Liquor and Lotteries pulls in record $741 million profit By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 6:44 PM CDT Friday, Aug. 25, 2023

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This article was published 25/08/2023 (1122 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fourteen-hundred workers at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries staged job action, including a full-scale strike for more than two weeks, to back their demand for higher wages, as their union argued the Crown corporation was raking in record profits.

Turns out, the union was right.

The Crown corporation had a record profit of $741 million in 2022-23 — up dramatically from $598 million one year earlier, figures from its annual report show. The information was obtained by the Free Press even though the report hasn’t been released to the public.

Members of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union continue to vote on a tentative deal that was reached this week. The union will release the vote results on Sunday.

The tentative contract includes a wage increase of about 12 per cent over four years instead of the two per cent per year over four years offered by the Crown corporation.

It’s not known how much of the profit is due to liquor sales, but in general, the alcohol side of MLL’s ledger accounts for more than half of its profits annually.

It’s a far cry from the height of the pandemic when, because at times bars and casinos were closed, profits fizzled to $425 million in 2020-21 from $606 million one year earlier. It’s also higher than the $616-million profit in 2019 and $610 million in 2018.

MGEU president Kyle Ross was blunt about the record profit last 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.

“It is unfortunate that the premier forced a five-week strike before allowing MLL to offer fair wage increases. Like MLL, (Manitoba Public Insurance) is also a very profitable enterprise that can afford fair wage increases for its employees.”

MPI, which is also a Crown corporation, will be hit by a strike on Monday. Its 1,700 workers facilitate vehicle insurance claims and issue driver’s licences to Manitobans.

Adam King, an associate professor in labour studies at the University of Manitoba, said it’s not surprising that employers, even government-run corporations, don’t want to divulge financial figures to unions at the bargaining table.

“It would have changed the union’s calculus if they had known it. Hopefully, (the union) got enough because this is a Crown corporation which we see can afford it.”–Adam King

“It is customary with the employer to keep this (profit figures) under wraps during negotiations,” King said.

“But it would have changed the union’s calculus if they had known it. Hopefully, (the union) got enough because this is a Crown corporation which we see can afford it.”

Lisa Naylor, the NDP’s liquor and lotteries critic, said “Heather Stefanson could have ended the strike before it began, but she chose mismanagement and disrespect over bargaining in good faith.”

No one from the government would comment Friday, including Stefanson’s office or that of Andrew Smith, the minister responsible for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries.

On Aug. 7, when the union decided to move to a full strike, Ross noted the Crown corporation’s record profits when he asked Stefanson to lift the government’s unfair wage mandate to allow MLL to negotiate fair wages.

At the time, Ross referenced the 2021-22 profit. It showed the liquor side of MLL’s balance sheet had generated record profits of more than $300 million. The total profit of $597 million includes liquor and cannabis sales, and revenue generated at its casinos and from online lottery tickets.

“MLL is a very profitable corporation,” Ross said in a statement at the time. “It can afford fair and reasonable wage increases for its workers. After working through the pandemic, and the violent thefts epidemic, liquor workers have earned fair wage increases.”

On Thursday, the union recommended its members accept the tentative deal which 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.

The union had sought increases of 3.3 per cent in 2023 and 3.6 per cent in both 2024 and 2025.

“I think we were hoping for a fair deal all along really,” Ross said after the agreement was reached. “This offer is a fair deal. It helps all our members. It doesn’t help a certain portion and that’s really what we were looking for.”

Union members began voting on the deal Thursday.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason was a general assignment reporter at the Free Press.