MEMO TO MANAGEMENT:

Hands off Albert Salmon!

But management has gone strangely silent on the issue. No meeting was held after Salmon filed his stage one grievance and further attempts to meet with the employer has been met with a wall of silence from the LCBO human resources department. Apparently the LCBO has been huddling with its lawyers, figuring out what to do next. Management’s case against Salmon wasn’t help by the sympathetic news coverage the incident received in the local Oshawa-area media and from the Toronto Sun and Global TV.

Offending slogan? Albert Salmon, union steward for local 376, displays the jacket deemed forbidden by the LCBO.

“All I want to do is wear my Obama shirt if I want,” Salmon told a local newspaper. “People pass me by and say ‘Go Obama.’ Why would the name offend somebody?”

In fact, Salmon has been wearing the same “Obamania” slogan on his work clothes for the past five months without any objections from co-workers or management.

But apparently warehouse director Bruce Pizzolato isn’t as enamoured with the popular, new American president as is Salmon, who has worked at the Durham facility for 26 years.

According to Salmon, he was approached by Pizzolato, who told him to either remove the “offending” slogan, or to turn his vest inside out. The supervisor said he was acting on a complaint from a co-worker.

Salmon said Pizzalato attempted to maneuver him by “yanking on my right shoulder three or four times,” in an attempt to read the Obamania slogan. The director’s action caused Salmon seek medical attention and later to file a claim with WISB and file an assault charge against the supervisor.

Salmon suffers from a permanent injury to the shoulder that Pizzalato yanked on.

Police confirmed they are investigating.

“This is just another example of the freeze in labour relations at the warehouse,” said Denise Davis, president of Local 378 and vice-chair of the Liquor Board Employees Division. “The director had no grounds whatsoever to either touch Albert or to order him to remove his vest.”

As far as OPSEU senior negotiator Rob Field is concerned, the matter should go all the way to the Ontario Human Rights Commission for a ruling.

“This is a farce of the highest order,” said Field. “The warehouse has no dress code and there is nothing offensive about the term ‘Obamania.’ The only thing offensive here is in the way the employer treats its workers.” 

Agency store campaign goes public in Mount Albert

Residents of the small community of Mount Albert, east of Newmarket, met last week to learn more about the Liquor Board Employees Division’s proposal to replace the local privately-owned and operated agency store with a real LCBO outlet.

More than 70 residents attended a meeting at the local community centre, organized by OPSEU, to hear the details behind LBED’s campaign to replace the agency kiosk, located inside the Sobeys Foodland on Highway 48, with a full-service LCBO store.

“Our proposal is pretty straightforward,” Laurie Miller, chair of LBED’s ‘Keep it Public’ campaign, told the audience. “When the current agency store contract with Sobeys expires in November, 2009, it should be replaced by a real LCBO store located next door to the grocery store.”

A poll of 151 residents of Mount Albert in September 2008, conducted by Strategic Communications Inc., of Toronto, showed that two of three wanted to see the agency kiosk replaced by a real LCBO store.

LBED consultant Russ Christianson presented the crowd with the business case in favour of a real LCBO store for Mount Albert based on sales figures provided by the LCBO in 2006-07. It showed that the agency store had revenues of about $3.5 million and paid an annual commission of more than $300,000 to Sobeys, which is headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia.

“The numbers make it very clear that Mount Albert could very easily support a real LCBO,” Christianson told the crowd. “In fact, the Mount Albert agency store does better business than many of the smaller LCBO retail outlets.”

LBED made a similar presentation to members of East Gwillimbury town council on Jan. 26 which represents Mount Albert. The union has asked town councilors to adopt a resolution asking Queen’s Park to order the LCBO to open a real store when the current agency contract expires later this year.

Town council has yet to vote on the issue.

At the public meeting several audience members questioned LBED’s campaign in Mount Albert, based on concerns that without the in-store agency kiosk the Sobeys Foodland might be forced to close.

On the contrary, Christianson said. By locating a real LCBO on the grounds outside the Sobeys Foodland, the grocery store stands to increase its sales 

“LCBO stores are destination stops for consumers. With double the product selection (over the in-store kiosk), professional staff and a higher standard of social responsibility, a real LCBO store will draw more customers to the Sobeys Foodland store. It’s really a win-win for everyone,” he said.

Citing the results of its independent polling, LBED intends to continue its campaign to bring a real LCBO store to Mount Albert and to expand the campaign to other communities in southern Ontario.

Bargaining Update

With the start of bargaining underway, the next round of mobilization will begin shortly. Liquor board employee mobilizers will soon begin fanning out across the province to schedule and organize membership meetings that will keep you up-to-date on our bargaining plans and what you can do to help achieve a good contract. Look for mobilizers coming to your work locations soon with details of the meetings.

The union has filed Notice to Bargain with the employer early last month. The first meeting with the employer is scheduled this week.

The Echo is authorized for distribution by:

Vanda Klumper
Chair, LBED

Warren (Smokey) Thomas
President, OPSEU

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