All Alcohol Stores To Close This Week Due To Strike

An upcoming strike of public workers will mean every state-monopoly alcohol store in the country will close.

The State Alcohol and Tobacco Company of Iceland (ÁTVR) has announced that every store in the country will be closed this Thursday and Friday, due to an upcoming public servants’ strike.

As can be seen, the stores will also be closed on Monday and Tuesday, leaving tomorrow, Wednesday and Saturday the only days open for Icelanders to buy alcohol wholesale over the next week.

Sigrún Ósk Sigurðardóttir, the vice director of ÁTVR, told Vísir that only a handful of ÁTVR employees will not be going on strike.

As the Icelandic government maintains a monopoly over the wholesale distribution of alcohol, people working at the alcohol stores are actually government employees. In addition to the alcohol stores, workers employed by the county office (sýslumaðurinn), the tax office, the national hospital, customs, and various health clinics – to name just a few of their workplaces – will also be starting their strikes this Thursday.

See the second link in this article for a full schedule of work stoppages and strikes. Bear in mind that these are subject to change if a collective bargaining agreement is reached.