Drink up - LCBO workers set to strike

Today might be a good day to hit the liquor store.

Unionized LCBO staff say they are poised to walk out at midnight tonight if negotiations for a new collective agreement fail.

A trend toward more part-time and casual jobs, and management's desire to issue 90-day layoff notices in slow periods are the main issues, union leaders said yesterday.

"Twenty years ago all the jobs were full-time," Patty Rout of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents LCBO workers, told reporters. "Now 60 per cent are part-time or casual, people making $10 to $17 an hour, making less than $20,000 a year."

But the LCBO says a mix of full- and par-time jobs is necessary. Liquor sales peak in November and December and drop off substantially in the first three months of the year, said LCBO spokesperson Chris Layton.

Many LCBO casual workers make up to $18.70 an hour, Layton said, higher rates than those paid by most other retailers.

A news blackout on the talks prevented the LCBO and union representatives from saying how close they are to an agreement.

Last month, union membership voted 93 per cent in favour of giving their leadership a strike mandate. The collective agreement with the LCBO expired on March 31.

The timing of the strike deadline for provincial liquor store workers and the strike by Toronto city workers is coincidental, union representatives said.

At the LCBO store on Queens Quay last night, tipplers were stocking up.

Lawyer Chris Wirth, 46, said he was "absolutely" buying more than usual.

Wirth, "woefully short on Belgian beer," said: "If it is two or three weeks with the LCBO closed I'll live but if it's two or three weeks without garbage pickup, that could be a real problem."

Aaron Crasto, 30, a Revenue Canada worker, bought 1.4 litres of vodka, a large bottle of rum and a bottle of red and white wine.

Comments

[L]

Wow, that was a useless article. Way to go, spec.