3,700 Metro grocery store workers at 27 locations are currently on strike for better wages, adequate hours, and job security. Metro claims it cannot afford to provide fair pay and good working conditions for their staff. But the facts say otherwise:
- Last year, Metro made nearly $1 billion in profit.
- Metro CEO Eric La Flèche pocketed a cool $5.4 million in bonus pay and just 5 Metro executives divvied up more than $13 million between them.
- This year, profits are surging even higher. On August 9, we learned that profit in the 3rd quarter (the 3 months from April 1 to July 1) skyrocketed 26% to $346.7 million from $275 million. That's over $70 million MORE PROFIT this year, than in the same 3 months last year! Metro can afford to pay its workers a livable wage, with adequate hours, and job security.
That's why Metro workers are saying enough is enough and have taken to the picket lines to demand fairness. If Metro workers win this strike, it will make it easier for all frontline workers to win better wages and working conditions. That’s why their fight is OUR fight - and why we need your help to make sure they win!
Here’s what you can do to support Metro workers:
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Visit a picket line:
- Drop by a picket line anytime between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm at one of 27 stores to let these workers know you support their fight. Click here to find a location near you.
- Invite your friends to come with you. Consider bringing coffee/tea, donuts, or pizza.
- Group solidarity visits are being organized weekly! Visit our events page to find one near you. If you want to organize a group solidarity visit, email us at [email protected] to let us know when and where you'll be. We'll do our best to post and publicize it!
- Post a solidarity selfie using one of these signs (or make your own) and share it to social media using the following hashtags: #SupportMetroWorkers #Justice4Workers #MetroStrike.
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Spread the word!
- Print and post copies of this solidarity poster around a Metro grocery store in your neighborhood or decorate a busy public transit stop. You can also put a sign up on your door or window.
- If you don’t have a printer and live in Toronto, you can pick up your own stash of posters outside room 223 at 720 Spadina Avenue anytime between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm.
- If you're outside the GTA, we can also mail posters to you if you fill out this order form.
- If you're heading to a picket line, consider making copies of this leaflet to let passersby know how they too can support workers.
- Use this email tool to ask your Member of Provincial Parliament to publicly support Metro grocery store workers.
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Join our Justice for Workers Organizing Meetings: We know there is strong public support for Metro workers, but in order to win we're going to need to organize that support and make it visible ins our communities. Help plan more solidarity actions at our upcoming Ontario organizing meeting:
- Ontario Organizing Meeting (online): Tuesday, August 29 at 7 pm RSVP here
Let’s not forget that during the pandemic, grocery store workers had our backs. These workers—and thousands of others including migrant farm workers and delivery drivers—worked on the frontline to help get food to our table. Now it’s our turn to support them!
Grocery store monopolies like Metro, Loblaws, and others are making record profits because they have deliberately replaced full-time, decent jobs with low-wage, part-time ones with fewer benefits. At the same time, there's growing evidence that these grocery giants are keeping food prices unnecessarily high to line their own pockets.
If you’re sick of corporate greed, help make sure Metro workers win. A victory for Metro workers will put all the other pandemic profiteers on notice. Let’s make sure Metro is the first grocery giant to treat their workers fairly.
