits portion of it — and let’s be clear, it’s not about wages, this is not what it’s about,” MacLeod said.
“You can raise our wages but if you don’t have a job to go forward a wage increase really doesn’t make much of a difference.”
She said thousands of LCBO jobs are “on the line” in the negotiations.
How did we get here?
For months, talks between OPSEU and the LCBO have dragged on with little progress to show on either side.
On June 16, the union received an overwhelming strike mandate from its members, with 97 per cent of those who voted opting to move closer to a legal strike.
That strike vote followed an announcement at the end of May by the Ford government promising to speed up the liberalization of alcohol sales in Ontario by moving beer, wine and mixed drinks into corner stores in 2024.
Two days after receiving a strike mandate from its members, the union announced it had taken the next step toward walking off the job: getting a no board report, which triggers a countdown for it to be in a legal strike position.
The 17-day countdown after a no board report put the union in a legal strike position for Friday, July 5, at which point its leaders said workers would walk off the job if they did not have a deal.
In mid-June, the union also accepted an LCBO request to appoint a third-party mediator to lead talks between the two sides.
Since that appointment, neither side has offered meaningful insight into how talks are progressing or if they are hopeful a deal can be reached.