‘They freaked out’: How a deal to end the LCBO strike almost fell apart at the last minute

A last-minute argument over backpay and how staff should return to work put a deal to end the LCBO strike in jeopardy. The two sides say cooler heads prevailed.

The night had come and gone and the first lights of early morning were on the way when the LCBO and its striking union came to an agreement they felt they could sign on Friday morning.

Talks were finally going well between the two sides, who were finally speaking after two weeks of almost no contact during a province-wide liquor store strike.

Talks finally resumed on Wednesday, July 17, 12 days after the first strike in the LCBO’s 97-year history began.

The two sides returned to the table that day and negotiated into the night. The next day, Thursday, they returned and talks continued again — they finally began to find common ground and a deal was eventually agreed.

Colleen MacLeod, OPSEU’s LCBO lead, told Global News talks went “late into the night” on Thursday and wrapped around 4 a.m. on Friday, with the Crown agency and the union optimistic everything was ready to formally be announced.

“We said, ‘Look, we’re there, we’re almost there, we’ll look at the language and solidify everything in the morning, also we have to do this return-to-work protocol,'” MacLeod said.

The return-to-work protocol — which OPSEU president JP Hornick described as “standard practice in negotiations — is an agreement for how striking workers will come off the picket line and back into stores.

Hornick said it included logistical agreements like which workers would return to their shifts first and how they would get access to computers or keys. The protocol also featured the request of backpay for workers who had been on strike for more than two weeks.