LCBO stores to open next week in Ontario

Liquor stores across Ontario will reopen to customers on Tuesday after another tentative deal was struck to potentially end the two-week-old strike.

In a brief online statement Saturday morning, the LCBO said both it and its workers, who are represented by OPSEU, “have now also both signed off on a return-to-work protocol that does not include any new monetary items.”

A tentative deal announced Friday afternoon was quickly thrown into question later in the day when the LCBO refused to sign the return-to-work protocol. Both sides subsequently accused each other of acting in bad faith.

However, issues seem now to have been ironed out to at least get another tentative agreement on the table to be ratified by workers.

The LCBO’s statement on Saturday morning concluded with the company saying it looks forward “to welcoming our 10,000 unionized employees back to work on Monday and opening our stores to shoppers on Tuesday.”

Its statement also noted “the union also shared news of the strike’s end, highlighting that the agreement ‘protects good jobs and LCBO revenue supporting our public services’.”

It’s not known when, exactly, the union will hold its ratification vote.

Despite trumpeting a tentative agreement just hours earlier to end the strike, the union representing the LCBO workers announced late Friday afternoon the job action would continue because the employer refused to sign a return-to-work protocol.

Workers represented by OPSEU walked off the job July 5 and negotiations had resumed this past Wednesday.

OPSEU had said the dispute was largely about Premier Doug Ford’s plan to allow convenience and grocery stores to sell ready-to-drink cocktails, saying expanded sales of the beverages will threaten their jobs.

The LCBO had said that wasn’t a matter for the bargaining table.

The last offer that it made public included wage increases of seven per cent over three years, a special adjustment for certain warehouse positions, improving access to benefits for casual part-timers, converting about 400 casual workers to permanent full time and improving severance provisions.

— With files from The Canadian Press