Struggling and tapped out by Manitoba liquor strike By: Malak Abas Posted: 5:55 PM CDT Monday, Aug. 14, 2023 Last Modified: 11:19 AM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023 Updates

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This article was published 14/08/2023 (1101 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Shrugging Doctor, a local winery and vineyard, said in July it would expand and move operations, its owners had no idea it was about to head into a devastating strike-induced limbo thanks to a labour dispute at the Crown-owned liquor corporation.

While Manitoba beer producers have the option of distributing their own products — by hiring delivery companies to drop off merchandise to private vendors, bars and other sellers — by law, wine and spirit manufacturers aren’t allowed to do the same, said Shrugging Doctor co-owner Willows Christopher, who founded the business in 2017.

“Thousands and thousands of bottles of my wine are just sitting in (Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries’) distribution centre. I have more pallets that are waiting to go out that just can’t,” said Christopher, who is president of the Manitoba Association of Winemakers.

It’s the worst timing for Christopher. The winery’s store and bar will be shut down until the fall, meaning there’s no way to sell their product outside of farmers markets — an exemption allowed by the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba — resulting in a loss of $500 every day the strike continues.

“I feel, really, kind of helpless, where my hands are tied as a liquor manufacturer, because I don’t have any freedom of movement,” he said.

It’s yet another local business trapped in the crossfire between the Crown corporation and 1,400 Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union workers.

After a month of watching the dispute escalate, there was hope on Monday that the bitter walkout could end.

“Thousands and thousands of bottles of my wine are just sitting in (Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries’) distribution centre.”–Willows Christopher

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries said the independent conciliator who is managing negotiations between the Crown corporation and striking workers had recommended the strike end “immediately” in favour of binding arbitration.

MLL had taken the step of designating two Liquor Marts for commercial customers only, but it had yet to address the problem of low stock since workers continued to picket at its massive distribution centre on King Edward Street.

The Eastwinds Liquor Mart at 1530 Regent Ave. in Winnipeg and the Brandon Victoria Liquor Mart at 1015 Victoria Ave. in Brandon are not open to the public and shoppers have to provide licensee identification.

Among those shoppers are the owners of Lockport Grocery, who loaded a truck and an SUV’s worth of liquor from the Hargrave and Ellice Liquor Mart Thursday, and again on Friday, from the Eastwinds commercial location, to stock the shelves of their business.

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By Saturday morning, that supply was sold out.

Staff were out shopping Monday to fill aisles of bare shelves, but the commercial locations limit purchases, a co-owner of Lockport Grocery said, and she expects they’ll sell out almost immediately.

“I get it, they have to (limit purchases), because they probably have every restaurant and hotel and bar in Winnipeg also going there, flocking to find some inventory. So they have to keep it fair, which I understand,” said co-owner Roxanne, who asked that only her first name to be used.

“But if they’re moving some kind of product outside of the distribution centre, just put it in a semi and deliver to me and then I’ll be good for a week or two. You know what I mean? We can’t be doing this every day, either.”

“I’m getting attacked from all directions, of people coming here looking for a store.”–Roxanne

Both Liquor Marts on Henderson Highway, along with locations in Selkirk and Gimli, are closed. She said the store is getting customers from Winnipeg and surrounding communities, some live an hour’s drive away.

“I’m getting attacked from all directions, of people coming here looking for a store,” she said.

Lockport Grocery has been in business for more than 40 years and has had its liquor licence since 1992.

Roxanne said she’s never seen a supply shortage this severe.

“How long is this going to go on?”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.