Ontarians running low on their stocked-up liquor supply may be in luck after the weekend.
The LCBO has announced a “tentative agreement” with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, ending the strike by next Tuesday.
According to the LCBO, the strike will end at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, July 22, and staff will “return to business as usual” on Tuesday, though the terms of the agreement have yet to be ratified.
“We recognize the disruption the strike caused for our employees, partners, and customers who rely on our services, and we thank everyone for their continued patience and understanding as we begin resuming regular operations,” the public company said in a release.
The LCBO said it would share further details once the agreement is ratified.
The union led the first LCBO strike in the province’s history on behalf of around 10,000 workers after Premier Doug Ford announced he would allow convenience stores to sell alcohol.
The LCBO and OPSEU returned to the bargaining table on Wednesday. The union was intent on sticking it to Ford, saying his plan put “big box CEOs and billionaires before the needs of Ontarians.”
The union claimed that allowing convenience stores and grocery stores into the alcohol market would result in the liquor store cutting its employees’ hours, costing thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in public revenue.
Convenience store owners told True North last week that they would love a chance to compete against the otherwise monopolistic government-run liquor stores amid high taxes and low profit margins.
The terms of the agreement have not been made public, but Ford has previously said he would not budge on his plan to have ready-to-drink cocktails sold at convenience stores and grocery stores across the province. “It’s done. It’s gone. That ship is sailed and is halfway across Lake Ontario,” he said at the Cool Beer Brewing Company in Etobicoke on July 10.
On Monday, Ford’s government announced that it expedited getting booze into convenience stores. What was initially scheduled for Aug 1, the government moved to Thursday, July 18, despite the union’s strike.