A holiday staff dinner in Vernon was crashed by striking Kelowna workers Saturday night.

Striking retail liquor workers of Armstrong Regional Cooperative (ARC), who are members of SEIU Local 2, made surprise deputations at the company-wide event. 

The intervention, supported and joined by co-op members and other unionized liquor workers, lasted approximately three minutes and involved a brief speech by the striking workers.

They revealed a banner calling on the employer to live up to their community co-op values and urged them to return to the bargaining table in good faith. Santa Claus was also seen delivering a box of coal to the employer while handing out chocolate treats to staff-attendees and patrons.

Employees of ARC Liquor Guisachan Village, represented by SEIU Local 2, have been on strike for over 14 weeks since Sept. 14. Negotiations stalled nearly as soon as they began when the employer delivered their 鈥渇inal鈥� offer to the Union without discussing important outstanding issues such as wages.

鈥淣o one wants to strike. No one wants to make an intervention at a holiday gathering,鈥� said Julia Scott, a striking ARC employee. 鈥淏ut the reality is that we had no choice but to bring our message directly to the employer since they are refusing to sit down and talk to us at the bargaining table.鈥�

Nathan Sanders, another striking employee of the co-op explained, 鈥淎RC talks a big game about being a cooperative that embraces discussion and the local community. The workers are the local community! We鈥檙e invested in the success of the cooperative and want to resolve this immediately. We are waiting on ARC to agree to fair negotiations.鈥�

A member of the cooperative also joined the surprise intervention. 鈥淭he reason I wanted to help is because I heard there were five people fighting a greedy corporation for their right to negotiate good wages,鈥� said Cyril Chippeway. 鈥淎RC needs to walk the talk about valuing democracy and community.鈥�

The striking workers and their union are prepared to continue escalating until ARC agrees to fair bargaining. 

A rally is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 19 at 2:30 p.m. outside Kelowna's Guisachan location with guest speaker, Harry Bains, the former BC Minister of Labour.

SEIU Local 2 represents 20,000 workers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.