The head of the union representing striking Manitoba Liquor & Lottery employees says members will continue to picket provincewide until the Crown corporation presents them with what they feel is a fair deal.
After the MBLL announced that 10 more Liquor Mart stores would be shuttered beginning Tuesday morning, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union declared its members on full strike.
“This is not where we wanted to be today,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
All Liquor Marts in Winnipeg will remain closed indefinitely save for five locations – the Crestview, Garden City Square, Grant Park, Hargrave & Ellice and St. Vital Square locations – according to the Liquor Mart website. The stores will be manned by non-union management staff.
The provincewide strike includes the distribution centre and head office.
Strike action began July 19 when negotiations between the union and the Crown corporation began. Since then, multiple stores have been locked and MBLL has hired replacement workers to work the distribution centre.
Union members are demanding the same wage increase Premier Heather Stefanson and her cabinet are due to receive – 3.3 per cent in 2023 and 3.6 per cent in 2024.
The Crown corporation is offering a two per cent per year raise to workers over four years, which means an employee earning a base wage of $14.91 will earn $18.57 after minimum wage is due to increase to $15.30 on Oct. 1.
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“If it’s good enough for (the province), it should be good enough for us,” Ross said. “Instead they seem focused on trying to intimidate our members with heavy-handed tactics.”
The MGEU president rejected the idea the union used stern tactics of its own before the MBLL locked out employees. Members at retail stores engaged in partial strike action, which saw them refuse overtime and not take inventory or restock store shelves.
MBLL president Gerry Sul called job action by the union “unfortunate.”
“It’s not just the regular consumers that patronize our Liquor Mart stores, but it’s our business partners as well that are impacted by this,” he told 680 CJOB’s The Jim Toth Show.
The strike prompted some venues hosting weddings and other events to stock up as best they could before the lockout or pivot to offering only beer and wine from private sellers.
Sharon McIntyre, executive director of the St. Norbert Arts Centre, said their stock of spirits should last them a few more months after getting ahead of the latest strike action.
“We really have tried to pay attention to what’s going on, to the closures, to where the stock is … to stay ahead of it,” she told Global News.
The venue has between 30 and 35 events planned for the remainder of the summer.
McIntyre said she hopes union members are presented with a fair deal.
Striking members are receiving strike pay, which tops out at $500 per week for 20 hours of picketing.
Ross said conciliation is likely to continue Tuesday afternoon.
— with files from Rosanna Hempel
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