Quebec liquor store employees walk off the job as two-day strike begins

MONTREAL — Some 5,000 Quebec liquor corporation workers have walked off the job for a planned two-day strike.

Their union — Syndicat des employé(e)s de magasins et de bureaux de la SAQ — confirmed at midnight on Facebook it was launching the strike after a lack of progress at the negotiating table.

It says the two strike days are the first to be used under the union’s 15-day strike mandate.

The union says some 70 per cent of its members are part-time or on call, and it is calling on the Société des alcools du Québec to create more full-time positions and give employees access to insurance and training.