Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘saq’

While the SAQ was on strike last fall and winter, Quebecers flocked en masse across the Ontario border to stock up on liquor at the LCBO. Ontarians were fond of mocking us for this, and we in turn were jealous of their excellent selections, lower prices and seemingly better-run outlets.

Now, it looks like a role reversal might be on its way: the LCBO employees might strike:

About 5,400 unionized staff at the provincially owned LCBO, which runs 599 stores, voted overwhelmingly last week to reject a contract offer. If last-minute talks fail to break the deadlock, the strike will start on Thursday.

Well, the traffic might be going the other way soon. People of Ottawa, come discover our SAQs!

Update: Looks like the strike will be averted, as a last-minute tentative deal seems to be reached. I guess Ontarians won’t have to discover the joys of our SAQs after all.

Employees voted 76% in favour of the new contract agreement, and they’ll be heading back to work on Friday after two and a half months of striking:

Reports say the union managed to negotiate more permanent and temporary positions, and a guaranteed minimum number of hours, while the SAQ got more flexibility to operate.

Yawn. Someone please explain to me why it took months to reach this deal, when everyone knew the government would cave? Actually, never mind, I’m still trying to figure out why “guaranteed hours” for part-timers should be offered to anyone in retail, let alone people selling such a seasonal product like alcohol.

Oh well. People in Quebec can rest easy now, knowing that our liquor demand will be fulfilled by diligent part-timers earning nearly twice minimum wage, paid fully by our tax dollars. Ain’t life grand?

• It’s friggin’ freezing out there!!! Remind me again why I choose to live in this part of the world?
• Week before Christmas + SAQ strike = long lineups at the LCBO. On the plus side, LCBOs have great selections that include items like this… and they give you Air Miles. On the minus side, seems I’m supposed to be paying tax to the Quebec government for the booze I bought in Ontario. Yeah, right.
• What logical explaination is there for the price of gas being 15 cents a litre lower in Ontario than in Quebec?
• The map store is awesome. So is the game store. (I’m still accepting soybean donations).
• Chocolate frogs and turtle cheesecake are my new addictions.
• Coffee Coffee Coffee!!!

Some days, reading the paper can be hazardous to my health.

Take today, for example, where we see the following among the headlines:

Homeless people are angry about art in parks because they feel it’s “encroaching” on their space:

To try to clean urban eyesores in the downtown area, the city is using art to attract residents to parks usually frequented by homeless people. But advocacy groups see this as another encroachment on the already restricted space of homeless people.

[ . . . ]

“The people in Viger Park are getting kicked out of their home,” said a 30-year-old man who wishes to be identified as Napalm and who used to sleep in Viger Square until he was ticketed by police last summer. “It’s more or less the rich who want to make a use of that park. That’s pushing the government to do something.”

Instead of pointing out the obvious – that the homeless people are living in the parks illegally, the government is working overtime to try to make them feel unthreatened by these projects and even to “include” them. After all, it wouldn’t be politically-correct to suggest that people get a job and pay rent like the rest of us instead of choosing a “homeless lifestyle”, now would it?

Reading on… I see a headline about blue collar-workers refusing to de-ice downtown cause they’re upset about their arbitrated new contract that makes them work a whopping one more hour a week:

Workers responsible for spreading salt and sand on roads and sidewalks stayed home in defiance of the new 36-hour workweek imposed by a provincial government arbitrator.

The union is still angry over an arbitrator’s decision made Oct. 4 that increases the workweek from 35 hours to 36 hours. After months of stalled negotiations, a government mediator imposed the rule.

[ . . . ]

The union argued that the new hours would cut into the four-day week currently enjoyed by workers. City officials said the increase amounts to 15 extra minutes of work per day.

Just to recap, the poor babies only work 4 days a week, and are angry about one additional hour that still gives them a shorter workweek than 99% of people in Quebec. The union agreed to binding arbitration but decided it didn’t like the deal that was arbitrated so now it wants out. And to prove that point, the workers are letting people walk around on slippery sidewalks. The same people whose taxes pay their wages.

Blood pressure rising, I move on further and see that the SAQ employees are still refusing to deal with management, so the government-owned liquor monopoly will stay closed longer into the holiday season:

Charron called on the provincial government to intercede on the union’s behalf. He also asked unionized employees across the province not to cross the picket lines, as a gesture of solidarity with the SAQ employees.

But among the customers milling about the liquor store facing the Atwater Market to stock up on liquor for the holiday, sympathy for the striking workers seemed low.

Well, what did you think, genius… that the public would be happy about having restricted access to alcohol?

All in a typical day’s news here in Montreal…

Yes, believe it or not, there is other news besides the US election. Starting with the fact that nobody can figure out what’s wrong with Arafat. I’ve heard discounted diagnoses ranging from stomach cancer to leukemia to AIDS. If you ask me, what’s wrong with him is a complete, utter lack of a conscience, coupled with a victim mentality that tells him that the best way to get world sympathy right now is to get sick. It seems to be working like a charm.

The NHLPA met again yesterday, supposedly to discuss “strategy” but in reality to browbeat dissenting members into submission (perhaps by tattooing “no salary cap” into their skulls… for any players who might have been confused on that point).

And a suggestion for the SAQ workers planning to strike: consider as an alternative… a drink-in.