B.C. cannabis stores grapple with delivery stoppage as BCLDB workers go on strike

By The Canadian Press

British Columbian cannabis stores are bracing for emptier shelves after a strike stopped the province’s pot distribution centre from shipping out product.

The British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), which represents about 33,000 public-service workers across B.C., set up picket lines at four BC Liquor Distribution Branch wholesale and distribution centres earlier this week.

The union says retail liquor and cannabis stores are not part of the strike launched over wages, but the cannabis division of the Burnaby customer care centre is part of the job action.

The province was preparing to allow cannabis stores to accept direct deliveries of product from licensed producers long before the strike began, but until those deliveries start, stores have no choice but to get their products from the BC Liquor Distribution Branch.

Vikram Sachdeva estimates his B.C. chain of Seed and Stone stores has enough cannabis to last a week and fears consumers will turn to the illicit market, if he runs out.

He says he will be disappointed if he has to turn away consumers for lack of product, especially if they are seeking cannabis for medical reasons.

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Ravi Kahlon says the BC Labour Relations Board has “set interim essential services levels to protect the health, safety and welfare of people needing government services and supports. We appreciate the hardworking members of the Public Service, and we respect a union’s prerogative to initiate job action during the bargaining process.”

In a statement Monday afternoon, Kahlon says the government knows that public sector workers are concerned about inflation, and knows it disproportionately impacts low-income earners.

“Our government’s Shared Recovery Mandate offers the most generous wage increase in at least the last 30 years and seeks to help address the economic uncertainty we are all experiencing and the rising costs of inflation,” he wrote. “It provides an extra lift to the lowest paid workers who are hardest hit during periods of high inflation, and is designed to provide workers with money in their pockets sooner rather than later, with a $2,500 upfront payment to help with costs right now and some additional cost of living protections in the final year.”

“We remain committed to the collective bargaining process and to reaching a fair and reasonable agreement,” Kahlon wrote.

The union and its 33,000 members have previously been offered an 11 per cent wage increase by the province over the next three years under what would be a new collective agreement. Given the rising cost of living, the union has said that isn’t enough.

“Our members have been crystal clear since day one that their priority this round of bargaining was cost of living protection for their wages,” said BCGEU President Stephanie Smith in an earlier statement. “The bottom line is they’re not asking for anything that MLAs don’t already have.”

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