LCBO workers staged an information picket in Windsor Saturday as part of their union’s ongoing campaign against the continuing expansion of alcohol sales to grocery stores.
About two dozen members of OPSEU Local 162 held the picket outside the LCBO store next to Tecumseh Mall. Union members asked customers to sign a petition opposing the move to have alcohol sold in grocery stores. Unionized LCBO workers consider those sales to be a step toward privatizing the LCBO.
Local 162 president Jennifer Van Zetten says the 210 Ontario grocery already authorized to sell alcohol are diverting money away from public coffers. In a statement, she said the move by the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne is “destroying the province's single biggest generator of revenue."
Van Zetten also told CTV News that the union’s biggest concern is that social responsibility would decline for alcohol sales outside the LCBO. OPSEU has previously raised concerns that underage or intoxicated customers could purchase alcohol illegally through self-checkouts at grocery stores.
When the changes were rolled out in October of 2016, Finance Minister Charles Sousa said Ontario "has one of the strongest alcohol control systems in Canada" and that the province is committed to social responsibility.
Grocery stores that sell alcohol must have designated sales areas and standard hours of sale, abide by limitations on package size and alcohol content, and follow staffing and social responsibility training requirements.
With files from The Canadian Press
