Let's start with a request for time off without pay in early 2001, which was verbally approved by Acting District Manager Forsyth.
At the beginning of 2001 the LCBO determined to separate me from Manager Simmons at the Omemee LCBO Store. We knew nothing of it. At the later mediation hearing in 2002 the LCBO lawyer admitted to the mediator that they were determined to separate us because never before had they experienced a situation where two employees got along so well, and both seemed to hate LCBO. (My Union rep said at the time that they would find it impossible to locate two employees who really liked the LCBO working together anywhere...) It was also overheard that we had been selling too high a percentage of Ontario wine in the store and that the importers were unhappy. Looking back in time I can see that this is about the time period where LCBO seems to have really put the screws to the Ontario wine industry, and the second reason makes more sense.
The first effort to separate us - after the approval of the June leave without pay - was by moving Manager Simmons to another store. This failed, and Manager Simmons was returned after a few weeks of fiasco, bad nerves for everyone, and a degree of high humour that I wish I could relate. It was something to watch, and quite expensive to the taxpayer.
Before I knew that Mr. Simmons was returning, the interim manager was hurt, and was working only sporadically. Just before the period of time off I called him at home, and he assured me that he would be back to run the store while I took the ever-more-necessary time off.
I walked out of the store on my last day before the approved leave, and the next thing I knew I had received a horrid official communication, a matter of hours before I was to leave for the annual Amateur Winemakers of Ontario convention. This is something that everyone, including the DM, knew was very important to me. I do not believe that the timing was in any way co-incidental. At any rate, out came the Notice of Intended Discipline.
I had about an hour and a half to deal with this, so it didn't get the normal attention. Neither did packing for the convention, which I was transporting other people to. In any case, this was the extremely hasty answer I prepared and delivered on my way to Niagara.
Almost immediately after this harsh exchange (Mr. Forsyth was vicious on the phone with me) I was given a notice of transfer to Peterborough. This arrived on June 14th, although I had already been called by a number of part-time employees working in a number of different stores. These people were risking their livelihood to tell me how the District Manager was "bragging" about this transfer.
I immediately called Mr. Forsyth about the transfer, and during this acrimonious conversation I told thim that I was sure the transfer was due to the following facts:
1) Because of the letter I'd written about the NOID
2) Because I had helped fellow employees - at their request - with writing letters (he said he knew it was me because I put an "e" on the end of his name). I told him that I would always help when it was asked, and he told me that I was not to write letters for anyone else, they were to write their own.
3) Because I'd stood up to him
I accused him of telling at least four part time workers that he was transferring me, and his answer was that "Some people have big mouths". I think he completely missed the irony. I told him that this transfer was harassment.
To this end, I officially filed the following grievance, on June 17th in which I essentially referred the specifics of the grievance to the attached letter.
After I had been transferred to Peterborough, where over the next few years I suffered greatly and lost much pay, I received the following missive, which closed the first NOID. I'd clearly been vindicated this time, and to this date I think that it was a test of how much crap I'd take.