Loblaws Ordered to Pay Over $50,000 to Members Over Illegal Prince Rupert Lock Out

Loblaws, the Toronto based grocery giant that owns Extra Foods in Prince Rupert, has been ordered to pay its Prince Rupert employees full wage recovery for the period of an illegal lockout. This amounts to over $50,000 according to the available information. The order was handed down by the BC Labour Relations Board.

The order came after the LRB determined that actions of Extra Foods management that reduced hours constituted an illegal lockout of the employees during bargaining for a new collective agreement with UFCW Local 1518. The UFCW members have been fighting for a new contract for months against Loblaws demands that they accept massive wage and benefit reductions.

Local 1518 had been paying the equivalent of, “Lock out Pay”, to insure that its members would not suffer economically from Loblaws illegal actions.

“Loblaws is attempting to turn all of the Extra Foods stores in the province into ‘low wage ghettoes’"says Local 1518 President Ivan Limpright, “and our members refuse to see their livelihoods destroyed by this employer.”

Local 1518 members at the Extra Foods store in Maple Ridge, BC have been on strike against Loblaws for sixteen months in the same fight as the Prince Rupert members. The Union is preparing for the dispute to spread across the province over the next few months.