Ford puts blame on union

Premier says workers want deal, claims OPSEU walked away from talks

- ROBERT BENZIE

A member of the bargaining team for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents LCBO workers, said they were told by the LCBO “not to come back unless we were willing to give up on our core demands that included job security.”

Premier Doug Ford is going on the offensive as Ontario has been plunged into the first LCBO strike in history.

Injecting himself into the labour dispute with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), Ford said he had spoken to “hundreds” of LCBO workers since the job action began last Friday.

“These folks don’t want to be sitting out in the 100-degree weather or the pouring rain, they want to work, they want to get a deal,” the premier told reporters at Etobicoke’s Cool Beer Brewing Co.

“We should be at the table — that strike should never, ever have happened. We didn’t walk away from the table, OPSEU walked away from the table,” he said, noting the LCBO’s last offer would give fulltime jobs to 400 casual employees and give all workers seven per cent raises over three years.

But Colleen MacLeod, chair of the union’s liquor board employees division and bargaining team, said “Ford is lying about the LCBO’s offer.”