Premier Heather Stefanson climbed into the ring and threw a few punches at the union representing striking liquor workers Friday, just hours before all retail outlets in the province — save for two in Winnipeg — locked the doors for the weekend.
It marked the first time the premier publicly waded into the increasingly bitter battle between Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries and about 1,400 members of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union over a new collective agreement.
Stefanson accused the union of “politicizing” the dispute and the NDP of standing in the way of progress as the strike dragged into its fourth day.
“I don’t think that they are telling their members what is really on the table for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries,” the premier said at an unrelated news conference.
“There is a 15 to 25 per cent increase in their wages over four years, it’s on the table. It’s on the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries website. Go there.
“I don’t think we should be politicizing this. Manitobans want to have access to (products from Liquor Marts).”
Her comments echo those made by MLL president Gerry Sul, who earlier in the week accused MGEU of “shielding (members) from all the details.”
The union responded to Sul’s remarks, explaining that its members have been encouraged to seek out MLL’s information, and argued the 24.55 per cent wage increase ladder described on MLL’s website would apply only to seasonal workers and new hires, who make up less than 20 per cent of the workforce and, then, only if those people remained employees for four years.
Under the current proposal, the union said, most permanent long-term members would get a four-year total wage increase of eight or nine per cent.
“I’ve spent many, many hours on the picket lines over this last little while, and I can tell you our members are well aware what the offer is, and they’re really fighting for fairness,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said Friday.
“I don’t know how you would want to make political gains off of a strike and off of these families who have all this stress and all these issues going on.”
Stores closed
While five Winnipeg Liquor Marts and two outside the city have been open since the provincewide strike began Tuesday, even fewer will be open this weekend.
While five Winnipeg Liquor Marts and two outside the city have been open since the provincewide strike began Tuesday, even fewer will be open this weekend.
Just two Winnipeg Liquor Marts — the Crestview location at 3393 Portage Avenue and the St. Vital Square Liquor Mart at 827 Dakota Street — will be open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, according to a MLL spokesperson. All rural Liquor Marts will be closed Saturday, and all Liquor Marts in Manitoba will be closed Sunday.
Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries is also converting two of its locations, the Eastwinds Liquor Mart at 1530 Regent Avenue and the Brandon Victoria Liquor Mart at 1015 Victoria Avenue to commercial-only stores. Starting Friday at Eastwinds and Aug. 15 in Brandon, these locations will not be open to the public and shoppers will have to provide licensee identification.
According to the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries website (which currently lists the Crestview and St. Vital Square locations as closed on Saturday) the Crestview, Garden City Square, Grant Park, Hargrave at Ellice and St. Vital Square locations in Winnipeg will be open 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays next week, as will the Brandon South location. The Thompson Liquor Mart will operate at reduced hours from Tuesday to Friday.
The Crestview, Garden City Square, Grant Park, Hargrave at Ellice and St. Vital Square locations in Winnipeg are open Friday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., along with the Brandon Victoria Avenue location and the Thompson Liquor Mart.
MLL workers have been without a contract since March 2022 and want raises in line with those obtained by Premier Heather Stefanson and her cabinet — 3.3 per cent in 2023 and 3.6 per cent in both 2024 and 2025.
MLL is offering two per cent a year over four years, and raising the hourly starting wage $2.38 above the province’s minimum wage.
The current starting hourly wage for MLL workers is $14.91, increasing to $15.30 in October in line with the raise in minimum wage. The promised bump for entry-level workers would increase the starting wage to $17.68 hourly this year and by March 2025, the starting wage would be $18.57, when a one per cent recruitment and retention adjustment is applied that year.
The last liquor-related labour dispute in the province was in October 1978, when the Manitoba Government Employees’ Association went on strike for seven weeks.
Stefanson also criticized the NDP’s decision to block proposed legislation earlier this year that would have expanded private liquor sales in the province.
“They stood in the way of that. We think that’s wrong,” she said. “And we’ll continue to stand up for the workers, we’ll continue to stand up for Manitobans when it comes to more access to to liquor and make it more convenient for them.”
NDP critic for Liquor and Lotteries Lisa Naylor said Stefanson’s Progressive Conservative government has a “clear agenda” to follow Alberta and Saskatchewan in privatizing Manitoba’s liquor industry.
“Maybe this is some way they’re trying to turn around, to get public sentiment on their side around privatization, although we certainly didn’t hear much support for that when the bills were in process (in the legislature),” Naylor said.
Although the province doesn’t appear poised to pursue a full privatization model, the strike has quickly become a campaign issue that could have negative impact on both the Tories and the NDP, said Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor in political studies at the University of Manitoba.
Manitobans will elect a new provincial government Oct. 3.
The Eastwinds Liquor Mart will only be open for commercial customers.
“If you’re a shopper in Fort Richmond and you want to buy your bottle of Wiser’s rye or some vodka, and yet again, you can’t buy what you’re looking to shop for, you might think, ‘Well, who’s responsible for this long strike?’” he said.
“And you say, the government, in part, is responsible because they haven’t interfered with it, but at the same time, one might say, the unions are supported by the NDP. It’s a cross-cutting issue, and the PCs might want to let this ride for a while.”
The longer the strike goes on, the more effect it will have when voters go to the polls, Adams said.
“I would say the agenda right now is mostly in the union’s favour, which is surprising to me, because with stores being closed, there are a lot of people who might not care about the issues,” he said.
“Now, the longer this takes to get resolved, the more the union might have less of a control over the dialogue.”
Meanwhile, some striking employees objected to comments posted publicly on a provincial government minister’s political campaign Facebook page earlier this week.
Consumer Protection and Government Services Minister James Teitsma blamed MGEU for what he described as a “needless strike” and responded to several comments posted by individuals on one of Teitsma’s unrelated posts.
One commenter, Tom Boomer, who said his wife is one of the employees currently on strike, asked whether the government would negotiate with MLL employees.
In response, Teitsma wrote: “(MLL) and MGEU should be negotiating right now. No one wants a strike except Kyle Ross and the NDP. This strike isn’t about negotiating for MGEU — it’s about a political objective.”
In a subsequent comment, the minister wrote, “Your wife is being used by MGEU to score political points.”
The employee, Jenn Boomer, told the Free Press she felt the minister’s comments lacked a sense of leadership and showed no empathy for the families of liquor workers.
“He made us out to be puppets,” she said.
Ross expressed frustration with Teitsma’s comments.
“I think it’s insulting to talk down to our members like this,” he said.
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
“Communication is one of the most important skills you require for a successful life.” — Catherine Pulsifer, author.
I’m one hundred percent in agreement with Pulsifer, which is why my evaluation of candidates begins with their writing skills. If a candidate’s writing skills and verbal communication skills, which I’ll assess when interviewing, aren’t well above average, I’ll pass on them regardless of their skills and experience.
Why?
Because business is fundamentally about getting other people to do things—getting employees to be productive, getting customers to buy your products or services, and getting vendors to agree to a counteroffer price. In business, as in life in general, you can’t make anything happen without effective communication; this is especially true when job searching when your writing is often an employer’s first impression of you.
Think of all the writing you engage in during a job search (resumes, cover letters, emails, texts) and all your other writing (LinkedIn profile, as well as posts and comments, blogs, articles, tweets, etc.) employers will read when they Google you to determine if you’re interview-worthy.
With so much of our communication today taking place via writing (email, text, collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, ClickUp, WhatsApp and Rocket.Chat), the importance of proficient writing skills can’t be overstated.
When assessing a candidate’s writing skills, you probably think I’m looking for grammar and spelling errors. Although error-free writing is important—it shows professionalism and attention to detail—it’s not the primary reason I look at a candidate’s writing skills.
The way someone writes reveals how they think.
Clear writing = Clear thinking
Structured paragraphs = Structured mind
Impactful sentences = Impactful ideas
Effective writing isn’t about using sophisticated vocabulary. Hemingway demonstrated that deceptively simple, stripped-down prose can captivate readers. Effective writing takes intricate thoughts and presents them in a way that makes the reader think, “Damn! Why didn’t I see it that way?” A good writer is a dead giveaway for a good thinker. More than ever, the business world needs “good thinkers.”
Therefore, when I come across a candidate who’s a good writer, hence a good thinker, I know they’re likely to be able to write:
Emails that don’t get deleted immediately and are responded to
Simple, concise, and unambiguous instructions
Pitches that are likely to get read
Social media content that stops thumbs
Human-sounding website copy
Persuasively, while attuned to the reader’s possible sensitivities
Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: AI, which job seekers are using en masse. Earlier this year, I wrote that AI’s ability to hyper-increase an employee’s productivity—AI is still in its infancy; we’ve seen nothing yet—in certain professions, such as writing, sales and marketing, computer programming, office and admin, and customer service, makes it a “fewer employees needed” tool, which understandably greatly appeals to employers. In my opinion, the recent layoffs aren’t related to the economy; they’re due to employers adopting AI. Additionally, companies are trying to balance investing in AI with cost-cutting measures. CEOs who’ve previously said, “Our people are everything,” have arguably created today’s job market by obsessively focusing on AI to gain competitive advantages and reduce their largest expense, their payroll.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that most AI usage involves generating written content, content that’s obvious to me, and likely to you as well, to have been written by AI. However, here’s the twist: I don’t particularly care.
Why?
Because the fundamental skill I’m looking for is the ability to organize thoughts and communicate effectively. What I care about is whether the candidate can take AI-generated content and transform it into something uniquely valuable. If they can, they’re demonstrating the skills of being a good thinker and communicator. It’s like being a great DJ; anyone can push play, but it takes skill to read a room and mix music that gets people pumped.
Using AI requires prompting effectively, which requires good writing skills to write clear and precise instructions that guide the AI to produce desired outcomes. Prompting AI effectively requires understanding structure, flow and impact. You need to know how to shape raw information, such as milestones throughout your career when you achieved quantitative results, into a compelling narrative.
So, what’s the best way to gain and enhance your writing skills? As with any skill, you’ve got to work at it.
Two rules guide my writing:
Use strong verbs and nouns instead of relying on adverbs, such as “She dashed to the store.” instead of “She ran quickly to the store.” or “He whispered to the child.” instead of “He spoke softly to the child.”
Avoid using long words when a shorter one will do, such as “use” instead of “utilize” or “ask” instead of “inquire.” As attention spans get shorter, I aim for clarity, simplicity and, most importantly, brevity in my writing.
Don’t just string words together; learn to organize your thoughts, think critically, and communicate clearly. Solid writing skills will significantly set you apart from your competition, giving you an advantage in your job search and career.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
MONTREAL – Politics, public opinion and salary hikes south of the border helped push Air Canada toward a deal that secures major pay gains for pilots, experts say.
Hammered out over the weekend, the would-be agreement includes a cumulative wage hike of nearly 42 per cent over four years — an enormous bump by historical standards — according to one source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The previous 10-year contract granted increases of just two per cent annually.
The federal government’s stated unwillingness to step in paved the way for a deal, noted John Gradek, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it plain the two sides should hash one out themselves.
“Public opinion basically pressed the federal cabinet, including the prime minister, to keep their hands clear of negotiations and looking at imposing a settlement,” said Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University.
After late-night talks at a hotel near Toronto’s Pearson airport, the country’s biggest airline and the union representing 5,200-plus aviators announced early Sunday morning they had reached a tentative agreement, averting a strike that would have grounded flights and affected some 110,000 passengers daily.
The relative precariousness of the Liberal minority government as well as a push to appear more pro-labour underlay the prime minister’s hands-off approach to the negotiations.
Trudeau said Friday the government would not step in to fix the impasse — unlike during a massive railway work stoppage last month and a strike by WestJet mechanics over the Canada Day long weekend that workers claimed road roughshod over their constitutional right to collective bargaining. Trudeau said the government respects the right to strike and would only intervene if it became apparent no negotiated deal was possible.
“They felt that they really didn’t want to try for a third attempt at intervention and basically said, ‘Let’s let the airline decide how they want to deal with this one,'” said Gradek.
“Air Canada ran out of support as the week wore on, and by the time they got to Friday night, Saturday morning, there was nothing left for them to do but to basically try to get a deal set up and accepted by ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association).”
Trudeau’s government was also unlikely to consider back-to-work legislation after the NDP tore up its agreement to support the Liberal minority in Parliament, Gradek said. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party has traditionally toed a more pro-business line, also said last week that Tories “stand with the pilots” and swore off “pre-empting” the negotiations.
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau had asked Ottawa on Thursday to impose binding arbitration pre-emptively — “before any travel disruption starts” — if talks failed. Backed by business leaders, he’d hoped for an effective repeat of the Conservatives’ move to head off a strike in 2012 by legislating Air Canada pilots and ground crew to stick to their posts before any work stoppage could start.
The request may have fallen flat, however. Gradek said he believes there was less anxiety over the fallout from an airline strike than from the countrywide railway shutdown.
He also speculated that public frustration over thousands of cancelled flights would have flowed toward Air Canada rather than Ottawa, prompting the carrier to concede to a deal yielding “unheard of” gains for employees.
“It really was a total collapse of the Air Canada bargaining position,” he said.
Pilots are slated to vote in the coming weeks on the four-year contract.
Last year, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines secured agreements that included four-year pay boosts ranging from 34 per cent to 40 per cent, ramping up pressure on other carriers to raise wages.
After more than a year of bargaining, Air Canada put forward an offer in August centred around a 30 per cent wage hike over four years.
But the final deal, should union members approve it, grants a 26 per cent increase in the first year alone, retroactive to September 2023, according to the source. Three wage bumps of four per cent would follow in 2024 through 2026.
Passengers may wind up shouldering some of that financial load, one expert noted.
“At the end of the day, it’s all us consumers who are paying,” said Barry Prentice, who heads the University of Manitoba’s transport institute.
Higher fares may be mitigated by the persistence of budget carrier Flair Airlines and the rapid expansion of Porter Airlines — a growing Air Canada rival — as well as waning demand for leisure trips. Corporate travel also remains below pre-COVID-19 levels.
Air Canada said Sunday the tentative contract “recognizes the contributions and professionalism of Air Canada’s pilot group, while providing a framework for the future growth of the airline.”
The union issued a statement saying that, if ratified, the agreement will generate about $1.9 billion of additional value for Air Canada pilots over the course of the deal.
Meanwhile, labour tension with cabin crew looms on the horizon. Air Canada is poised to kick off negotiations with the union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants this year before the contract expires on March 31.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
