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LCBO demands rollbacks despite huge profits

Over the past five years LCBO profits have totalled nearly $6 billion in Ontario. The agency operates at a profit margin of 48.9% and it still wants concessions from employees.

Toronto (19 March 2009) - Despite making $1.35 billion last year, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is demanding sweeping rollbacks by employees at the bargaining table.

"Making the LCBO a better place to work just isn’t a priority for the LCBO," says the Liquor Board Employees Division of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE). "In bargaining last week, the employer tabled a proposal that is all takeaways."

Among other things, OPSEU says the LCBO wants to:

  • remove all protections against privatization;
  • get rid of Saturdays off for full-timers;
  • create a six-day work week in Logistics;
  • stop paying seasonals for breaks; and
  • make sure no casual ever gets a full-time job except through pure favouritism.

“We went to the bargaining table with a mandate from our members to build better jobs and a better LCBO,” says Vanda Klumper, chair of the OPSEU bargaining team.

“What we learned last week is that this employer doesn’t want to build with us, it wants to bulldoze through us. Our job over the next several weeks is to stop the employer’s attempts to turn good jobs into bad ones and get our members the improvements they need,” Klumper says.

"With our members showing their strong support for the team, we will be successful.”

For the year ending March 31, 2008, the LCB0 had net sales of $4.13 billion, including a profit (or dividend) of $1.35 billion transferred to the general revenues of the government of Ontario. It also collected $383 million in provincial sales tax during the year, and sent a further $458 million to Ottawa in federal sales tax (GST).

Over the past five years LCBO profits have totalled nearly $6 billion for the province. The agency operates at a profit margin of 48.9%. LCBO operating expenses as a percentage of net sales totalled only 16.1% during the 2007-08 year.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE