SAQ employees to hold another one-day strike

Workers at Quebec's liquor board (SAQ) walk off the job on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2024. (Matt Gilmour, CTV News)

Some 5,000 unionized employees of the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) are not expected to be at work on Monday as their union says negotiations continue to stall at the bargaining table.

The Syndicat des employés de magasins et de bureaux de la SAQ confirmed that its members are slated to hold their fifth strike day on Monday.

Negotiations have been underway for the last 21 months.

SAQ management did not respond in time for publication to indicate which branches will be closed or open.

During previous strikes, managers had maintained operations in some outlets, but not all.

According to the union, the employer has been asking workers to withdraw their demands since October and accept the proposals on the table, which it describes as “setbacks.”

The union says it believes that talks have reached an “impasse.”

While the normative clauses have been settled, the wage issue is still in dispute, according to the union, as is access to more permanent full-time positions and group insurance coverage.

The union points out that the SAQ offered its members a 16.5 per cent wage increase over six years, to which it countered with an offer of 20 per cent over five years.

The Syndicat des employés de magasins et de bureaux de la SAQ is affiliated with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux's (CSN) Fédération des employés de services publics (FEESP-CSN).

Its members' collective agreement expired on March 31, 2023.

Union members already walked off the job for two days in April, as well as on Oct. 17.

The following day, they called a mid-afternoon “surprise strike.”

The original mandate given by members to their union provides for up to 15 days of strike action.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 4, 2024.