Liquor supply still impacted a month after BCGEU strike

It’s been about a month since the B.C. General Employees Union (BCGEU) called off its job action after reaching an impasse in negotiations with the provincial government.

One of the areas the hardest hit by the strike was the local liquor supply. It’s still not back to normal and it’s hurting the hospitality industry.

Jeff Guignard is the executive director of the B.C.’s Alliance of Beverage Licensees and says things are tough financially for restaurants, bars, and pubs.

“That two-week disruption in supply has led to over a month of disruption already. Every single day those distribution centres that were closed, normally over 1,000 businesses order products from them,” he explained to CityNews.

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“So, day after day after day during that strike, those businesses were not able to order so there was a massive backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases that needed to be distributed all through the province. Some places would normally receive one, two, or three orders a week so they were behind by cases and pallets, so they started ordering extra inventory.

“The Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) is doing the best they can but it’s a big uphill challenge and we’re still not out of the woods yet.”

Guignard explains when things got back up and running, it wasn’t a smooth transition.

“I think one of the frustrations was once the strike ended everybody was hoping we’d magically get back to full service right away. The LDB is shipping out so much product but some normal timelines — for example they always tell you exactly when they’re coming and give you a delivery timeline — they’re not even able to do that right now. They’re just dropping off pallets at our door and running away.”

The slowdown in sales right now hurts for a couple of reasons, says Guignard. Restaurants are still trying to recover from the height of pandemic restrictions and the sales they would normally make during the Thanksgiving long weekend, aren’t going to happen this year.

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“The serious concern is this is going to put us behind for the Thanksgiving season and then for the holiday season after that. Additionally, a lot of the hospitality customers out there like pubs, bars, nightclubs, and restaurants rely on the revenue we make during this summer period and fall period to get us through until the Christmas and holiday season,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get as big of a bump because we didn’t get the products, we need so there are additional financial pressures on places that are just trying to recover from the pandemic.”

He’s hoping things are back to normal by Halloween for eateries, however, supply at liquor stores right now is consistent.

This all comes as thousands of members of the BCGEU vote to ratify their new collective bargaining agreement following months of talks with the provincial government. The union was previously offered a roughly 11 per cent wage increase, based on inflation, by the province.

The wage increase proposal includes:

• 3.24 per cent increase in the first year, plus 25 cents per hour
• 5.5-6.75 per cent increase in the second year, “based on inflation”
• 2-3 per cent increase in the third year, “based on inflation”

 

Voting goes until Oct. 17, and results are expected to be released soon after.