In a first for Canada’s nascent legal cannabis industry, recent labour action by Dominion grocery store workers has shuttered over a third of Newfoundland and Labrador’s brick-and-mortar cannabis stores.

Ten C-Shops, all located within Dominion grocery store locations, have closed as a part of the grocery chain’s ongoing strike action announced last week, Marijuana Business Daily reports.

The chain of C-Shops makes Dominion, owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd., the largest cannabis operator in the province which has a total of 26 physical stores servicing over 500,000 people.

While in-person shopping for cannabis consumers in Newfoundland has taken a hit, a spokesperson from the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation said that online sales could see a boost.

“Online transactions were up by 58 per cent when comparing the days during the strike (August 23 to 26) vs. (the) same days the week prior,” the spokesperson said.

Each C-Shop location employs about five Dominion staffers, the grocery chain told Marijuana Business Daily.

More than 1,400 Dominion workers are on strike, according to Unifor Local 597 president Carolyn Wrice, which includes C-Shop employees who are under the same collective agreement as Dominion workers.

Employees at Dominion have been without a contract since October 2019 and Wrice said Dominion employees are looking to get full-time jobs back, as well as benefits, fair treatment and pay increases.