GTA Metro grocery workers to strike after rejecting tentative deal

Over 3,700 workers at Metro grocery stores across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) will be hitting the picket lines Saturday morning.

Metro stores impacted by the strike include Toronto, Brantford, Orangeville, Milton, Oakville, Brampton, North York, Islington, Willowdale, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Newmarket, and Scarborough.

The 27 Metro stores will be closed for the duration of the strike, but pharmacies will remain open and continue to care for patients in the impacted locations.

Unifor Local 414 represents 3,700 Metro workers who are full and part-time store clerks in all departments, including cashiers, as well as department managers, pharmacy, and Starbucks staff.

Members of Unifor Local 414 had been voting this week on a tentative deal reached earlier this month. A series of regional votes were scheduled throughout the week, with the final one taking place Friday night.

RELATED: Metro workers at 27 stores across GTA reach tentative agreement, avoid a strike

Workers were told that a strike would begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday if a deal were rejected. Unifor members at Metro voted 100 per cent in favour of strike action.

“Metro Ontario Inc. is extremely disappointed that its unionized employees at 27 Metro locations across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) rejected the agreement reached last week and decided to go on strike effective July 29, even though the union bargaining committee unanimously recommended the agreement to its members,” a Metro Ontario spokesperson said.

A woman walks past a Metro grocery store in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ives

“The company has been negotiating with the union for the past few weeks and reached a fair and equitable agreement that meets the needs of our employees and our customers while ensuring that Metro remains competitive. The settlement provided significant increases for employees in all four years of the agreement, as well as pension and benefits improvements for all employees, including part-time employees.”

RELATED: Majority of Canadians believe food prices will continue to rise. Stats show they’re right.

Metro Ontario Inc. apologized to its customers for the inconvenience, telling Canadians they could visit other Metro or Food Basics stores in the GTA in the meantime.

Unifor National President Lana Payne and Unifor Local 414 President, Gord Currie, will speak at the Metro grocery store picket line outside a Metro in Danforth Village on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

Payne said in a statement that the tentative agreement was brought to members because it contained “considerable gains,” but they have made it clear that it isn’t enough.

“This decision to go on strike comes after years of these workers being nickelled and dimed while facing increased precarity and eroded job quality,” Payne said.

“It comes after having pandemic pay stripped away [and] at a time of record profits and soaring CEO compensation. It comes at a time when life has become simply unaffordable for so many of these workers who risked their health and safety during the pandemic.”