Workers at Metro Vancouver parks walked off the job Sunday morning as labour negotiations have stalled with the regional employer.
Effective Sunday at 7:45 a.m., workers represented by the Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees’ Union are on strike indefinitely, said union president Jesse Medeiros.
The strike will affect 25 parks across the region, Medeiros said, including popular sites like Grouse Mountain and Capilano parks in North Vancouver, Pacific Spirit Park in Vancouver, Deas Island and Boundary Bay parks in Delta, the Derby Reach and Campbell Valley parks in Langley Township, Tynehead Regional Park in Surrey, and Belcarra park.
Regular workers are off the job, while only 15 workers designated as essential services by the Labour Relations Board will remain.
Metro Vancouver spokesperson Jillian Glover said all regional parks remain open and facility reservations are not affected by the job action.
“We regretfully advise the public that due to our lack of a new contract 18 months after the previous agreement expired, the GVRDEU is forced to once again escalate job action against Metro Vancouver management to get them back to bargaining with a reasonable offer for our members,” said Medeiros in a statement released Sunday.
“All of Metro Vancouver’s popular 25 regional parks will be without the workers who fix trails, collect garbage, provide immediate first aid for injuries and other work that visitors expect due to this dispute. And if we do not get significant movement toward a new, reasonable collective agreement, a full-scale indefinite strike is possible.”
Medeiros said mediation with the Labour Relations Board has failed to resolve the dispute and a meeting scheduled for next Saturday is up in the air because of a lack of progress.
“Metro Vancouver management has continued to insist on the union accepting contract issues that have already been rejected at the table and is also demanding concessions from the union that it will not consider,” Medeiros said.
That led to a one-day full-scale strike on June 15 and a lengthier one is a possibility if there is no movement toward a settlement, Medeiros said. The key issues are improved health and safety protection, retention and recruitment of skilled workers and contracting out by Metro, he said.
“Our members are sick and tired of hearing how much money senior management and Metro Vancouver elected board members are making at taxpayer expense while there has been no attention to the serious issues our front line worker members face every day on the job,” Medeiros said.
“When senior managers are making up to $567,000 a year in salaries and benefits and elected board members are making over $300,000 a year in total, the workers who actually deliver needed services are fed up.”
Medeiros again cited the North Shore wastewater treatment plant as a sign of mismanagement by Metro, with its projected cost soaring to $3.86 billion after an initial estimate of $700 million. That could cost regional taxpayers up to $700 per home for 20 years or more, he said.
He claimed it was the union that informed the public last week that a “massive amount of potentially hazardous untreated wastewater and sewage” was being dumped into the ocean close to beaches and recreational boaters and fishers because of a failure at the Iona Island treatment plant.
“Metro Vancouver only told the public after the union rang an alarm bell — that’s unacceptable behaviour yet again,” said Medeiros.
Glover said Metro has “no preconditions to bargaining and is not asking the union for any concessions. Our offer includes a wage increase of more than 10 per cent over three years, which is consistent with other recently negotiated agreements in the region, including with our Teamsters union, and exceeds several other public sector employers.”
The union, which represents more than 700 workers who operate and maintain regional services such as water, air, sewer and other infrastructure, is also continuing its ban on overtime, standby work and what’s known as “acting role” work until further notice.
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