I'm writing to update you on our response to the B.C. government's exclusion of workers at the Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) from the temporary pandemic pay program, the 16-week federal-provincial cost-share program to provide top-up pay for essential workers which ends next week.

On July 9, myself and your union's president, Stephanie Smith, sent a letter to Minister of Finance Carole James asking for an answer to the question:Will LDB workers be included in the pandemic pay program?
 
It was important to send this letter to ensure the government received our message that, because LDB workers were deemed essential by government and have continuously worked on the frontlines throughout the pandemic, incurring increased risk, cost and inconvenience to serve our communities, they deserve to be recognized and fiscally compensated through the temporary pandemic pay program.

In our letter, we also noted that, despite Minister James' encouragement for profitable retail businesses to provide an equivalent temporary wage top-up for their essential workers, the LDB has not done so.

You can read the letter in full here.

We will notify you of any response we receive, and are planning further action, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I encourage you to sign the BCGEU's petitions reiterating our letter's ask: to include LDB workers and all other essential workers in the pandemic pay program:

• Petition: Give LDB workers pandemic pay
• Petition: All frontline workers deserve premium pay

 
In solidarity, 

Kusam Doal
Vice President, Retail Stores and Warehouse Component (Component 5)

UWU/MoveUP