August 19 - Job action by the BC Government Employees Union is continuing, resulting in the closure of the Liquor Distribution Branch's distribution centres and wholesale customer centres (WCC).   The Langley Chamber has already had reports of out-of-stock items and negative impacts on sales and sales volumes due to supply issues caused by this job action. 

New - Effective immediately, the Langley Chamber has learned that quantity limits will be placed on all products, excluding all beer products (import and domestic), purchased by hospitality and retail customers at BC Liquor Stores until the LDB’s distribution centres reopen and resume normal operations. Hospitality customers and retail customers will be limited to three items per SKU, per day. This includes refreshment beverage products that come in 4-packs, 6-packs and other formats.

This job action means that the much of the function and operations of the Liquor Distribution Branch's distribution centres will be disrupted. This means that BC's liquor and cannabis businesses will not receive any products from the LDB until the strike action is over.   This will not impact local producers who sell and deliver to customers, and BDL (Brewers' Distributor Ltd) remains open and able to accept and deliver orders, but this will impact orders and deliveries from LDB itself and that product will not be received by businesses until the pickets are removed. 

While pickets remain and until further notice, the following will be in place:

• the LDB liquor distribution centres in Delta and Kamloops will not receive product or assemble and ship orders
• appointments at the distribution centres are cancelled and once they reopen, please contact the distribution centre to reschedule
• the Liquor Wholesale Customer Centres in Vancouver and Victoria will be closed and phone calls and emails will not be answered
  • Liquor Wholesale customer orders will not be accepted on the Webstore until the job action ends and LDB operations resume
  • orders submitted by email will not be entered and should be resubmitted once the strike is over 
  • returns can be submitted but will not be processed
  • customers will not be able to pick up orders at WCC Victoria or the Delta Distribution Centre
  • product allocations are being stopped and previously submitted allocations will not assembled or shipped until job action ends 

Some LDB services will be unaffected by the current job action, and those include:

• product registration, purchase orders, price change requests and import clearance requests
• credit card updates, PAP/PAD 
• payments to suppliers
• enterprise data services (EDS)
• warehouse inspections for product samples and damages

The Langley Chamber will be monitoring this situation, engaging with government, and communicating how this may be impacting Langley businesses.

If this disruption impacts your restaurant, liquor store or business, please let us know by contacting Cory Redekop directly at cory@langleychamber.com