MONTREAL - Last year two small Couche-Tard convenience stores in Quebec made headlines when they closed shortly after employees voted to unionize. The reason given at the time was that the locations simply were not profitable.
Now the same company is now opening another store (a Provi-Store) just blocks away from one of the Couche-Tard's that was closed down.
"We knew it was going to happen," said former Couche-Tard employee Luis Donis. "The only thing is they aren't putting the name of Couche-Tard in here, they're putting the name of Provi-Soir, which is part of the same company."
Luis Donis worked at the Jean Talon location for six years, supporting his wife and two children, and working his way up to assistant manager.
Global News tried to get comment from Couche-Tard, however emails and telephone calls were not returned.
Couche-Tard reported operating revenue of more than $5 billion in its last fiscal quarter - a billion more than it made the previous quarter. It owns stores across Canada - Macs brand outside of Quebec, as well as the Circle K chain in the U.S.
"We're not fooled at all by the fact that they told us that they made the decision to close the store," says David Bergeron-Cyr from the Confederation des Syndicats Nationaux. "Not because the workers made the decision to join a union but because they were not bringing in money."
Only five of five hundred Couche-Tard locations in Quebec are unionized. The latest is a store in Pierrefonds.
The company has five thousand employees across Quebec; employees that Bergeron-Cyr says are not just part-timers.
"People think that it's only students and young people who work at Couche-Tard it's not true... there are people who work there who support their families with those jobs."
Employees like Luis Donis, who supports his family by now doing something other than working at a Couche-Tard.
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