Overnight protest Saturday at Eastside Vancouver Mac’s Convenience Store to push for better safety protections for gas, convenience store workers

April 13, 2018 | News Release

Vancouver – The BC Federation of Labour Young Workers’ Committee will stage an overnight protest April 14 to highlight weak safety laws left by the BC Liberals that fail to protect convenience store and gas station staff working alone at night.

They will sit in starting at 8:00 pm Sat. April 14 at the Mac’s Convenience at 2601 Commercial Dr in Vancouver to gather public support for BC’s new government and the Worker’s Compensation Board to strengthen protections to keep workers safe from incidents of violence and theft.

The event also honours Grant De Patie, a 24-year old gas station attendant who died tragically in 2005. Working late and alone, De Patie was killed in a gas-and-dash incident.

His death sparked new safety rules, called Grant’s Law, that better protected workers. But under pressure from big corporations like Mac’s, the Christy Clark BC Liberal government watered down those protections in 2012.

“To understand the extent to which late night workers face danger, all you have to do is google ‘convenience store gas station robberies BC,’” says Caitlin Davidson-King, chairperson of the BCFED’s Young Workers’ Committee

Davidson-King says simply restoring the regulations the previous government eliminated—like requiring two workers to be on shift together, or to have a barrier in place to protect workers during late night shifts—would keep workers safer.

What: Protest for stronger safety protections for late night workers
When: Sat. April 14, 8:00 pm to 6:00 am Sun. April 15
Where: Mac’s Convenience Store, 2601 Commercial Drive, Vancouver
Media availability at 8:30 pm.