The following is an update from the BCGEU Component 5 Campaigns Committee, an appointed group of BCGEU members working at BCLDB warehouses and retail stores around the province.

Our fight for essential pay continues – and the collective action of BCGEU members at BCLDB warehouses and retail stores is making the employer nervous. 

On March 16, 700 of us showed up to the BCLDB's virtual employee town hall to pressure CEO & GM Blain Lawson to provide financial recognition for our steadfast efforts throughout this pandemic. 

Many of us made our presence even more impactful, by attempting to share our campaign's button graphic, adding our campaign hashtags (#essentialBCLDB and #thankmewithessentialpay) to screen names, and asking our essential pay question in the town hall chat. 

Thanks to our reporting via email and social media, we know that many weren't permitted to activate our cameras or upload a profile image, and many were removed from or declined access to the town hall for adding the hashtags to your screen names. We also know the Q&A period was short and failed to take live questions. 

Although we were unable to troubleshoot these challenges (it was the employer's event, not the union's), we applaud you for letting us know about them – by sharing with each other the responses we get from the employer, we can see that our collective power is making an impact! 

And the employer should be nervous – our collective action last week, in which 600 of us submitted the same essential pay question in advance of the town hall, led to Blain addressing the topic right off the top Tuesday morning.

But of course, his response to our question was unsatisfactory. 

• He acknowledged the province's Temporary Pandemic Pay (TPP) program as means to provide essential pay. But he failed to acknowledge alternative ways to provide financial recognition – like, for example, an essential pay program funded and distributed by the BCLDB! Which is not unimaginable given that, as Blain pointed out, the BCLDB is making and spending money through record liquor and cannabis retail sales, Christmas-level wholesale orders, numerous stores opened or renovated, millions contributed to government services, increased advertising spending, and increased number of excluded positions. 
  
  
• He claimed that the BCLDB defers to government: "At the end of the day, we provide advice to government but we take direction. We don't always get to make the final decision." But he failed to acknowledge that he does, in fact, many times make spending decisions outside the government's directive (e.g. using BCBid for contracts). In other words, he could have made – and still can make – a decision to allocate a fraction of BCLDB budgets to essential pay. 
  
  
• Furthermore, we don't have to agree to bow to government's decisions. In addition to helping generate revenue for the province, we are tax-paying, voting stakeholders of our government – and we have a say in how the public-supporting revenue that we generate gets used.

Ultimately, Blain's response to our town hall question is not enough. Verbal acknowledgement is not enough. Eventually providing – after our repeated reminders of your responsibility to provide - plexiglass, sanitizer and PPE is not enough. Limiting pandemic pay to the TPP isn't enough. Claiming lack of power is not enough. Passing the buck to government is not enough. Neglecting the relationship with a key stakeholder – employees – isn't enough. Failing to tangibly advocate for us is not enough. 

He doesn't see the disconnect. And he's telling us that government has the power. So here's what we do:

1. We continue to challenge Blain's belief that the former TPP program is the only means to acknowledge LDB workers, and that he does, in fact, have options and power to provide workers with essential pay. 
2. At the same time, we follow Blain's targeting of government – specifically Minister of Finance, Selina Robinson – and, as government stakeholders, demand that worker-generated revenue be shared with workers. 

To make this happen, we are developing some tools for you to use. Standby for details in the coming week. In the meantime, we encourage you to:

• Download the button graphic and share it on your own social media profile or posts.
• Keep tweeting your support for essential pay to social media. You can do this here.

If you have any questions, please respond to this email.

In solidarity,
Component 5 Campaigns Committee 

UWU/MoveUP