The Bar Towel

I assume this is discussion worthy.

LCBO workers are taking a strike vote. their contract expires (I believe) this Sunday.

http://www.cp24.com/news/lcbo-workers-t ... -1.1208489

Government's looking for a wage freeze over the next 4 years. Not sure what the wage is and if it an appropriate request from the government. Maybe Cass can chime in.

Anyways, expect service disruptions.

Expect mad rush the day after they approve a strike vote. At this point I don't know what the average wage is, however I can understand striking over a 4 year wage freeze, since inflation essentially makes that a significant wage cut over that time period.

There is a number of points that can be disputed in this OPSEU piece, as the LCBO is not really comparable to any other retail business sector.

http://www.opseu.org/lbed/bargaining201 ... 202013.pdf

4 year wage freeze is substantial, given that most of the rest of the PS is only looking at a two year freeze. The rest is old hat and very familiar.

And given the general climate in the province, I'm betting this battle could last a while...

icemachine wrote:Expect mad rush the day after they approve a strike vote. At this point I don't know what the average wage is, however I can understand striking over a 4 year wage freeze, since inflation essentially makes that a significant wage cut over that time period.

i've asked my employees to take a wage cut.
the cost of living increase - especially when our province is bleeding money - should not be automatic.

we have to be fiscally responsible. if most of Ontario's tightening the belt, government employees should do the same.

the habit of "well, we're giving THIS group and increase, so all groups should get an increase" is what put Ontario in this mess to begin with.

In the last four years I've had our company do 2 wage freezes and the other two years we did just cost of living increases.

Such is the life in the private sector. I have no problems with LCBO taking a 4 year freeze, they are well paid to begin with.

I work in automotive, so I've seen a lot of cuts in our plants and was expecting to get let go during a couple restructurings, but wasn't. I did take wage freezes for a couple years, last time being in 2009 - but automotive started tanking 2 years before the financial crash hit.

Biggest problem was that the Public Sector wage freezes weren't done in the last round of bargaining when the economy was nose diving. Now the economy is headed upwards and people expect to see some of those profits (or for government - increased tax hauls) put back into wages and benefits.

You can ask your employees to take a wage cut - but expect some push back from them, especially when they are represented by a union like OPSEU

I told my members to prepare for a very minimal increase like less than 1%. The city is making money hand over fist but we do not expect to get a big chunk of that. The province is actually cutting what they are giving to Municipalitys so that will pretty much cancel out the city increase.

Public sentiment is very much against unions and striking right now. Unless somebody is really getting fucked over I would not expect 1 ounce of sympathy. Sadly we will have hudak the horrible in a couple of years and things will get much much worse. [/list]

IIRC the last time this happened the LCBO had one of their biggest sales days ever before the vote.

Goes to show what the public cares about - just getting their booze. Too bad this sentiment doesn't actually manifest itself in pushing for retail change in the marketplace.

Cass wrote:IIRC the last time this happened the LCBO had one of their biggest sales days ever before the vote.

Goes to show what the public cares about - just getting their booze. Too bad this sentiment doesn't actually manifest itself in pushing for retail change in the marketplace.

Ontario voters have a history of being a mixed drink of a vote: equal parts apathy shaken with stupidity.

Cass wrote:IIRC the last time this happened the LCBO had one of their biggest sales days ever before the vote.

I remember walking into the Don Mills LCBO and the shelves were relatively bare... lots of spots with just a shelf marker.

Here in BC, we haven't got a salary increase since 2009 (though many of the other groups have). With CPI, that's actually a 7.35% decrease. Now we're almost 15% behind Ontario and 20% behind Alberta... maybe next year.

Let them strike and let them strike for a long time. Maybe that will give the public push needed to be done with the LCBO and open up the system.

atomeyes wrote:Ontario voters have a history of being a mixed drink of a vote: equal parts apathy shaken with stupidity.

thank god we have the Beer Store!

Let them strike. Let them picket endlessly. Let them deplete their financial reserves until the union has no money left to pay strike wages, and it's members come crawling back to the bargaining table willing to accept ANY terms just to go back to work.

We're talking about alcohol sales here. This isn't fighting fires, or solving crime, or taking trauma patients to hospitals. Being unable to visit the LCBO is nothing more than a minor inconveniece. No one actually needs the LCBO to survive.

Speaking as a non-car owning city-dweller, I'll say this - between awesome local bars, Bellwoods and Junction bottle shops, (and, slightly further afield, but still totally accessible, Granite/Amsterdam/Great Lakes) and the ability to get Mad Tom, Canuck, King Pils, St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout (among others) at TBS, I'm absolutely 100% fine with this. Like someone else mentioned, maybe we'll see a surge of once-apathetic/now-angry Ontarians of pushing for privatized alcohol retail sales.