Booming sales, barren shelves: Manitoba liquor strike spills into long weekend

Brianna Herlick was looking forward to popping open a bottle of wine this weekend.

But when she walked up to the Rivergrove Liquor Mart in Winnipeg on Saturday, she was frustrated to find yet another store had been closed.

"It would be nice to grab a bottle of wine it's been a rough week," said Herlick, who has gone to a liquor store two or three times recently only to be met with a locked front door.

Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries (MBLL) announced Friday that seven Liquor Marts across the province would closeon the first day of the Terry Fox Day long weekend, due to an ongoing labour dispute between the Crown corporation and the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union (MGEU), which represents about 1,400 liquor employees.

The strike has been going on since July 19, and has led to a number of other lockouts at liquor stores in Manitoba, as MBLL struggles to restock shelves.

"It's kind of inconvenient fora lot of people if they don't know what stores are open, which ones are closed, which ones [have] stuff they need or want," said Rachel Cherwinski outside the Rivergrove store on Saturday.

But as inconvenient as it may be, some customers said they support the union's strike.

"It's frustrating, but I do feel everyone deserves a right to a livable wage," Herlick said. "They gotta do what they gotta do."

Spencer Kasdorf said he supports the workers'rights, and other stores or local vendors are open anyway.

"I don't feel too hard done by," Kasdorf said.

The strike is also proving to pay off in some ways.

Haley Collen, the general manager of the Norwood Beer Store, said business is booming as would-be Liquor Mart customers head to her store to find booze.

"Everyone's just looking for options, because everyone still wants to celebrate. It's summer timeand it's hot outside, and you know, people are on their vacation," Collen said.

The store made$20,000 to $25,000 more than it normally would over the past three days, Collen said, likely because of both the strike and the World Police and Fire Games being in town.

"That's a lot of people looking for booze for the weekend," Collen said.

But Collen is having to source alcohol from places other than Liquor & Lotteries, like local breweries or distributors. She said she's making sure to fill the shelves as much as she can.

"The stuff that I usually get straight from MBLL, I cannot get right now," she said.

"Basically whatever coolers I can order from these other places, I'm ordering it, even if I don't carry it normally," she said. "I have every single flavour that I can possibly get just to fill the shelf up and to make up for that other product that I can't get."

As for her customers, Collen said they seem on edge.

"People are still frustrated with the fact that we don't have what they want sometimes, right? So it's hard on the staff, and it's hard on me, but we're just trying to make the best of it."

18MBLL stores to closeSunday: MGEU

Another liquor carrier is also seeing the impact of the strike.

"There's nothing we can do," said Bill Snowdon, owner of Grand Marais Village Store, near Grand Beach, Man.

His store has nearly sold out of its booze, and the shelves are mostly bare. While he normally orders and gets stock shipped from MBLL, he hasn't been receiving any.

Snowdon said he already runs all over Winnipeg to buy the breads, groceries, cakes, ice and other items he sells in the store.

"It's out of my hands.I'm not going to run out and do a little bit of this and a little of that," he said.

In an emailed statement Saturday, MGEU said four more Winnipeg MBLL stores will be locked tomorrow, including the Liquor Marts in Bunn's Creek, Charleswood, Tyndall Market and True North Square.

That brings the total number of stores to be closed in Manitoba to 18, MGEU said, 15 of which are in Winnipeg.

"Our members don't deserve heavy-handed lockouts that try to punish them for standing up for themselves," union president Kyle Ross said in the statement.

According to the union's last collective agreement, which expired in March 2022, full-time MBLL clerks make about $20 to $24 per hour, while part-time clerks receive $15 to $17 an hour.

"They deserve a fair and reasonable wage increase that keeps up with the high cost of living," Ross said.