Metro’s Unifor workers may strike on April 1

Workers at the Metro distribution warehouse in Etobicoke, Ontario, are approaching a strike deadline of 12:01 April 1, 2022.

“Metro has profited tremendously during the pandemic but it is the shareholders who have benefited, not the front line workers,” said Unifor Ontario regional director Naureen Rizvi.

The contract negotiations involve more than 900 full-time workers at the Etobicoke Metro warehouse distribution centre, which supplies Metro and Food Basics grocery stores across southern Ontario along the Kingston – Windsor corridor. Workers voted 99 percent in favour of a strike mandate if a collective agreement is not reached prior to the April 1 deadline.

The Unifor Local 414 members have been without a contract since October 2021.

“These warehouse workers have kept supplies running throughout this pandemic and are now looking for the success that Metro has enjoyed to be reflected in wages, pensions and benefits,” said Frank Reynolds, Unifor Local 414 unit chair person.

Metro operates or services a network of some 950 food stores under several banners including Metro, Metro Plus, Super C and Food Basics, as well as some 650 drugstores primarily under the Jean Coutu, Brunet, Metro Pharmacy and Food Basics Pharmacy banners. It is based in Montreal.

Unifor is Canada’s largest union in the private sector and represents 315,000 workers across the country.