Liquor Mart workers off the job, province-wide strike underway

Manitoba Liquor Mart workers have begun a full province-wide strike.

The strike took effect at 7 a.m. on Tuesday after Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MBLL) announced a lockout at 10 additional Liquor Marts. This move expanded the number of lockouts to more than half of all Liquor Marts in the province.

Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU), said that union members are disappointed in the government’s tactics. He added that Liquor Mart workers have earned fair wages after working through the pandemic and a slew of violent thefts.

“We tried hard to avoid a full strike, but Premier Stefanson’s stubborn commitment to restricting wage increases for front-line workers to just two percent has left us with no other option,” Ross said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“At this point in time, only Heather Stefanson can resolve this situation by simply lifting her unfair wage mandate and allowing Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries to negotiate fair wages for their staff.”

On Monday, MBLL announced 10 more Liquor Marts will be closed beginning on Tuesday at 7 a.m. until further notice. The stores include Dauphin, For Richmond, Gimli, Main and Jefferson, Portage and Burnell, River and Osborne, Sage Creek, Selkirk, Steinbach, and Stonewall.

The Crown corporation said it needed to reduce the number of stores that are open for business so it can allocate inventory to the remaining open locations. A list of the open locations can be found online. https://www.liquormarts.ca/hours

“This employer’s been very hard on our members. It’s been locking them out,” Ross said.

“If Heather Stefanson can come to the table with a real offer, let MBLL come to the table with a real and fair offer, we can end this tomorrow. It’s really upon them.”

Ross said it’s expected the conciliator will meet with MBLL and the MGEU on Tuesday. He said they want to solve this as quickly as possible, but work needs to be done.

“Our members want to be in the stores. They want to serve Manitobans, but this unfair wage mandate that Heather Stefanson has put upon us is really an untenable situation,” Ross said.

Supplies are dwindling at rural liquor vendors as Winnipeggers take trips outside of the city to buy booze.

Raymond Castallo, a long-time employee at Oakbank Family Foods, says people are calling to find out what they have on shelves.

"Customers coming looking for the stuff. We don't have it,” Castallo said. “Customer from Regent and Transcona came to buy liquor here."

Castallo says they usually keep a large inventory in hand but now they are running low on popular bottles.

"You would be here before you would know (inventory) was very high and then now nothing. Nothing. No extra."

Grocery sales have also taken a hit.

"They are buying wine or something they want to drink together, so it's not only affecting the liquor, affecting another side."

Down the street, Oakbank Motor Hotel says it's found a way to keep its beer vendor fridges stocked through a beer distributor.

But manager Sarath Prasath says they can't get anything else in large quantities from Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries or its retail stores.

“It's a hard no,” Prasath said. “You have to go to liquor stores and stuff like that to find booze as well and even the liquor stores they don’t let you buy it even though you pay the same price."

It's the same story behind the bar.

"That's where you make the money, though. If you tell your customers, 'I don't have this, I don't have that,' some understand, some don’t.”

He's hoping people will be patient as they get through the liquor shortages.

In the meantime, Castallo is trying to keep shelves looking stocked.

"I don't know when the liquor is coming back,” Castallo said. 

CTV has reached out to MBLL for comment.