Ontario Booze Workers Strike Against Privatization
Striking Ontario public alcohol store workers won a new contract with job protections and modest wage increases. However, their future remains uncertain as privatization plans threaten their jobs and public revenue.
TORONTO, ON- JULY 6 – On day two of their historic, first-ever strike, LCBO workers picketed in Toronto on July 6, 2024. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star / Getty Images)
On Sunday July 21, workers at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) ratified a new three-year contract, ending a two-week strike fought to protect jobs at Ontario’s publicly owned alcohol seller.
Their union — the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) — struck the LCBO on July 5 to win job security improvements and wage increases. Overshadowing union members’ immediate demands, however, was Doug Ford’s Conservative government’s stealth plan to further privatize alcohol sales across the province.
As it stands, OPSEU has managed to hold off the worst effects of the government’s privatization scheme on union members, while winning modest wage increases. But the future of work at the LCBO — a Crown corporation already enfeebled by years of outsourcing and workforce restructuring — remains uncertain.
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