Job security is top priority for London’s striking LCBO workers | CBC News

Job security has been top of mind for dozens of LCBO workers, who picketed in London this week, as part of a province-wide strike.   

On Tuesday — a day after Premier Doug Ford announced a new interactive map to show Ontarians where they could buy liquor during the strike — the LCBO cancelled plans to temporarily reopen a London store and four other locations across the province to allow bars and restaurants to stock up.

One day earlier, striking workers at the LCBO logistics facility on Wilton Grove Road told CBC they had no plans to back down

“It’s not about the money. It’s not about wages. We are fighting for security,” said Tricia Harrison, the vice president for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 164.

“We have people that have been working here for three to four years. They work full time hours but get none of the benefit. They make barely above minimum wage.”

Seventy per cent of the LCBO’s workers are casual employees with no fixed hours and no guarantee of hours, Harrison said. Casual workers lack pensions, sick days, paid vacation, and in many cases, benefits, but the prospect of someday achieving full-time status keeps many coming back, she said.

 “We don’t want to be standing on the road,” she said. “We just want to keep our jobs and retire from here, so we’ll keep going.”

Kim Rushforth, a picket captain and LCBO employee of over two decades who spoke to CBC News outside of the Wellington Road and Bradley Avenue storefront, is no stranger to the long road to full-time  staus, she said.

She worked 12 years as a casual employee, a situation which oftentimes requires employees to be on-call for part of the week, meaning a second job would be difficult to make work.

“You had to take every shift you could get because you had no guarantee of work,” she said. “There’s always the thing in the back of your mind that says you work for the government so you might be able to have a good living, then some months you can get no work.”

The planned introduction of ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages into more retail locations was a main sticking point in contract negotiations between the union representing LCBO workers and their employer, which broke down last week. That resulted in workers walking off the job on Friday and the closure of hundreds of LCBO locations throughout the province.

At the time, the LCBO also said the union’s leadership had made it clear at the bargaining table that it would strike “solely over their demand that the government reverse its decision to have ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages (coolers and seltzers) being available in convenience and grocery stores.”

The London striking workers said they weren’t deterred by Ford’s new interactive map, with Harrison predicting the non-LCBO locations selling liquor would likely “get emptied out very quickly.”

JP Hornick, the national president of OPSEU, responded to Ford’s announcement during an interview with CBC News by saying a map that helps Ontarians find family doctors would be more useful.

Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s office said in a statement last week said it was “disappointed” that the union walked away from the bargaining table before the strike deadline. 

But picketers have been bolstered by friendly honks from passing vehicles and other  positive interactions with the public have, said Rushforth.

“People are so supportive. They’re bringing us water, popsicles, ice. People are being awesome,” she said.

“We’re not down here because we’re greedy. We’re fighting the good fight for people to be able to have a living wage, being able to have a home instead of having to be 60 years old and living with family members because they can’t pay rent.”