Local cannabis shop Rural Leaf says it has felt the effects from the strike between the BC General Employees Union and the BC Public Service.
The strike began on August 15 and over two weeks later called off strike action in good faith after making significant progress.
Distribution warehouses were shut down which impacted liquor, cannabis, restaurants and bars.
According to Co-Owner of Rural Leaf Alfred Schaefer, prior to the BCGEU calling off the strike action temporary lay off notices were issued to staff because of the uncertainty of stock.
He said that there was some worry because they were unsure how long the strike would last.
“We have about 30 employees, people have bills to pay and we just couldn’t guarantee any work beyond running out of product,” Schaefer said.
He added since the store is in a rural location they received more product before the strike so, it took them longer to run out.
Schaefer said even though job action has been called off the store will need to be closed for a few days while they wait for more product.
“Even though we don’t have much in the shop we’ve kind of guaranteed our staff that we’ll be open until Friday but it looks like we’ll have to be closed Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday,” he said.
Schafer added that it is anticipated that more products will be brought in next week and the store should reopen on September 7.
He also said that it took about one month before the store was out of stock.
The BCGEU says that the two parties will continue to meet this week with the hope to finalize a tentative agreement.