Customers, workers, and security stand outside a Metro grocery store in Toronto as workers rejected a tentative deal triggering a strike of nearly 3,700 grocery store workers in the Greater Toronto Area, Saturday, July 29, 2023. Striking Metro workers in the Greater Toronto Area began picketing two of the grocers' distribution warehouses on Wednesday.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
TORONTO – Striking Metro workers in the Greater Toronto Area are now picketing two of the grocers’ distribution warehouses, a move the company says is preventing deliveries of fresh products to stores across the province.
Local 414 president Gord Currie and national president Lana Payne met workers engaging in a secondary picket at warehouse in Toronto’s west end.
More than 3,700 workers at 27 Metro stores across the GTA have been on strike since July 29 after rejecting a tentative agreement recommended by their bargaining committee.
Metro spokeswoman Marie-Claude Bacon called on the workers to come back to the table, saying the warehouses supply all Metro and Food Basics stores in Ontario and the pickets are preventing deliveries of fresh produce to all its stores.
Unifor has said that the workers are asking for a fair share of the company’s rising profits, with many workers demanding their pandemic “hero pay” of $2 an hour be reinstated.
Metro says the tentative agreement workers rejected included paid sick days for part-time workers, improvements in benefits and pensions, and significant wage increases.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2023.
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