LCBO employees fighting major rollback demands

Agency demands concessions despite record profits Toronto - Employees of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario are bargaining for a new contract containing job security, plus protection against layoffs and the contracting out of their work. The 5,500 members of the Ontario Liquor Boards Employees' Union (OLBEU/NUPGE) are also seeking contract language to stop management from performing bargaining unit work and to amend existing language covering casual hours of work.

John Coones OLBEU president

The two sides exchanged initial proposals in early January and have met for a total of six days of talks so far. They are scheduled to meet again Feb. 7-9.

"The employer brought 73 proposals to the table," the union says in a notice posted on its web site.

"While we are not able to get into specifics at this time, what we can tell you is that all 73 proposals are seeking concessions ranging from reducing casual wage rates to capping and rolling back of a number of employee benefits.... We will post more information as we proceed."

OLBEU employees work in LCBO retail stores, warehouses and head office as well as the duty free store at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor.

The LCBO is demanding sweeping concessions from employees at the same time that it is raking in record profits from the work they perform each day on the job.

$1.04 billion profit for taxpayers

On Jan. 27 the LCBO released its annual report showing that it made $1.04 billion in profits for the year - the first "billion-dollar dividend" ever recorded by the agency for the benefit of the taxpayers who own it.

"We continued to outperform most comparable provincial liquor jurisdictions in volume and revenue growth," writes LCBO chair Andy Brandt in his introduction. "We also outperformed the Ontario and Canadian retail sectors as a whole."

The $1.04 billion tally is $65 million more than the previous fiscal year's previous record take and is $455 million more than the agency made in profits a decade ago.

The totals do not include Ontario sales taxes collected at the province's 598 LCBO stores and at the 196 "agency stores" in rural areas. When sales tax is included, liquor sales generated a total of $1.35 billion for the provincial treasury.

Brandt is projecting that the LCBO will record even higher profits in the coming year.  NUPGE

Web posted by NUPGE: 28 January 2005

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