A message from your Chair,
Greetings!
We are approaching the 1-year anniversary of our historic mobilization efforts where 8,060 LCBO members (86% of all members) delivered a 97% YES strike mandate.
That vote gave our bargaining team a supermajority of support that has never been seen in the LCBO’s 98-year history and the power to go out on an historic strike. Through this fight we realized that together we can accomplish anything.
Reflecting on this anniversary and our achievements, we are reminded that we must also work together protect our workplace rights and the hard-fought wins from our strike during the enforcement stage of the collective bargaining cycle. After all, if we don’t enforce our rights, do we even have them?
Gone are the days where we leave it only to our local presidents and stewards to enforce our collective agreement. Just like it took all of us to win those gains, it takes all of us to protect them. Together, we have collective power.
I know you’re up to it. You mobilized and accepted leadership roles in the thousands during contract negotiations. You stood up to management outside stores, in our warehouses and head office. You bravely battled the Ford government’s privatization plan in every city, town and village across the province – and won!
Enforcing our contract doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as having a conversation with your manager about the issues and reaching a resolution-that’s called a “stage 1” grievance. In many cases the matter gets resolved.
After 28 years with this company I assure you, managers are by no means experts on collective agreements, Like you, many are overworked and find themselves looking for a speedy solution to workplace problem.
Just because they hold a management position doesn’t mean their interpretation of the collective agreement is correct.
As a union member you have the right to respectfully challenge your manager and seek a resolution. As a local president, nothing makes me happier than receiving phone calls from members who took an issue into their own hands and reached resolve without my assistance. You got this!
This April at OPSEU/SFEPO’s convention, I had the honor of accepting the Leah Casselman Award on behalf of all our LBED members. This award is presented to a sector for mobilizing activities – one who best exemplifies the spirit and intent of “mobilizing to win.” The award was presented at this year’s award ceremony and joining me was a sea of LBED activists in our famous red LBED sweaters. Congrats!
I’ll end with a bittersweet announcement. Our negotiator, Rasho Donchev, has left OPSEU/SEFPO to accept a position outside of the organization. Rasho was our negotiator for 3 years and always raised the bar of what we believed could be accomplished. Rasho’s knowledge, passion and commitment to advancing the rights of LCBO workers will be sorely missed. On behalf of our division, I would like to wish Rasho all the best in his new role at the CAAT Pension Plan. Richard Dionne has joined in the negotiator role and brings a strong presence in enforcing the collective agreement with previous roles as a grievance officer and was elected to represent his own collective agreement centrally through his local and ministry representatives in the OPSEU/SEFPO membership. Welcome Richard!
Colleen MacLeod
LBED Divisional Chair
Committee Reports
Vice-Chair / Grievance Committee
The Committee continues to meet and review grievances with the majority being referred to arbitration and mediation/arbitration. There was a slight down tick in the number of grievances reviewed due to the cyber attack OPSEU/SEFPO experienced this spring. With systems being down, we are unable to access the grievance files in the database. There have been no issues with member grievances going to arbitration or mediation/arbitration.
The Division reached a successful settlement regarding the Policy Grievance for the LCBO’s Value Add policy. The language that stated a violation of the policy would result in dismissal has been replaced with a violation of the policy could lead to discipline up to and including dismissal.
Jeremy Trainor – Chair (L378)
Retail – Johnathon Pukila (L163)
Non-retail – Trisha Harrison (L164)
Secretary/Treasurer
The electronic RUL submission has been down since April. As a temporary measure, a modified version of the union time-off forms was emailed to local Presidents/highest ranking. We hope the web version is restored soon, and until then, we ask for your patience while we navigate through the challenges associated with the cyber attack on OPSEU/SEFPO.
LBED Secretary/Treasurer
Rachel Brunet (L4100)
Pension and Benefits
CASUAL BENEFITS ENROLLMENT
As of April 1st, the casual benefits program has welcomed 83 new members to the plan. 164 members renewed, 187 opted out while 220 members made no changes to their plan.
SICK CREDIT POOL
The committee will be meeting with OPSEU/SEFPO staff to discuss the Sick Credit Pool, as we are challenging that have been sent out to our members. I would like to personally thank fellow committee member Greg Wilson (L164) for creating a new spreadsheet for the Sick Credit Pool. The spreadsheet is clear, well structured and will be a great help keeping track of the Sick Credit Pool.
ACCIDENTAL DEATH AND DISMEMBERMENT
The employers’ failure to finalize the terms for the Accidental Death and Dismemberment is causing unnecessary delays and this is of concern to our committee. The employer has signaled they do not want to bargain the details of the benefit every term and may end its commitment to this entitlement when the current collective agreement expires in 2027.
Shelly Robitaille – Chair (L162)
Greg Wilson – (L164)
Stephanie Hickman- (L377)
Provincial Health and Health and Safety Committee
The Provincial Health & Safety Committee underwent some changes in April. Our staff health and safety officer changed hands, we said goodbye to Joselyn Ross and welcomed our new staff Health and Safety Officer, Ryan Graham. Many thanks to Joselyn, for all his support and knowledge that was shared over the years.
Impact of Violence on Mental Health
A fulsome discussion was held with the employer on this ongoing topic. Recent statistics show a decline in violence/theft related incidents with a 25% reduction across the province. The employer is looking to identify patterns and trends in the Incident Reports that you submit. We encourage you to continue to be as detailed as possible when submitting incident reports for this reason.
Store window and wall wraps for Pride month
The committee identified risks regarding limited visibility due to window and wall wraps. The visual obstructions can impede observational views from inside and outside our stores, such as witnessing thieves exiting or other violent incidents on the street and parking lots etc.
The employer has remedied this issue with a perforated vinyl wrap to correct the issue before the stores receive the wraps in June.
Measles Potential Outbreak:
The question was asked to the employer on how we would respond to a potential outbreak at one of our workplace locations.
The employer shared that we would follow public health guidance and reassured that stemming from those guidelines they would issue preparations in a timely way.
American Product Storage:
Concerns were shared regarding the following items connected to the movement of the American product, pace of removal, lack of storage room for product, communication to customers and stress levels on staff. The management members of the committee will take this away for further review and follow up at our next meeting.
Debbie McGuinness – Chair, (L5110)
Greg Wilson – (L164)
Jonathan Pukila – (L163)
Anti-Privatization Committee
The Anti-Privatization Committee hosted a Zoom Presentation on April 6th, 2025, called, “Wasted, LCBO Profits, Privatization, and the Ford’s Government’s Obsession with Booze.” Thank you to the Education and Communication Committee and the Divisional Executive Committee for their support. A special thank you to attending members for your engagement, the presentation was a huge success!
The APC secured a table at the OPSEU/SEFPO Convention Marketplace, where we received lots of positive feedback from the membership. The APC would like to thank Janice Ariza (retired member) and Kim Nasello (L377) for talking with members.
Once again, thank you to every member for your support and engagement! Our fight continues to keep the LCBO public!
Jamie Kensley – Chair (L681)
Tammy Rogers (L377)
Laurie Scuffell (L4100)
Education and Communication Committee
Since the last Echo Newsletter, the Education and Communication Committee has hosted two Zoom socials. The Anti-Privatization presentation focused on the current state of the marketplace and on anti-privatization research spearheaded by Anti-Privatization Committee.
The Pension and Benefit Zoom focused on optional Out-of-Province insurance, providing members with market rate comparisons and value-based options available to Permanent Full-Time and Permanent Part-Time employees.
The Ed/Comms Committee continues to engage the membership on the official LBED Facebook page and answers any direct messages that are sent via direct message. The page currently has a following of 3,300+ people and continues to grow.
The Committee continues to produce the Echo newsletter in conjunction with the LBED sector’s quarterly divisional meetings. We summarize divisional reports that are sent to local presidents/highest ranking into easily digestible readings aimed at the general membership.
Over the summer months the Education and Communication Committee will be working on a virtual one day educational scheduled for September 29, 2025.
Craig Hadley – Chair (L5109)
Michael Hamilton (L376)
Jessica Marciniak (L285)
New Collective Agreement – Ready for Print!
Publishing a collective agreement is not for the faint of heart! There is a process that both parties vet and sign the collective agreement prior to printing. One of our collective wins in bargaining this round was having the geographic areas defined in the collective agreement. The parties most recently met and agreed on the defined geographic areas that govern transfers and potential layoffs.
We are now obtaining final signatures and then it will be sent for printing. There will be two sizes printed of the same agreement. The standard 8.5 x 11 and a smaller wire bound copy for the local presidents and employer representatives. A copy will also be shared online through the LCBO portal and the OPSEU/SEFPO website.
Historical fact: many previous collective agreements were printed in the LCBO print shop prior to its closure. Standard size(s) are printed by OPSEU/SEFPO staff and the remaining are sent to a vendor for print.
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