Liquor stores in Quebec shut their doors Friday, signalling the start of a general strike just days before contract negotiations involving former premier Lucien Bouchard were set to resume.

Bouchard, who has been involved in bargaining between Quebec's liquor board and its unionized employees, was hospitalized this week for peritonitis, an inflammatory disease of the membrane that lines the wall of the abdomen.

The 65-year-old ex-premier is under observation and receiving treatment.

According to union spokesperson Martin Charron, his members are sympathetic with Bouchard, but the strike action had become "inevitable."

"Eleven months later, nothing has changed and nothing is moving," Charron told The Canadian Press.

The general strike is expected to affect as many as 3,800 employees, many of whom already participated in a four-day walkout earlier in November.

Bouchard was recently hired by the liquor board in the hope he could avert labour strife over the busy pre-Christmas period. He had been expected to return to the bargaining table on Monday.

Bouchard lost part of a leg to the flesh-eating disease a decade ago. The former Parti Quebecois premier stepped down in 2001 and returned to practising law.

His speeches helped jump-start a sluggish Yes campaign in the 1995 sovereignty referendum when, as Bloc Quebecois leader, he nearly led the separatist forces to victory.