A win for striking GTA Metro workers could come at a cost of pink slips and automation: ‘The Food Professor’

Striking grocery workers under the Metro banner in the Greater Toronto Area say the wages they’re paid leave them unable to afford to live in the cities they work.

Some 3,700 front-line staff hit the picket lines last week and an expert claims what comes next could carry major implications for the industry as a whole.

That is according to Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, ‘The Food Professor‘ and senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

Speaking on The Mike Farwell Show on Wednesday, Charlebois said, while workers’ main concern may be money, it’s the business model itself that’s really being challenged.

“The grocery business is a low volume, high margin business [and] wages aren’t really interesting because of that economic reality,” Charlebois said while also noting, in the court of public opinion, the workers have likely already won.

“Grocers have actually badly read the room when it comes to [things like] corporate bonuses,” he said. “In Metro’s case, $13.7 million last year to five people.”

“Optics are against Metro–let’s be honest here–and so, if salaries go up, that will become a benchmark for other grocers for sure,” Charlebois said.

He said industry eyes are keeping a close watch on what happens next.

He also said he believes workers will end up winning out but that win could cost many their jobs.

“The only way to do it is to decrease the number of employees and increase salaries as a result,” he said, arguing a grocery store with around 80 full-time staff would likely have to cut that number to around 50 while also adding new automation to fill the gaps.

“The last thing grocers want to do is increase prices–and the last thing we want [as consumers] is to see food prices go up,” Charlebois said. “So how do you actually deal with this issue without compromising food affordability?”

“I don’t see any other paths, do you?”