Liquor and Lotteries ‘tried to bully’ union, striking workers told at legislature rally By: Malak Abas Posted: 12:32 PM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023 Last Modified: 5:22 PM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023 Updates

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This article was published 15/08/2023 (1144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At a boisterous rally outside the legislature Tuesday, hundreds of striking Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries employees accused their employer of pulling a fast one during talks with a conciliator one day earlier.

Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union president Kyle Ross addressed the crowd made up of workers who’ve taken job action since mid-July.

“Just yesterday, we met with the conciliator. He said he had run out of ideas and suggested that both parties consider arbitration. We said let’s talk about it. Usually, a suggestion like that would be discussed with both parties… but that’s not what happened,” Ross told picketers, who booed and yelled “shame” in response.

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries announced Monday it had accepted a conciliator’s recommendation to end the strike through binding arbitration, but Ross said the corporation’s news release doesn’t tell the whole story.

“The government tried to bully us into accepting arbitration on their terms by going to the media and presenting it as a done deal to end the strike. This is just more of the same from this government.”

Ross called the announcement a “Hail Mary” from MLL and said while the union is willing to discuss arbitration, the provincial government and Crown corporation are acting in bad faith.

“This week, (Premier Heather Stefanson) misrepresented their offering and called you stupid for not seeing it their way. She’s trying to bully you into the arbitration process, without knowing any of the details about it,” he said.

“We deserve a say in what issues go to the arbitrator…. We deserve some assurance that after nearly a month on the picket line, there’ll be some fairness in the new contract.”

“This week, (Stefanson) misrepresented their offering and called you stupid for not seeing it their way. She’s trying to bully you into the arbitration process.”–Kyle Ross

MLL president and CEO Gerry Sul accused the union of dragging out the strike and refusing to move forward with arbitration.

“Effectively (the MGEU) will only go to arbitration if they get exactly what they have been asking for all along — making arbitration moot,” Sul said Tuesday, noting the union is asking for wage increases of five per cent, 3.3 per cent, 3.6 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively, over four years.

“By refusing to proceed directly to the fair arbitration recommended by the conciliator, the MGEU has chosen to prolong this summer strike and continue negatively impacting our employees, their families, all of our customers, and over 2,000 Manitoba businesses.”

An MGEU spokesperson said there had been no discussion among the union, MLL and the conciliator on setting standards for arbitration.

“It’s the government’s turn to counter and then we will respond. That’s how negotiations are supposed to work,” the spokesperson said.

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The strike began a week ago, but approximately 1,400 workers began taking job action on July 19. Rolling strikes were followed by lockout action at some Liquor Marts. Workers are seeking wage increases in line with what Stefanson and her cabinet are set to receive — 3.3 per cent in 2023 and 3.6 per cent in both 2024 and 2025.

Negotiations are at an impasse and have only become more bitter, which was apparent at Tuesday’s rally. Striking workers chanted “Catch up, keep up” and carried signs accusing MLL’s offers of being “all foam” and naming a cocktail for Stefanson called “the double standard.”

Striking workers took to the podium, angry at claims from the Tories and MLL that the details of negotiations were being shielded from them by the union.

“(The provincial government) thinks we are too simple-minded to understand what is going on. They think this is a political game and that we’re victims of the union. Excuse me? I am the MGEU. We are the MGEU,” Janice Jackson, who has worked at Liquor Marts for 15 years, said to raucous cheers from the crowd.

“It’s not that the offer has been hidden from us by scheming boogeymen. The offer is insulting, inadequate and crafted as a psychological tool to break us. No, not happening.”

“They think this is a political game and that we’re victims of the union. Excuse me? I am the MGEU. We are the MGEU.”–Janice Jackson

When asked what Andrew Smith, the Tory cabinet minister responsible for Liquor and Lotteries, would say to the workers picketing outside of the legislature, a spokesperson on his behalf did not answer the question and said to direct all questions to MLL.

NDP critic for Liquor and Lotteries Lisa Naylor stressed that Stefanson “could end the strike today if she gets back to the table and negotiates in good faith.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said its members want a quick end to the strike and some are within weeks of closure as a result of job action.

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Their survey of 164 small business owners in the hospitality sector in Manitoba found 37 per cent have lost revenue as a result of the strike, more than half are running out of product because of distribution-centre disruptions and 28 per cent said they could be forced to close their doors in less than a month if the strike continues.

“It’s really alarming to us,” CFIB policy analyst SeoRhin Yoo said.

“We weren’t expecting that high of a number… the businesses in the hospitality sector, they really suffered greatly as a result of the pandemic, and they’ve been battling with inflation, labour shortages, heavy debt load and, now with the supply disruption, it just feels like the cards are really stacked against them.”

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they’d support the provincial government enacting back-to-work legislation if both parties aren’t able to reach a deal “immediately.”

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.