Dear LCBO workers,

Happy fall! We are all still processing our historic summer and all that we achieved together.

Together, we built the supermajority of LCBO workers we needed to bring the province to a halt. And together, we won!

Below you will find a summary of some of the key gains we won in our Collective Agreement and concessions we fought back because of the strength of our lines and solidarity.

The strike may be over, but our work continues. Over the course of the last year we transformed and rebuilt our division. Now, we need to maintain that structure and stay engaged together in order to enforce our Collective Agreement and fight back against privatization, store closures, and more of our work going to private warehouses.

Together, we need to be ready to fight back against the government because we know that Ford can’t be trusted. He said only beer, cider and mixed cocktails were part of his expanded marketplace, now he’s added fortified wines, which addictions workers say is a dangerous move and clearly paves the way to spirits.

In the final hours of the strike we made a promise: LCBO workers are angry, we’re mobilized, and we’re coming for the Ford Government.

New LCBO workers’ meetings

• Local presidents’ meetings – Monthly
• Organizing committee meetings – Quarterly
• Division members’ meetings – every 6 months

In solidarity,

Your Bargaining Team

Concessions that we fought back because of the strike

As you know, the employer came to the table with a number of concessions that would have impacted each and every member. While we were fighting to raise the floor and protect the future of the LCBO, they wanted us to go backwards. Here are some examples of what the employer tried to do that we were able to fight back:

• The employer proposed a number of schedule changes that would have eroded the work/life balance for retail, logistics and security workers and impact the ability to get overtime pay.
  • This included scheduling logistics workers only one week at a time – providing no time to plan family commitments, medical appointments, etc.
• They wanted to remove the practice of allowing members hired before Sept 4, 2001 the ability to decline work on Sundays.
• The employer only wanted to guarantee one week of vacation during the period of May to Oct.
• The employer wanted to expand the use of fixed term workers, making more precarious work.
• The employer wanted to delete the letters of agreements on agency stores, contracting out and repatriation. These articles protect our work.

Summary of 2024 LBED Collective Agreement Improvements

Salary increase

• Year 1 – 3%
• Year 2 – 2.75%
• Year 3 – 2.25%

Other wage grid changes:

Removal of Step 1 of the Retail CSR wage grid.

• This raised the floor for our lowest paid members which increased the starting wage for all new hires. Fixed term and new casual wages were falling behind so it was critical that we increase the starting rate.

Casual Head Office clerical staff will be moved to the first step of the respective PFT grid for their department.

• The clerical casuals working Head Office were paid significantly lower than retail store casuals and others working in their department. Now they’ll move to the first step of the grid.

Special wage adjustments

• Millwrights and Electricians with a red seal will receive a special wage adjustment.

Clerk GRADE 5 (Contact Centre Only)

• Agreed to new wage grid for Clerk Grade 5 Contact Centre that increased the hours of work from 36.25 to a 40-hour work week.

Benefits

Removed the per visit cap on the mental health benefit to a max of $3000/year

• Co-pays and per-visit caps are a barrier to accessing treatment. Removing this cap will give members better access to mental health services.
• Included psychotherapist as a recognized profession able to provide services.

Improved access to benefits for Casuals

• Lowered the benefit entitlement hours from 1,300/calendar year to 1,000 hours worked in the previous calendar year to qualify for benefits.

1,000 Permanent Part-Time positions

Letter of Agreement – RE: Post and Fill

• No later than September 30, 2024, thirty new PFT positions will be posted in Logistics
• No later than March 31, 2025, thirty new PFT positions will be posted in Logistics
• In retail, Permanent Part-Time (PPT) ratio will be not less than 12.5% or 1,000 positions (whichever is greater).

This was a huge achievement and would have never happened without the strike.

Casuals

Letter of Agreement – RE: Casual Hours

• 35% of casuals will receive no less than 1,000 hours annually

The Employer will still ensure that 35% of our casuals will work at least 1,000 hours annually. With the reduction of hours to qualify for benefits, this will mean that 35% of casuals not only have a guarantee of hours, but have access to benefits as well, after 5 years of being casual.

Privatization, contracting out, and agency stores

NEW – Letter of Agreement – RE: Marketplace Modernization

• New joint task force will explore new business models to improve competitiveness in the expanded marketplace and protect jobs and public revenues. This gives us a seat at the table to talk about the future of the LCBO.

NEW – Letter of Agreement RE: Store Closures

• No store closures as a result of marketplace modernization for the life of the collective agreement.

With the expanded marketplace, store closures were an inevitably.  We needed to ensure that all stores would remain open regardless of the marketplace modernization. We will need to enforce this and prepare to fight to renew it in our next round of bargaining.

Renewed Letter of Agreement – RE: Contracting Out

• Ensuring this letter was renewed protected our members from layoffs due to contracting out of our work

Our Employer continues to contract out/outsource our work to other warehouses, retailers and vendors. It was important to ensure that no lay offs would occur because of the continuous contracting out of our work. This will be an important piece to enforce.

Renewed Letter of Agreement – Repatriation

• This letter ensures that if the LCBO wants to open a new agency store they must repatriate (bring back or not renew) a existing agency store. This letter is also attached to the agency store letter and was important to have both renewed to ensure no NEW agency stores would open.

Letter Of Agreement – RE: Agency Stores

• Renewed the Letter of Agreement with a hard cap of 400 on the number of agency stores.

It was important that the LCBO was limited to a certain number of agency stores going forward considering the new expanded marketplace. Spirits can only be sold at LCBO stores and agency stores.

Letter of Agreement – RE: Agency Workers

• The Employer agreed to not use agency workers in the Quality Assurance Departments in our Logistics facilities

The Employer was utilising a loophole in the old language that removed agency workers from Logistics.

NEW – Letter of Agreement – RE: CASE VOLUME AT LCBO RETAIL SERVICE CENTRES

• 1.25 million new cases will be serviced by Durham to compensate for the outsourcing of cases to Trillium.

Last year, the LCBO removed 1 million cases from Durham and provided that work to Trillium. It was important to ensure that case volumes increased to make up for the loss due to contracting out/outsourcing.

Layoff protections and severance

Append the geographic areas into the Collective Agreement

• The CA speaks to geographic areas, and they cannot be changed by the Employer during the life of the agreement. Having this inside the CA is important because it ties to our bumping rights in the event of a layoff and identifies where the posting areas for job competitions.

Letter of Agreement – RE: Enhanced Severance – Privatization – Permanent Employees

• Included calculation of all years of service in the event of privatization/marketplace modernization

This was critical because our members can work for years before getting a Permanent Full-Time position and these years were previously not included in the severance payment. Calculations were done on only a member’s Permanent Full-Time years of service and did not include credit for their years worked as a casual employee.

Termination Payments

• In the event of layoff all years of service (including casual/fixed term/seasonal years of service) will be used for calculation

ARTICLE 12 – Termination Payments (PFT & PPT)

• In the event of layoff, termination payments will include all years of service (including casual/fixed term/seasonal hours worked)

Given the casualization of our workforce over the years, in the face of privatization and possible layoffs in the future, we needed to ensure members were credited for all their years of service, not just Permanent Full-Time years.

Other

Regional Labour Management Committees

• Added one additional member to the committee that meets with management. Having an additional member able to attend provides more voices at the table and more ability to advocate for Local/Regional issues.

Pregnancy & Parental Leave

• Aligned the CA to reflect updated Employment Insurance standards. This reduced the waiting period and extended the coverage period.

Improved Bereavement Leave

• Included 4 days paid leave of absence for the loss of child due to miscarriage or stillbirth