LCBO stores are confirmed to reopen on July 23 as a tentative agreement was reached between the LCBO and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), despite the LCBO planning on filing an unfair labour practice against the OPSEU.
The two week strike will finally come to an end, pending ratification, to welcome back 10,000 unionized employees back to work. “The resolve of our members on the lines was rewarded by the outpouring of support from Ontarians,” stated the OPSEU in a press release on July 20. “Ontarians pressured the Ford Government by sending over 31,000 emails insisting they stop their plans to gut public services and pad the pockets of their billionaire buddies and to show respect for LCBO workers.” OPSEU assures customers that Ontarians can “shop at the LCBO knowing that their purchases are actually an investment into the very public services Ford is hell-bent on slashing.”
The agreement includes a return-to-work protocol that excludes new monetary items. However, the OPSEU has now introduced new monetary demands that the LCBO believes should have been discussed during bargaining. “To introduce a new set of demands after reaching a tentative agreement amounts to bad faith bargaining,” wrote the LCBO in a statement released on July 19. The LCBO now expects to file an unfair labour practice against the OPSEU.
