Commercial Drive Mac’s Store the scene of this year’s safety sit-in
Posted April 14, 2018 10:08 pm.
Last Updated April 15, 2018 8:24 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – You may have encountered a group of young people with a petition if you were by the Mac’s Store on Commercial Drive last night.
It was the annual effort to draw attention to what convenience store workers believe are labour laws that are too lax when it comes to protecting late-night workers.
Caitlin Davidson-King is with the BC Federation of Labour Young Workers Committee and says you may have seen a picture of Grant De Patie as well.
He’s the young employee who was killed by trying to prevent someone taking off with a tank of gas in Maple Ridge in 2005, and the reason why regulations were adopted to better protect employees.
“People coming into the Mac’s often stop and remember him. They remember his death and they remember the workers’ safety provisions that were put in place,” says Davidson-King.
Initially, the legislation called for companies to have two overnight employees in place, or a protective barrier between the employee and customers.
But because of lobbying by Mac’s stores, neither provision was put in place.
“We all think about how the only provision that really stuck was pay-at-the-pump but people agree with us that there should be more provisions in place to protect workers,” says Davidson-King.
The sit-in ended at 6 a.m. Sunday.
