MGEU recommends liquor workers accept tentative four-year deal

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This article was published 24/08/2023 (746 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Striking Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries workers will receive wage increases of approximately 12 per cent over four years if they accept a tentative agreement reached this week.

The proposed deal offers a two per cent retroactive wage increase to March 2022 — when their last contract expired — another two per cent increase retroactive to last March, a three per cent wage increase in October (when Manitoba’s minimum wage is raised), and increases of two per cent in 2024 and three per cent in 2025.

The original offer from MLL, which led to rotating strike action beginning July 19, was two per cent per year over four years. The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union sought wage increases of 3.3 per cent in 2023 and 3.6 per cent in both 2024 and 2025.

MGEU president Kyle Ross said unlike wage increases offered by the Crown corporation that included wage bumps for some staff positions, this agreement would offer an across-the-board hike for all 1,400 union members.

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

Details of the agreement will be presented to employees at two information meetings this week, with voting to take place between noon Thursday and noon Sunday. Results of the vote will be released Sunday afternoon.

“I think we were hoping for a fair deal all along, really. This offer is a fair deal.”–Kyle Ross, MGEU

A majority vote is required for the strike to end — if that doesn’t happen, picketing and bargaining will continue.

The Crown corporation, which has used managers and replacement staff to ship booze from its distribution centre on King Edward Street to the few Liquor Marts that have remained open, hasn’t said when it will reopen all outlets.

That type of information will be released after the contract is ratified, it said.

The tentative agreement was reached after two weeks of full strike action and a standstill in bargaining.

“(MLL) didn’t engage in bargaining until Friday of last week. They were content, as they said, there was two ways to end the strike: arbitration now or later,” Ross said. “We said we’d like to bargain, and finally they chose to bargain.

“It happened pretty quick, actually; once they engaged in bargaining, we were able to settle this rather quickly.”

A spokesperson for MLL said the corporation would not comment during the agreement ratification process.

On Wednesday, MLL said the agreement included other benefits and thanked MGEU for its part in the “intensive” bargaining process.

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It said the tentative agreement is a four-year contract that, in addition to the compounding general wage increases every year, includes pay-scale adjustments, other targeted shift premiums and allowances, benefit enhancements and a one-time lump-sum payment.

Ross said the long, bitter strike that preceded this agreement has hurt morale and could have long-term consequences for the employer.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of work to do there to rebuild those relationships,” he said. “I think the employer said a lot of things during this time that really… frustrated our members.”

The current starting hourly wage for MLL workers is $14.91, while Manitoba’s minimum wage is $14.15 and is set to increase to $15.30 effective Oct. 1.

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.