No Frills grocery workers could embark on strike starting Monday morning, union says

More than 1,200 workers at Loblaw-owned No Frills could soon be on strike if a deal is not reached by Monday, Unifor says.

“Every single financial quarter Loblaw posts higher profits than the last,” said Unifor national president Lana Payne in a news release Thursday. “It’s past time the workers helping them earn these profits get a share so they can support their own families.

The strike deadline is set for 12:01 a.m. on Monday, November 20.

On Oct. 21, a collective agreement covering the workers at multiple Ontario No Frills stores expired.

More than 3,700 Metro workers went on strike at the end of July after rejecting their first tentative agreement, fighting for better pay. On Aug. 31, they voted ‘yes’ on a second agreement, which included front-loaded wage gains beginning with a $1.50 hike.

Workers at No Frills will “have similar demands, particularly concerning up-front wage improvements to address recent inflationary pressures including higher grocery bills,” the news release said.

 

 

The Unifor-Metro deal helps set a floor for future agreements, industry experts have said. Union representatives say their new collective agreement raises the bar for grocery store workers across the country.

Unifor has made it clear that it intends to use the Metro agreement to pattern bargain, meaning it will try to seek similar gains in upcoming negotiations with grocers.

The union said it has 13 contracts with grocers, mainly in Ontario, that are set to expire before the end of 2024, covering a total of more than 6,000 workers. Another two are currently being negotiated and one recently expired.

Loblaw – which owns No Frills – Empire and Metro make up the Big Three grocers, which take up a massive chunk of the market. Those grocers have come under fire in recent years for their high profits amid skyrocketing inflation. Workers are asking for their fair share.

This announcement comes after Loblaw on Wednesday reported a roughly 12 per cent jump in profits in its latest quarterly update, amid heightened scrutiny around whether big grocers are doing enough to tame inflation. On the same day, Montreal-based Metro Inc. also reported quarterly profit growth of about four per cent, on an adjusted basis.

 

 

This article was reported by The Star