Close to 100 workers at Sobeys-owned Pete’s Frootique in Halifax have launched a strike on November 18th asking for fairer wages. Workers are currently paid Nova Scotia’s minimum wage of $15 . Sobeys’ last offer would only represent a five-cent hourly increase for most of them.
Sobeys, the parent company of Pete’s Frootique, is a subsidy of Empire Company Limited, one of the country’s three largest supermarket monopolies, along with Metro and Loblaws. In 2022, a Toronto Star investigation revealed the three companies were using inflation as a pretext to artificially boost profit margins.
Empire reported earnings of $261 million last quarter, up from $187.5 million for the same period last year. In 2022, the yearly compensation of Empire’s CEO Michael Medline was $8.7 million.
Pete’s Frootique employees are seeking a fair deal discussion with Sobeys so that they can go back to the jobs they love and to better employee compensation for current and future staff members.
