Liquor Mart, provincial property registry employees vote in favour of strike

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This article was published 29/06/2023 (831 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It could be a “dry” summer, with liquor workers at Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp. voting in favour of a strike.

“We really don’t wanna go down that path,” Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, said Thursday.

Members recently voted “overwhelmingly” to reject the employer’s final offer of annual pay increases over four years of 1.5 per cent, 1.75 per cent, two per cent and two per cent, respectively, the union said.

“Strike is always a last resort, and our goal is to get a deal at the table and we’ll continue to work with the employer and try to get there,” Ross said in an interview. “Our goal is not to starve Manitoba of liquor and impact Manitoba in summer.

“I think everybody deserves a good summer. We had a lot of tough years.”

MLL liquor workers staff provincial Liquor Mart locations and the distribution centre which supplies liquor products to all Manitoba retail stores and restaurants (both public and private).

The employer’s most recent offer doesn’t come close to keeping up with the rising cost of living and far short of increases seen for other workers in the private and public sector, Ross said.

An MLL spokesperson said in an email the Crown corporation was advised of the rejected offer and strike mandate Monday, and is prepared to get back to the bargaining table next week.

However, in case of a strike, it plans to be prepared.

“We look forward to reaching a mutually beneficial agreement,” the spokesperson said. “While negotiations are planned to continue in good faith, contingency plans are in place.”

No further details were provided.

The last time Manitoba experienced a liquor worker strike was 1978.

“It was drawn out, from what I’ve heard from the people I know that are still around that were involved,” Ross said.

Ross said he’s not worried a potential strike could turn the public against the Crown’s unionized liquor stores and toward more privatized retail sales.

“I think $300 million going towards health care and education is a pretty big reason to keep it in the public for the benefit of Manitobans,” Ross said. “And if it’s further privatized, we know those dollars will probably be leaving the province.

“They won’t go to help Manitoba. Those profits are gone — they’ll be lining the pockets of someone who probably doesn’t even need the money.”

The MGEU also announced Thursday its members at Teranet Manitoba, the provincial property registry, had also voted in favour of a strike.

The employees operate Manitoba’s land titles system and personal property registry, providing certification of titles to land, maintaining land and survey records, and administering the registration of financial interests in personal property for the province.

The MLL liquor workers and Teranet employees join MGEU members at Red River College Polytechnic, Assiniboine Community College, University College of the North, and Saint Boniface University who’ve recently voted in support of job action.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca