2 Manitoba-owned Liquor Marts to remain open to the public this weekend

All but two government-owned Liquor Marts in Manitoba will be closed to the public this weekend.

The Crestview Liquor Mart located at 3393 Portage Avenueand St. Vital Square Liquor Mart located at 827 Dakota Streetwill be open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, a Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries spokespersonsaid in a Friday statement.

Two other Manitoba Liquor Marts will also be open,but only for commercial customers, the spokesperson said.

Winnipeg commercial customers can shop at Eastwinds Liquor Mart Monday toFriday, while commercial customers in the Westman area can visitthe Brandon Victoria Liquor Mart from Tuesday through Friday. Both locations will operate from noon until 5 p.m.

Customers must present licensee ID to shop at the locations, Liquor & Lotteries said.

Unionized staff at the stores, as well as the Liquor & Lotteriesdistribution centre on King Edward Street in Winnipeg, have been stepping up job action since theirfirst walkout last month.

They gradually expanded the walkouts, forcing management to operate some of the retail locations at times and prompting some lockouts by Liquor & Lotteries, leading up to a full strike that began on Tuesday.

Since then, five Winnipeg Liquor Martshave beenkept open by managers, along witha Brandon store and the store in Thompson.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, which represents the striking workers, had previously said it was avoiding pullingworkers from stores for long stretches because it wantedManitobans to be able to buy liquor through the summer.

But on Monday this week, the union announced it would begin a full strike, amove it said was prompted by the corporation'sintention to close more stores.

Throughout the dispute, Liquor & Lotterieshas been directing customers tocheck its website for the latest updates.

A spokesperson for the union, in an email, simply said "this is an operational question for the employer."

Liquor Mart customer Neil Curry said he doesn't mind the upcoming closures.

"It's not really amajor inconvenience. If it goes on too long it probably will be," he said at the Hargrave andEllice location on Friday, a store he normally doesn't shop at.

Roger McKay also doesn't normally buy booze at that location. He lives outside the city and normally goes to the store inBirds Hill, but that shop is running low on stock, he told CBC.

The closures don't bother McKay either, he said, despite the long lineupsat Hargrave andEllice Friday.

"What I can't understand is the wage that they're making it's a low rate," he said. "They should be making more money than that."

On Thursday, MGEUpresident Kyle Rosssaid his members would willingly go back to work if they were offered a fair deal.

According to the union's last collective agreement, which expired in March 2022, full-time Liquor Mart clerks make about $20 to $24 per hour, while part-time clerks receive $15 to $17 an hour.

The most recent offer by the Crown corporationincludes a signing bonus for workers who've clocked more than 330 hours in a year, as well as a two per cent wage increase each year, with additional bumps to ensure those at the bottom end of the pay scale get legislated minimum wage increases, Liquor & Lotteries CEO Gerry Sultold CBC earlier this week.

MGEU has previously said a 3.3 per cent increase would be fair, as that number istied to the consumer price index.

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