Loblaw grocery workers give union strike mandate

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This article was published 11/09/2023 (759 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thousands of Manitoba grocery store workers could be the latest to join what has been a season of strikes.

On Monday, the union representing Loblaw Companies Ltd. workers at the Superstore, No Frills and Extra Foods chains announced its members have voted in support of a strike mandate.

Ninety-seven per cent of the nearly 4,000 employees at Superstore and No Frills locations province-wide (and the last Extra Foods, in Swan River, currently being converted to a No Frills) represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832 voted in favour of the job action.

The mandate doesn’t guarantee a strike, but it does give the bargaining team the go-ahead to initiate one, if necessary, the union said.

“The people who worked in the grocery stores in 2020 (during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions) were being called heroes, they were given additional pay, they were among the very few people that were being told to leave their home and go to work when everybody else was staying home,” UFCW 832 president Jeff Traeger said Monday.

“It became abundantly clear that the people that provide an opportunity for us to go out and buy our food are critical to the continuation of our communities… So we’ve got issues around making sure that their compensation package reflects the important work that these people do in our community, in our society.”

The mandate vote comes after months of negotiations in anticipation of the Sept. 28 expiration of current contract (signed in 2018).

Despite a consistent back-and-forth, the union has yet to receive an offer from Loblaw that covers all its concerns, Traeger said. Negotiations were scheduled to continue through the week.

While he wouldn’t give specifics, Traeger said the union is seeking an offer that includes improvements on wages, pension, benefits and health and dental plans.

Not all advances being sought are monetary, he added.

“We’ve seen some violence in the workplace, it’s very concerning for us,” the union leader said. “It’s also about making sure that they’re safe when they go to work… and making sure that the employer is responsible for monitoring, managing and dealing with the theft in their stores.”

Loblaw public relations did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Manitoba grocery workers are undoubtedly looking to the recent Metro Inc. strike, which had employees of 27 grocery stores in the Greater Toronto Area walk off the job for about a month.

A collective agreement was ratified at the end of August, which included an immediate raise for all workers and a second pay increase for some staff in January.

Traeger said UFCW had already presented Loblaw with its proposal package prior to the Metro strike, but membership would “absolutely” be interested in a similarly structured deal.

The rising cost of living, talk of grocery chains profiting from inflation, and recent strike action across the province makes the mandate vote not surprising, said Julia Smith, an assistant professor of labour studies at the University of Manitoba.

“All of that coming together, people are feeling really, really frustrated, and they’re seeing other workers going on strike and securing wins and better deals than were being offered before,” she said.

“So it’s not surprising that another group of workers who experienced a lot of hardship in the pandemic is also giving their bargaining team a strong strike mandate.”

Such a strike could temporarily shutter grocery stores or leave locations with a skeleton crew, which could be an inconvenience for shoppers in Winnipeg but more damaging for communities from remote areas or living in so-called “food deserts,” Smith said.

“I think the workers are motivated by the fact that if they can’t afford to buy groceries, and they can’t stay working there, there’s a chance that there might not be a grocery store at all if they can’t keep workers there.”

In 1987, UFCW 832 grocery workers entered a contentious 125-day strike with Westfair Foods Ltd., a division of Loblaw.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca