On March 30, 550 workers at Metro warehouses and offices in Laval, Quebec voted at 97% to strike in response to an unacceptable contract offer from the company. On April 9, 450 workers converged on a single Metro store in a show of force and solidarity.
In recent years, grocery giants have quietly padded their bottom lines, exploiting and prolonging the inflationary crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, ordinary Canadians stretched their budgets for basic necessities, and workers continued to face dangerous and uncertain working conditions.
For their part of this inflation profiteering, The Metro Group reported a 39% profit increase and a 56%1 rise in shareholder payouts over the past six years. In late March, Metro offered distribution centre workers in Laval their share of this record growth: an 11% raise, payable over the next six years.
The North Star spoke with Ghislain Giroux, a union delegate and warehouse worker, about his colleagues’ initial reaction to the announcement:
“The offer is truly insulting. It’s inappropriate because it’s peanuts for us, but especially since it’s peanuts compared to their salaries.”
“Even the ones who are normally the calmest were angry. Everyone was angry. That’s putting it nicely, because what I really mean is pissed off. Some were even kicking over garbage cans on the way out. We didn’t touch any of the merchandise. The word was: don’t touch the food, because there are people going hungry in Quebec, too.”
The vote to reject was nearly unanimous. Of the 550 workers involved, including warehouse staff and drivers in Laval, drivers at the Mérite 1 warehouse in Rivière-des-Prairies, and office workers at headquarters, 97% rebuffed the proposal. At the Laval warehouse, the count was 329 out of 331.
The strike began March 30 and has maintained round-the-clock pickets at the Laval warehouse. Ghislain says the company’s contemptuous offer has greatly strengthened the workers’ resolve to stand their ground:
“It would be hard for Metro to lead by example when the board votes to pay itself obscene salaries. When they give themselves a raise, it’s ‘only’ $600,000. Six hundred thousand! And Éric Laflèche has been CEO for twenty years. At some point, offering us three percent in the first year is just laughing in our faces. It’s a spit in the face.”
In recent high-profile strikes, at Canada Post and the STM among others, employers have weaponized service and supply disruptions to erode public support for workers. Asked whether he thinks the company might try to pin food supply disruptions on the strike, Ghislain responded:
“We can’t race to the bottom. Against capitalism, you have to keep raising the bar, or you’ll get fleeced. That’s all I have to say to that. […] It’s society that’s being held hostage by inflation, across the board. Every trade, every sector. It’s not just us. That’s why 550 people are trying to send a message. For all of society, too.”
Ghislain says the April 9 action is only the beginning, with pressure tactics set to escalate in the coming weeks if the union’s demands, which include significant wage catch-up, are not met.
“The ’80s-style unionism, it’s not the norm anymore… but sometimes, you have to bring it back a little.”
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