The Financial Post reports in its Monday edition that a month after 3,700 grocery store workers walked off their jobs at Toronto's Metro stores earlier this year, they returned to work under a new contract that Unifor called "historic." A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post says that long days of picketing, including demonstrations at warehouses that halted deliveries to Metro stores across the province, led to a deal giving all workers an immediate raise of $1.50 an hour. By January, full-time and senior part-time workers will get another 50 cents, essentially bringing back the pandemic-era "hero pay" that ended in 2020. A tight labour market and inflation have empowered many workers to make new inroads. July's Metro walkout, the B.C. port work stoppage in July and the Public Service Alliance of Canada strike this spring help paint a picture of a work force fighting hard to catch up to the cost of living. "When you look at the wage data, union members are faring much better this year than they have in any year in the past decade. And that is a result of there being slightly more strikes, a tighter labour market, and a just more favourable position for workers over all," said Adam King at the University of Manitoba.