TORONTO

Metro seeks injunction against striking workers preventing deliveries to stores

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

Metro Inc. is seeking an injunction against striking employees who are picketing its warehouses and preventing deliveries to stores in Ontario, the grocer said Friday.

As the secondary picket lines continue for a third day, the union's actions are generating "significant" food waste, spokeswoman Marie-Claude Bacon said in a statement.

"We owe it to our customers across the province to ensure access to the food they need," she said. 

Workers started picketing two of the company's distribution warehouses on Wednesday, disrupting the flow of fresh products to the grocer's Metro and Food Basics stores across the province. 

The secondary pickets came midway through the fourth week of a strike by more than 3,700 workers at 27 Greater Toronto Area stores.

Consumers will notice empty shelves for certain products, namely produce, meat and dairy, at stores across the province, Bacon said in an interview.

"At some point it's going to be too late to be distributed in our stores and it's going to be wasted," she said. 

Secondary picketing is when striking workers picket at locations other than their own workplace. Unifor started doing this in the week leading up to the warehouse demonstrations at Metro-owned stores not included in the current dispute, Unifor national president Lana Payne told reporters on Wednesday outside one of the distribution centres. 

"Frontline grocery workers at Metro will continue their brave fight for decent work and pay over the weekend until the employer comes back to the table with a serious wage offer," Payne said in a statement Friday when asked about the grocer's request for an injunction. 

The injunction will be heard on Monday, meaning that's the earliest it could be granted, Bacon said. 

But it's not guaranteed that it will be granted, said Larry Savage, a professor in the labour studies department at Brock University. 

Though Metro called the union's blockage of the warehouses illegal, he said that's not necessarily the case.

Secondary picketing is legal and is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but a court may deem it illegal if it involves what the court considers to be "wrongful action," which could include criminal conduct, Savage said. 

While Bacon acknowledged secondary picketing is legal, she characterized the round-the-clock blockade with no trucks allowed in or out as illegal. 

She said in the interview that Unifor has refused to agree on implementing a protocol for the warehouse pickets before the injunction is heard on Monday, one that might allow for some limited movement of products in the meantime. 

Payne called the warehouse picket lines "legal and necessary" in her statement Friday.

The request for an injunction is the latest move in what's been an increasingly heated week for the labour conflict between Metro and the striking workers. 

Metro on Wednesday said it filed an unfair labour complaint against Unifor, arguing the union wasn't bargaining in good faith by not returning to the table to negotiate. 

"The union should act responsibly and be at the table to discuss Metro’s offer," Bacon said in a statement Friday. 

Unifor, meanwhile, has said it's waiting for a better wage offer before it resumes talks. 

“If there is one group of workers who deserve respect, decent pay and decent work, it is grocery store workers in this country,” Payne told reporters on Wednesday. 

Metro workers have said they want to get their pandemic 'hero pay' of $2 an hour back in bargaining. 

This strike began after the workers voted down a tentative agreement that was recommended by their bargaining committee, one that the union described as their best in decades. 

That shows how central the 'hero pay' issue is to them in this fight, Savage said.

"Yes, it's about money. But more importantly, for these workers, it's about respect. Because having that pandemic pay yanked away sent a very clear message to those workers that their labour wasn't being respected." 

Metro workers picket two GTA distribution

warehouses in fourth week of strike



The Canadian Press


Striking Metro workers in the Greater Toronto Area are now picketing two of the grocers' distribution warehouses, a move the company said is preventing deliveries of fresh products to stores across the province.

Unifor Local 414 president Gord Currie and national president Lana Payne met workers at a secondary picket at a warehouse in Toronto's west end.

"If there is one group of workers who deserve respect, decent pay and decent work, it is grocery store workers in this country," Payne told reporters.

Workers in red Unifor ponchos yelled and waved flags in the drizzling rain, earning honks from some passing drivers.

Currie said the rain wouldn't dampen workers' spirits in the fourth week of their strike.

"How did these people go from being heroes when COVID was on to zeros?" he said.

More than 3,700 workers at 27 Metro stores across the GTA have been on strike since July 29 after rejecting a tentative agreement recommended by their bargaining committee.

Over the past week, the workers have stepped up their efforts against Metro beyond the 27 stores, said Payne.

"We have had increased picketing at a number of other stores not represented by Unifor," she said, in addition to the two warehouses Wednesday.

"In case this employer was not getting the message before today, they're getting it now."

Metro spokeswoman Marie-Claude Bacon called the move "unacceptable" and asked workers to come back to the bargaining table.

"Metro has a serious offer to present to the employees’ bargaining committee and the union; Metro will not be able to present an offer and resolve the labour conflict if the union refuses to bargain," she said in a statement.

The warehouses supply all Metro and Food Basics stores in Ontario and the pickets are preventing deliveries of fresh products to all of its stores, said Bacon.

"The distribution centres and the impacted stores are not on strike and their operations, which are critical, should not be interfered with," she said.

"No solution has ever emerged from such pressure tactics."

Asked whether the grocer is planning to seek an injunction against the secondary pickets, Bacon said it's looking into it.

Last week, Metro asked a government-appointed conciliation officer to step in and help the two sides resolve their dispute, but Unifor disagreed with the request, saying it’s waiting for Metro to bring a stronger wage offer to the table. Both the union and employer need to agree to have the officer step in.

Unifor has said that the workers are asking for a fair share of the company's rising profits, with many workers demanding their pandemic "hero pay" of $2 an hour be reinstated.

Metro has said the tentative agreement workers rejected included paid sick days for part-time workers, improvements in benefits and pensions and significant wage increases.

Metro workers had voted 100 per cent in favour of striking before bargaining even began. Unifor has said it hopes to use this agreement to get similar gains for upcoming negotiations with the major grocers over the next two years.

At the picket, Payne said the striking Metro employees aren't only fighting for themselves.

"They are fighting for every grocery store worker from the East Coast to the West Coast," she said.

"I want to be clear. There is something happening in this country right now," added Payne.

"These workers have set fire to the labour movement right now."