The Ministry of Labour issued a “no board” report earlier today, and now a strike deadline for workers at the LCBO is set for 12:01 a.m. on June 26.
In case you haven’t been paying attention to the ongoing battle between the province and the workers at the LCBO, represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the 8,000 staff have been without a contract since March 31.
The OPSEU bargaining team chair, Denise Davis, says that what happens next “is up to the employer.”
“There are real problems with the LCBO right now,” said Davis in a release. “But there’s also real potential to make it the global leader it has the potential to be, not just in sales, but in the standard it sets for other employers by how it treats the workers who drive those sales.
We’ve come forward at the bargaining table with a plan for a better LCBO – one that doesn’t leave workers trapped in part-time positions for decades, protects jobs in communities across Ontario, and strengthens this public asset that provides essential revenue for the province. LCBO management knows they can afford to treat their workers better – after all, we’re talking about a company with $2 billion in profits last year.”
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas added,
Talk is cheap. But if Kathleen Wynne wants to take concrete action to match her lofty promises of improved working conditions for vulnerable workers, she has the power to do that – right here, and right now. We all know that if the Premier picked up the phone, called LCBO CEO George Soleas, and told him to stop exploiting workers, and instead provide these folks with the decent working conditions she claims she wants for everyone, there would be a deal that day.
It could be a long (and sober) summer in Ontario.