The LCBO is abandoning a plan to open 32 stores in the province for limited hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU) workers continue to picket at locations in Kingston and throughout the province.
Initially the company had said they would open for limited hours at a handful of locations if a strike persisted to July 19, but are pivoting to focusing their attention on retail customers who are currently relying on online service, a service they say has been a success since the strike began.
“Because of this success and because of our confidence in our ability to continue serving retail customers online, we will be re-allocating the personnel that was planned to open LCBO retail stores for in-store shopping to other parts of the operations to further enhance support for bars, restaurants and other businesses,” the LCBO said in a statement.
OPSEU employees at the LCBO have been on strike since July 5, and on Friday workers in Kingston delayed a delivery truck at the Midland Avenue LCBO location as the Ontario government continues to move towards expanding access to alcohol within grocery and convenience stores.
Cameron Pardy, OPSEU Local 497 LBED President, says he believes the LCBO is toting the success of online retail as a way to save face with the public.
He says he’s hopeful that OPSEU and the LCBO will be returning to the table soon.
“This is the second announcement they’ve backpedaled about opening stores since the strikes began,” Pardy said.
“I feel it’s an attempt to change the public perception… I do feel LCBO has been trying to make online sales broader but not sure about replacing brick and mortar… I don’t believe it will threaten negotiations…”
Premier Doug Ford said that the offer from the Ontario government hasn’t even been seen by most striking employees, and that the government’s most recent offer has addressed job security, benefits, and wage increases.
The Premier drew a hard line at discussing the expanded sale of ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages however, and said it’s not an issue for most striking employees.
“If they want to negotiate over RTD, the deal’s off,” Ford said to reporters on Thursday.
“That ship has sailed… it represents a very small percentage of overall sales.”
While the RTD drinks account for only 9.1% of overall sales, the LCBO itself has made note of the increase in their popularity in recent years – especially pre-made cocktails which saw a 40% sales bump in 2023.
Jessica Scriver, an LCBO casual employee and strike captain in Kingston on Friday, says her department oversees the RTD beverages – and she says the issue directly ties to job security.
Scriver said employees do care about that projected lost revenue, and need answers on how their jobs and available hours will remain secure in the face of that.
“It is such a large chunk of our sales now and where the LCBO is going to, there’s no way to talk about job security without talking about ready to drink,” Scriver said.
“The 70% of casual workers, those RTDs are directly what’s going to affect the sales numbers and affect those job hours.”
Scriver added that employees feel the entire process is being rushed, as evidenced by the Ontario government paying $225 million to The Beer Store in order to speed up getting beer into convenience stores, and that with more time the two sides would have had a better chance to come to an agreement that would satisfy workers in a world where alcohol is more widely available.
“He spent all this money to try and bump up the timeline and didn’t involve even the union or the employees in general,” Scriver said.
“We’re willing to talk, but the government just doesn’t want to talk about what we want to talk about… I’m personally not against it [expanded sales of alcohol], but I want to make sure that the people of Ontario are still taken care of and I, as an employee, I’m still taken care of at the end of the day.”
OPSEU representatives said they feel momentum is swinging in the direction of workers and are hopeful to secure another round of bargaining dates this weekend.