Granville Island Brewing strike continues, workers’ attempt at mediation rejected
Posted August 11, 2023 10:57 am.
Last Updated August 11, 2023 11:06 am.
Workers at Granville Island Brewing continue to strike after they say their attempt at mediation was shut down by parent company Molson Coors.
“The company accepted our request to have mediation and met with our union president just to say they don’t want to mediate with us, wasting our mediator’s time as well as ours,” worker Farya Abdianni told CityNews in an email.
On Aug. 1, the union says it arrived at mediation with the intention of a fair settlement, but Molson Coors refused to budge from the offer that initially led to the strike several weeks ago.
According to Daniel Lunberg, senior director of the Six Pints Collective, Molson Coors’ Canadian craft beer division, the company’s goal remains to offer a contract that includes a wage increase on top of workers’ current wages, which he says are already above a living wage.
“We have negotiated in good faith and believe our offer is fair and reasonable,” Lunberg said in an email. “Unfortunately, we have reached an impasse. We remain committed to reaching a strong agreement with our unionized employees.”
Abdianni says their current tiered wage system begins at minimum wage and only reaches to just below $21 before tax at its highest tier. According to Living Wage for Families BC, last year’s living wage in Metro Vancouver was $24.08, leaving the highest-paid workers at Granville Island Brewing earning well below the city’s liveable wage.
Abdianni says the union’s request to the company is to meet last year’s living wage of $24.08 by 2026, over a three-year contract.
“We are a group of seven retail and brewery workers who are looking to get a wage that reflects local rent and groceries and allows us to survive in the city we work in,” Abdianni said.
According to Molson Coors, the company is the fifth largest beer company in the world, with net sales reaching over USD$10 billion in 2022.
In May, Molson Coors announced its new partnership with BC Place as the Official and Exclusive Beer Partner. Granville Island Brewery was included in that announcement as the Official Craft Beer Partner.
Despite the strike and temporary closure of the brewery, Abdianni says its public presence, including its partnership with BC Place, has barely suffered. She thinks this is in part due to the public’s lack of awareness about the strike and the ownership of Granville Island Brewing by Molson Coors.
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Additionally, the company continues to actively host public events, such as a beer garden this weekend at the Vancouver Mural Festival.
“(Granville Island Brewing’s) social media has been still active in posting about their products in Instagram stories, so it honestly feels like our strike is being pushed into the dark,” Abdianni said.
Since the strike began on July 8, the union has been demonstrating weekly on “Solidarity Saturdays” at Granville Island Brewing in Vancouver, while the location remains closed due to the strike. The current agreement expired at the end of May and negotiations came to a halt in June over the issue of wages.
“Every day the business is closed, they are losing thousands of dollars and would prefer to do that instead of paying seven striking workers closer to a livable wage to afford the city that we work in,” Abdianni said.
