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THE OBSERVER | Saturday, May 30, 2009
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Robin Hood and his cohorts returning to Elmira..........................................»21 U.S. program eyes local basketball player
»17 VOLUME 14, ISSUE 21
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2009
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Riverside rodeo day ropes ‘em in
SADDLE UP Keaton chalmers, left, jessie Herbison, matthew mcKay, connor redmond and Sara ratcliffe pulled on their best cowboy and cowgirl duds for rodeo Day at riverside P.S. may 22.
Summer dry spell possible as LCBO staff talks strike MARC MIQUEL HELSEN One of the most lucrative retailers in the province should be sharing a greater portion of its profits with all of its employees, say members of the union representing employees of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). Last week, unionized workers at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario voted 93 per cent in favour of strike action if negotiations don’t prove fruitful. The collective agree-
ment between OPSEU and the LCBO expired Mar. 31. The union is demanding the LCBO hire more employees into permanent positions with higher pay, regular hours and benefits. OPSEU also objects to what it sees as an LCBO policy of replacing well paid, full-time jobs with temporary, part-time, low paying positions. “It is atrocious. The LCBO is so profitable when it comes to profit per worker,” said OPSEU spokesperson Randy Robinson in an interview this week.
“It’s about 30 times the profit per worker that would prevail at Wal-Mart. … There is so much money at this employer. They make $1.4 billion with a total of about 7,000 people including managers so, it’s $200,000 a year in profits per worker – the sales per worker are more like a million.” Currently, OPSEU represents some 6,000 members in the bargaining unit. These employees work in stores, warehouses and the LCBO head office in Toronto. Some 40 per cent of those workers
(about 2,400) are full-time, permanent staff, said Robinson. At least 60 per cent are casual year-round workers. Some 1,500 “fixed-term” temporary workers fill in during peak periods including the summer and Christmas seasons. The LCBO store in Elmira currently employs one fulltime worker (manager) and three casual employees. Casual workers’ hours can be cut back when business is slow or increased during peak business periods, said
Robinson, and the trend towards replacing full time jobs with part time ones is increasing. Fixed-term temporary (seasonal) employees earn $10 an hour; casual employees (parttime) start at a range of $13.84 per hour with increments of $15.22, $16.62 and a maximum of $18.77 (depending on the year hired) but their hours vary week to week and from location to location; bargaining unit managers’ wages range from $27.47 per hour to See LCBO »09