The President of OPSEU, Warren (Smokey) Thomas, is asking Premier Doug Ford to put the brakes on his plans to further expand sales of alcohol.
In a news release put out Saturday afternoon, Thomas expresses his wish to meet with the Premier to discuss issues that will come about when controlled substances are privatized.
The request follows the weekend's media reports, first detailed in the Toronto Star, about more than 9,000 thefts from LCBO stores over a four and a half year period. LCBO workers are represented by OPSEU.
"If shoplifting is a problem in LCBO outlets that have highly trained staff, then what will happen in private retail outlets that have staff without that kind of training and experience?" Thomas asks.
"Alcohol is always going to attract the attention of thieves and the underground economy. It's a commodity easily sold in the black market. "
Thomas says he speaks with union members who work in LCBO outlets every single week, and he's very aware of the dangerous situations they are thrown into.
In an interview with our media partner CP24 earlier Saturday afternoon, Thomas said he has never met with Premier Ford but has been wanting to do so for a while.
"There's a social cost to all these things," he said. "I might sit down and talk to him about some of this stuff and try and convince him to strike some tables, to have conversations with people who know what they're talking about and what they're doing to work in these sectors, before he goes making any more mistakes."
"[Ford's] really mismanaging lots of things."