One-day lockout at seven Liquor Marts: MLL

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This article was published 31/07/2023 (802 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Workers at seven Manitoba Liquor Mart stores will be locked out Tuesday — a rarely used tactic that signals an “escalation” in the labour dispute by their employer, one labour expert says.

In a news release Monday, Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp. said it informed the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union six Winnipeg locations and one Brandon store will be closed, effective 7 a.m. Tuesday until 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The temporary closure list includes Brandon South Liquor Mart, and the Crestview, Eastwinds, Garden City, Grant Park, Hargrave & Ellice, and St. Vital Square locations in Winnipeg.

Any MGEU employees with a home base at these stores will be locked out during the 24-hour period, the Crown corporation said.

“This decision was not taken lightly,” the release said. “This allows MLL to better activate contingency plans and preserve some level of retail service to our public and commercial customers as the long weekend approaches.

“With the MGEU refusing to allow Liquor Mart employees to restock shelves, and limited ability for MLL to deliver inventory, MLL is left with no choice but to respond in this way. MLL is committed to minimizing the disruption to Manitobans and our business partners, and will take into consideration all reasonable measures to accomplish this.”

The 1,400 MGEU liquor workers have been without a contract since March 2022. Their job action began with a one-day walkout July 19.

“They’re not making millions of dollars,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said Monday. “The starting wage at the liquor store is $14.91 (an hour).”

Manitoba’s minimum wage will increase to $15.30/hr in October, he noted.

“They’re doing a job. They’re students, they’re retirees trying to supplement their income, and this is a very punitive action for our members,” Ross said of the lockout.

The union has asked for wage raises in line with those given to Manitoba MLAs and Premier Heather Stefanson, starting at 3.3 per cent in 2023, and 3.6 per cent in both 2024 and 2025.

In June, union members voted 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.

“I know our workers that work in the stores really enjoy the job. They love serving their customers, but they’re really just asking for a fair wage,” Ross said.

The publicly-owned liquor distributor and retailer said Monday it expects the union will continue with its “disruptive tactic of providing late, day-by-day notice of strike actions affecting different employees, different locations, and different duties so we still are unsure which locations will in fact be open tomorrow.”

MLL said it is committed to the collective bargaining process, with the assistance of a conciliator, and reaching a fair and reasonable agreement.

However, locking out workers indicates an “escalation” of tensions in the dispute, said labour studies assistant professor Julia Smith at the University of Manitoba.

She said lockouts — especially at a time when employers are struggling to recruit and retain workers — are rare.

“I think it does send a message that the relations are not very good between workers and the employer, and who wants to work in an environment like that?” said Smith. “It can take months or years even sometimes for these relations to be repaired.

“Lockouts are often times seen as an aggressive move by an employer, that’s why we don’t see them very often.”

In Canada, there have been a number of strikes but just two other lockouts this year, said Smith. In all of 2022, just five were reported, she said.

Ross blamed the ongoing unrest squarely on Manitoba’s Tory government.

“I think the government has everything to do with this strike, and now these lockouts,” Ross said. “It’s really upon them.

“They’ve put these restrictive wage mandates in place and have stuck to them without refusing to have any conversation about them. It’s just a really unfair proposition.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca