The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that a few years after several Indigo Books & Music stores unionized, one location is set to close as its union says the retailer has made things increasingly difficult for workers. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post reports that employees have picketed on multiple weekends outside the Chapters shop at Kennedy Commons in Scarborough, Ont., after being told the location will close later this month.
The shop is one of four Ontario locations that unionized with the 1006A chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union between September, 2020, and August, 2021. When the closure was announced in December, the employees were told they could not transfer to other stores, even though that is what has happened when other stores have closed, said Victoria Popov, an employee and union steward.
"We were told none of us would be transferred, and
that we could apply to any open position, like a member of the public." The employees are being offered the legal minimum in terms of severance, said Ms. Popov. Some have been with the company for more than two decades and are nearing retirement age.
"It just seems so patently unfair to me," she said.
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