Front Burner - Metro workers on strike and a “Hot Labour Summer”

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Right now, some 3,700 workers from 27 Metro grocery stores across the Greater Toronto Area are on strike – and they’re not alone. From British Columbia’s ports to Manitoba’s liquor stores to Hollywood, a wave of people across different industries have gone on strike this summer. Today on Front Burner, we head to a Metro picket line in East Toronto. We talk to workers there about what’s at stake for them as they strike, and take a closer look at what’s driving this recent labour unrest with McGill University’s Barry Eidlin, author of ‘Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada’ For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This is a CBC Podcast. Hey! Listen! One day stronger! One day longer! Yeah! One day longer! Yeah! Hi, I'm Imogen Burchard, a producer here on FrontBurner. Right now, some 3,700 workers from 27 metro grocery stores across the Greater Toronto area are on strike. As the sun beats down on unionized striking metro workers, the group remains steadfast.

Union officials say fair pay for all workers, greater access to better benefits, more secure work hours and full-time jobs were the main priorities. Walking off your job is a pretty bold move. To go without your usual paycheck on the chance you might get more. We want a livable wage. Toronto is an extremely expensive city. So many of our members, unfortunately,

have to use food banks. But from British Columbia's ports to Manitoba's liquor stores to Hollywood, a wave of people across different industries have been going on strike this summer, demanding a better deal from their bosses. Jobs being eroded, too much part-time work, not enough high-quality jobs with benefits and all of the things that we need in our lives to be able to support our families. And you can only do that for so long before people push back. In a bit, I'll take a

closer look at what's driving this recent labor unrest. But first, I went over to a metro parking lot in East Toronto on the humid holiday Monday, where workers who are usually checking out your groceries or slicing your deli meats are now walking the picket line to hear about what's at stake for them? Do you mind introducing yourself? Hi, I'm Deborah Richardson. And how long have you worked here? With Metro since 97, but I had 10 years in before that,

so I've been in the bakery business for 36 years. Okay, so you're a baker here? A bakery manager now. I was a cake decorator for over 30 years and then became a manager after my husband passed away. I had to for the sake of money, right? Yeah, but it's nice. Like I remember working at the previous store that I was at one store, the one at Kennedy Road for like 24 years. So it's nice. You see kids come in and you're making their first and second birthday cakes. All the way up to then their graduation cakes and stuff. So it's nice.

Like families in the community kind of grow with you. You see them grow up. And can I ask why you're striking now? Well, same thing. It's for pay, right? You know, it's just not enough. You know, when you're a single parent widow, one income, it's not enough. So the only

way to make more money was become a department head. You know, when people think that, oh, it's easy. Oh, well, you become a manager, you make more money. Well, when I became a manager, I then had to start commuting. I went from being walking distance to my store to then commuting four hours a day because I was taking, I don't drive. And even if I had a license, I couldn't afford a vehicle. You know, so I was literally take a bus to the subway, the entire subway line, 30 stops to take another bus and then a 10 minute walk. You know, now after doing that for almost five years, I finally got transferred closer to home and I'm in the store a week, and now we're on strike. Deborah didn't feel comfortable sharing exactly how much she gets paid. But Unifor, the union representing these Metro workers, says full-time employees at these stores earn an average of $22.60 an hour.

For part-timers, the average is around $16.60. $29.90 is what you'd need to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Ontario these days, according to a recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It did used to be where, you know, people always thought union grocery store jobs is good money. Well, when you look at the cost of living, you know, people always thought union grocery store jobs is good money. Well, when you look at the cost of living, you know, it's not. It really isn't.

You know, like it used to be a $40,000 a year was a good job, you know, or $40,000, $50,000, like whatever. It's not now, you know, especially in the city when it's one income. You know, like you look at what rent is now. More than 50% of my income goes to my rent. More than 50%. You know, so how do you survive? The rise in cost of living in the city came up over and over with the strikers I talked to. For Debra, it means making sacrifices. Something's always having to wait, whether it be your phone bill, your gas bill, your hydro bill. Something's always got to wait because if you need to leave, you know, like more than half your pay every week,

like then what does it leave left for groceries? And groceries keep going up, you know, and you got to eat, you know, so then you end up, you have no choice, but then you'll skip paying one of your utility bills because at least, you know that can buy you a little bit of time so it's this constant juggle and shuffle and maybe this is what they're wanting is to back everybody into a corner so then you're gonna just go ahead and agree to it what can you do it's it's unfortunate because it's just life sucks you know where is the balance in life? Where is the pleasure? You know, like you work so hard. And for what?

Just to survive. I'm sorry. It's just, it is. It's emotional. You know, like you say, it's sure I got a raise becoming a manager, but my husband had to pass away for me to then make that move. Because I know I would never have done it. I would have continued just decorating cakes because I loved what I did. You know, and I do enjoy working my job.

I do enjoy it. Like, I'm lucky for that. Because there's people that go to work every day and hate their job. I do like my job, but yeah, you can't survive. It sucks. Pay is what's at the heart of this metro strike. Everyone I spoke to that day cited it. We're fighting for better wages, better living.

We need some more money. We need money to support our family. And that's why we are on strike. We are on strike because we need more money, more pay. Because, you know, what we're getting now is just not enough. It's not enough to pay the bills and to put food on the table. In late July, the union and Metro had actually reached a tentative agreement that included raises. Unifor had endorsed it as the best agreement in decades. Metro said it, quote, provided significant increases for our employees

in addition to improved pension and benefits, building on working conditions that are already among the highest in the industry. But when this agreement was brought to the membership, a majority voted to reject it. Tammy Laporte, a produce cut fruit clerk and member of the bargaining committee, told me why. We got decent gains in the contract that was offered to us, but I believe as far as what everybody's told me, it just wasn't enough money, especially upfront money. To hear Metro tell it, these decent gains that were proposed were above the inflation rate for 2023. And the future wage increases were above the projected inflation rate.

But Unifor says wages haven't kept up with inflation over the previous decade. I got the sense talking to the strikers that the pandemic is playing a role here too. In the early days of COVID, grocery store workers were recognized as essential. They kept going to work when many others stayed home. And for a while, they felt appreciated. I guess there's a stigma around retail workers, especially us who take this as, you know, a career, a full time that we support our families on. So, you know, when we were essential, it was great. You know, people were like, you guys are COVID heroes.

And, you know, they thanked us. But now some of that has faded. For the most part, we have great customers. But then you have people who are they're very angry. They're, you know, they see the costs increasing as well and they take it out on us at the end of the day. You get yelled at, called names. Sometimes people even throw things and get really abusive, you know, verbally and physically.

And, you know, it's not our fault. We don't control the prices in the grocery stores. Their employer had also showed some appreciation in the early days of the pandemic in the form of a $2 an hour bonus dubbed hero pay, but it didn't last. I think people really loved, I know I did, that $2 an hour. It was great. It made a big difference at the end of the week. And it went away just as quick as it began. And I think it was pretty insulting to all of us that it was just gone. Canada's three main grocery giants, Loblaws, Sobeys, and Metro, all stopped HeroPay on the

same day in June 2020. In later COVID waves, Metro did offer gift cards to the store. But some workers, like Marcia Nelson, say they want the $2 back. The toughest part, we work right through the pandemic, you know. And they shouldn't have to let us ask, you know, to get more raise. They should look at it and say, you know, these people were through the pandemic. We should really give them a raise. They gave us $2, but they took it back. Why? Now we are asking back for that.

Yesterday, Metro released its quarterly earnings. Profits have jumped 26% over the same period last year. Included in a press release about the earnings was a statement from Metro President and CEO Eric LaFleche, where he said of the strike, We are clearly disappointed with the current labor dispute in 27 of our Metro stores in the Greater Toronto Area, given that we had reached a very good agreement that was unanimously recommended by union representatives. We look forward to a resolution and the reopening of our stores as soon as possible while ensuring the long-term competitiveness of our company. We reached out to Metro for comment on what some of the workers, but other strikes we're seeing across the country.

Manitoba's liquor workers are off the job. All 1,400 unionized liquor staff went on strike. More than 100,000 unionized federal public servants walked off the job yesterday. This afternoon, we got word that the picket lines were going back up here, and 7,400 port workers were off the job again. Thirteen days of strike action cost the economy an estimated $6.5 billion. You're about to hear from Barry Eidlin. He's an associate professor of sociology at McGill University and the author of

Labor and the Class Idea in the U.S. and Canada. I started by asking him about how the lack of affordability in our cities is contributing to these strikes we're seeing. So it's a huge cost of living crisis that the grocery workers are sort of the poster children for this broader trend, right? Where we've seen decades of wage stagnation in the context of soaring inequality, right? So these workers, their refrain that they repeat justifiably over and over again is that they can't afford to shop where they work. And then meanwhile, their bosses are raking in multiple millions of dollars and the corporate earnings have skyrocketed. And so the companies are sort of pleading poverty and saying that, oh, grocery is a small margin business, leaving aside the fact conveniently that they somehow manage with those tight margins to pay their CEOs millions of

dollars and pay their shareholders very generously as well. And again, that's not just grocery. That's a broader trend where you've had in economic terms, the technical term is labor share of profits. The labor share has declined over the past 40 years. And that's a question of power, right? That's basically where employers have been able to assert their power in the labor market and take for themselves a greater share of profits and productivity. And so you see these charts, which economists and other social scientists pore over, that show sort of the relationship between wage growth and productivity growth. And you see that in the decades after World War II, those two things generally

were in lockstep with each other. And in the 70s, that basically stopped. And wages started stagnating while productivity kept increasing. And what that meant was that employers were taking a bigger share of the pie, essentially. And now we're sort of 40 years into this trend, which has its ups and downs. And we're finally in a position where growing numbers of workers are basically saying, you know, enough. And it's time to actually get more of our fair share. Yeah, I heard that a lot talking to the people on the picket line. It comes down to, you you know you get the greedy ceos that are sitting here on their profits they get bonuses and all that stuff we're slugging

here at work to make them the money to show them the money and we get no no thanks no pat on the back it's not a good feeling you know why because we helped them make this money so just give us a piece of the pie we're not asking for a lot, just enough to support our family. And I also think it's notable that this action is coming at a time that grocery prices have gone up so much and the profits that the grocery giants have been making, you know, they have been in the headlines lately. And I guess, how does that play into the dynamics of what we're seeing here? Yeah, it really twists the knife, right? Because here, these workers are, you know, literally, you know, having to rely on government assistance or having to cut corners or not adequately feed their

families because they're making such low wages and their employer is claiming that there's no money to pay them while they're reporting record earnings to their shareholders. And so where's the money going, right? And I think that it really sort of crystallizes this core problem of stagnating wages and soaring inequality. It does seem worth noting to me that the workers actually rejected the tentative agreement that was initially quite proudly endorsed by their union. And what does that tell you? That tells me that workers are demanding more, that they have heightened expectations of what they should get after decades of standardizing wages, soaring inequality, and declining job quality. credit, the union leadership listened to the message the members sent and backed them up on their decision to go on strike, which is something else that's not always the case. So this time, Unifor has clearly gotten the message that what they negotiate is not enough

and they need to fight for more. really gotten the message that what they negotiate is not enough and they need to fight for more. You know, while all the striking workers that I spoke to wanted more, wanted a bigger raise, wanted to be paid more, at least one that I spoke to sounded very reticent to actually be on strike. And yeah, I don't want to be out here, but you have no choice at the same time. I need the picket pay. I need it. You here, but you have no choice at the same time. I need the picket pay. I need it, you know, kind of have no choice, right? You know what, if, and I know it maybe goes against what other co-workers, your co-union workers would agree, but hey, if they had opened that door, I'd be in there working right now. I would, that's me. My situation may be different than someone else.

I'm sure it takes a toll on employees to be taking strike pay instead of their regular wage, and you can't expect everyone to be on board with the action. I guess I wonder what considerations you think those employees might be grappling with right now. Well, they're the same issues that all these workers are grappling with. We have to understand that striking is a last-ditch resort for workers to have their demands listened to and addressed. This is not something that workers undertake lightly and in some sort of trigger happy way. This is a real sacrifice that they are undertaking in the short term in the hope of winning longer term gains. And so, yeah, I mean, while they're on strike, it's tough making ends meet. It's very hard to, you can't live on strike pay.

That's not what it's for. It's a real stopgap. And so I think that it really testifies to the degree to which the situation has gotten so severe that workers feel that this is their only option. And I think that Canadians need to keep that in mind when they see workers on strike, that this is not some sort of, you know, oh yeah, we don't want to go to work. Let's have some fun on the picket line. This is a tough decision that workers have to make.

And it's really a last ditch resort when all other efforts to get the employer to the bargaining table to listen to their demands have fallen through. You know, it's so telling that people who are the most precarious workers are willing to forego their paychecks to come out and stand on the line. And, you know, we're not only fighting for us, we're fighting for other retail workers. It's kind of draining and we wish we were in there working hard, making our honest pay and, you know, do our customer service the best we can. Instead, we're here because we're fighting for what we want.

we want. What kind of message do you think this sends to other big grocers? You know, obviously Loblaws has been in the news so much lately, and then other retailers more generally. Yeah, I mean, I think, like we've been talking about, this is part of this broader hot labor summer, hot strike summer, what have you, where we're seeing greater swaths of workers not accepting what their current work situation is and fighting back to demand more. Of course, wages are a huge issue, but there's a whole array of other issues regarding the use of technology in the workplace, regarding contingent work, regarding overscheduling, underscheduling, management harassment, surveillance, subcontracting. The list goes on. And workers with the tight labor market, I think think have a greater degree of confidence to say, you know, now's the time to fight back. And so I think that to the extent that the metro workers

are successful in getting more, that will send a broader signal that, you know, this is, it puts this more on people's mental maps, right, of sort of, what are the range of options I have for dealing with my problems at work? Because obviously, if you talk to most Canadian workers, they could rattle off a whole bunch of different problems that they are experiencing at work. And the question is, what do you do about it? And for a long time, the response has been sort of these individual coping mechanisms, essentially, whether it's sort of just sucking it up, or just putting your head down and working harder, or trying to negotiate some deal of your own with your boss, with greater or lesser success, or just quitting and trying to find something better.

But all these options are sort of at the individual level. And so what we're seeing now as these strikes become more prevalent, it's not that people didn't know that strikes existed, but as this tactic becomes more prevalent, more workers take notice, and it becomes much more of a feasible option that they themselves feel they could take to deal with their own problems at work. And so I think, and especially, you know, when they see workers fighting and winning, that sort of has an infectious quality to it. It certainly feels like, I think you used the expression, the hot strike summer, hot labor summer earlier. But actually, how does this compare to previous years or even decades in terms of the number of strikes we're seeing?

Yeah. So it's important to keep that perspective. And I'm glad you mentioned that because any strike action gets people to pay attention. But in historical perspective, what we're seeing now is far below what we saw in the 70s and earlier than that. So we're nowhere near the rates we saw in previous decades. But of course, in order to have a trend line, you have to work your way back up from zero from where you're starting. So the question is where the trend line is going to be heading. We know that public support can help a strike if it's there and hurt it if it's not. Do you have a sense of how sympathetic Canadians are feeling towards strikes and striking workers right now?

Yeah, this is a really important question for exactly the reasons you mentioned. And unfortunately, I don't have polling data or anything like that about strikes specifically. And it's important to mention that a lot of times this is strike specific. to mention that a lot of times this is strike specific. But given what we know, the polling data do show that, generally speaking, approval of unions is at a high we haven't seen in a few decades, at least. And we also know that the issues that are driving the strikes that we're seeing now are issues that affect a broad swath of Canadians. So they're not these narrow issues of, you know, I've got mine and I need more kind of thing. It's very hard to portray the Metro strikers, for example, as these greedy workers who are just trying to hold on to their privilege or something like that, right? It's pretty clear that the predicament that they're facing is a predicament that is all

too common for far too many Canadian workers. And so to the degree that they are fighting this fight and are able to win something, I think that a lot of Canadians would look at that and see that as a good thing, that they do need to be paid more because they understand the challenges that these workers face themselves. That's all for today. Tameric and Dacher will be back hosting tomorrow. I'm Imogen Burchard. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner.