Talks between BCGEU, B.C. government break down, union says

A potential strike is on the horizon after talks between the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) and the BC Public Service Agency have stalled, according to the BCGEU.

“To say we are disappointed is an understatement: despite our best efforts to bridge the gap, government has refused to table a proposal that meets our members’ key demand of cost-of-living protection,” says Stephanie Smith, BCGEU president and chair of the Public Service Bargaining Committee, in a statement.

Key issues for the bargaining unit, which represents 33,000 unionized provincial civil servants, are cost of living adjustments and wage protection from inflation.

According to the BCGEU, the province’s offer failed to meet the union’s demands and “amounts to a wage cut.”

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“Our members have told us since the beginning of this round of bargaining that they would not ratify a deal which did not address the increasing cost of living,” Smith explains.

“We were surprised that the employer was unwilling to come back to the table with a counteroffer,” says Smith. “Our union’s revised wage proposal is within the monetary framework that government has laid out, and yet the employer was not willing to budge.”

The BCGEU says it will plan “strategic, target job action” and finalize essential services, in the meantime.

The union says that a total of almost 400,000 public sector workers have agreements that will, or already have, expire this year.