Liquor strike ends

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This article was published 28/08/2023 (1012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wine and spirits are back on the menu for Westman residents now that an ongoing labour dispute between provincial liquor workers and their employer has officially come to a close.

This means that most Liquor Mart locations will reopen to consumers today, although the store at 1015 Victoria Avenue in Brandon will continue to be exclusive to commercial customers until later this week.

Deliveries to commercial partners and private retailers will resume next week.

In a Sunday news release from the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU), president Kyle Ross affirmed that the majority of the union’s 1,400 liquor workers voted in favour of the latest offer that was brought forward by Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MBLL).

The deal provides a wage increase of about 12 per cent over four years instead of the eight per cent per year over four years that was originally offered by the Crown corporation.

On a year-by-year basis, the new collective agreement includes a two per cent retroactive wage increase to March 2022, a two per cent increase retroactive to March 2023, a three per cent increase in October — when the province’s minimum wage goes up — and a two per cent increase in 2024, followed by three per cent in 2025.

“We’d like to thank everyone for their patience, support and solidarity during this extremely difficult round of bargaining,” Ross said in a Sunday afternoon news release.

“It is unfortunate that we were forced to take strike action to get the government to listen to us, but our collective efforts have resulted in an agreement that will help us catch up and keep up.”

MBLL also released a statement Sunday afternoon thanking the public for its patience since July 19, when the MGEU first started engaging in stop-and-start strike action before moving to a full strike on Aug. 8.

This effectively shut down the majority of MBLL Liquor Mart stores to consumers, including the four stores in Brandon.

“MBLL has not had a strike since the 1970s, so we appreciate that the last six weeks may have shaken public confidence in us,” an MBLL spokesperson said.

“Know that we have been planning to begin reintegrating all of our valuable employees immediately, to mobilize full operational activities.”

There has been tension between MBLL and the MGEU since May, when the employer presented the union with a new collective agreement to replace their contract that expired on March 24, 2022.

MGEU members rejected this offer and voted in favour of a strike mandate instead, arguing that a yearly two per cent wage increase between 2022 and 2025 did not keep pace with the rate of inflation and rising cost of goods.

When the strike was finally underway, Ross publicly stated this offer was extra insulting given the major wage increases set for high-ranking government officials (like premier Heather Stefanson) and the significant profitably of MBLL overall.

A recent report from the Winnipeg Free Press revealed that MBLL raked in a record profit of $741 million in 2022-23, which marks a significant spike from their $598 million in profits from the previous year.

“As we have said many times before, MLL is a very profitable corporation that can afford to pay fair wages to its employees,” Ross told the Free Press last week.

“It is unfortunate that the premier forced a five-week strike before allowing MLL to offer fair wage increases.”

On Sunday, MBLL also accused the union of negotiating in bad faith by springing “unreasonable” demands for general wage increases (five per cent, 3.3 per cent, 3.6 per cent and 3.6 per cent) on them the previous weekend.

The union leadership then, according to the Crown corporation, conceded that the original two per cent general wage increases over four years would be acceptable, as long as the special pay scale adjustments driven by the upcoming Oct. 1 provincial minimum wage increase were reallocated.

“This type of resolution could have been pursued before an unnecessary strike occurred,” the MBLL spokesperson said. “Losses, disruption and inconvenience for everyone could have been avoided, had the realistic approach to general wage increases conceded at the end been simply acknowledged from the beginning.”

Talking to the Sun late Sunday afternoon, Ross said MBLL’s characterization of the negotiation is very “disingenuous,” with their original offer having come up “a long way from where they were” originally.

“We know, and our members know, that had they not come up with that extra three per cent and added that one per cent for everyone … half were going to get nine and the other half were getting eight and some at the bottom were getting a little more,” Ross said.

“Their characterization of the deal is really misconstrued and it’s spun to their view of this. But it’s really not based in fact.”

Out of the 1,400 MGEU liquor workers who went on strike over the past six weeks, around 90 of them are in Brandon.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press