LCBO workers' union ramps up pressure amid 5th day of strike
CBC
The union representing Ontario liquor store workers has ramped up pressure in a five-day-old strike, with no talks planned to hammer out a deal.
Thousands of workers at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario walked off the job Friday. The LCBO, in turn, shuttered its stores across the province for two weeks.
At an LCBO distribution centre in Mississauga, Ont., several dozen workers on the picket line delayed delivery trucks entering the warehouse on Tuesday.
"We are slowing the flow of vehicles in and out of the LCBO facility on this property so that their ability to get orders out is reduced," said Patricia Roode, a customs clerk in the LCBO's transportation division.
Similar actions are playing out at other distribution centres, Roode said.
The LCBO has brought in scab workers in an attempt to fulfil warehouse orders, she said.
The Crown corporation had intended to open five distribution centres this week to help get booze into restaurants, bars, hotels, convention centres and other licensees across the province. The LCBO now says that will not happen due to picketing at the locations and it will instead offer online ordering for smaller orders.
"In light of OPSEU threats to picket these locations, we have made the decision to offer an alternative online experience for smaller orders," the LCBO wrote in a statement.
The union believes Premier Doug Ford's plan to open up the alcohol sales market poses an existential threat to the LCBO that will lead to major job losses.
It does not want ready-to-drink cocktails sold outside LCBO stores, wants the province to guarantee its jobs, as well as wage increases, and wants more permanent rather than part-time positions.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy has said the government is "more committed than ever" to its alcohol expansion plans in order to give Ontarians more choice and convenience.
The LCBO has said its last contract offer included wage increases and converting several hundred part-time jobs to full time positions.
"The LCBO did not want a strike, and we apologize for the inconvenience to our wholesale customers," the Crown corporation said.
The union has said the sticking point is Ford's policy to open up alcohol sales, which OPSEU wants changed.
For the first time in 111 years, items once belonging to the late Albert Mullins were back in the hands of his family members thanks to the detective work of one Montreal historian.
The year that saw the remains of two First Nations women brought home from a Manitoba landfill and a search get underway for the remains of a third showed how far reconciliation efforts have come — and how far they still need to go, the families say
The RCMP has just released a warning stating there are dangerous, armed individuals on Big Island Cree Nation, near Meadow Lake.
A new land-use plan that Alberta’s government has for the province’s Upper Smoky region is drawing criticism from environmentalists who say they believe it lacks sufficient environmental safeguards, which poses a significant threat to the endangered southern woodland caribou.
Canadian officials made pains to show they were cracking down on illicit drug production in the country in 2025.
A year after the City of Hamilton cancelled its overnight warming bus, it is funding a new all-night warming centre for men at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on James Street S.
This year has, without a doubt, been a turbulent one for the Canadian auto industry. Uncertainty dominated the sector — both for auto workers hit with job changes and companies trying to manage a mix of tariffs and changing market conditions.
A woman died at a ski resort in the Canadian Rockies over the weekend, after falling into deep snow.
Two pregnant women who would otherwise be living in a cold tent. A man whose leg wound was so bad it required intravenous medication. Two young people who no longer need to couch surf to get by.
The province has added 12 kilometres of designated trails for all-terrain vehicles in western Prince Edward Island that will connect existing routes in O’Leary and Tignish.
Every year, CBC North publishes hundreds of stories online — breaking news, investigative reporting, political coverage, community features, longform storytelling, and much more.
After a wild year in Canadian politics that began with Justin Trudeau's resignation and ended with Conservative MPs crossing the floor to join Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government, 2026 is shaping up to be just as action-packed.
It became a rallying cry, a cultural touchstone, a marketing strategy and — our favourite — often described in international media as "a hockey term" or "a Canadian phrase."