{"id":106346,"date":"2025-08-29T21:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/106346\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T21:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:54:12","slug":"bcgeu-issues-72-hour-strike-notice-after-93-vote-to-back-job-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/106346\/","title":{"rendered":"BCGEU issues 72-hour strike notice after 93% vote to back job action"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of British Columbia\u2019s biggest public sector unions has issued a 72-hour strike notice after members overwhelmingly backed job action.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMore than 34,000 members of the BCGEU working for the public service have secured an overwhelming mandate for fair wages and for an agreement that reflects the resources they need to serve the public,\u201d B.C. General Employees Union president Paul Finch said on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety-two-point-seven per cent of members voted in favour of taking this action, and 86.4 per cent of eligible members voted, That is an overwhelming mandate,\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 34,000 BCGEU members have been without a collective agreement since April.<\/p>\n

Negotiations with the public service agency began in April, but both sides hit an impasse on July 18.<\/p>\n

The union says talks broke down over wages, remote work and a \u201cmodernized contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis emphatic strike result reflects the seriousness of the affordability crisis our members are facing \u2014 the need for fair wages to address that crisis,\u201d Finch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message from our members is clear. We are united, and we are ready to take job action.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Finch said the province had indicated there would be no new offers this week, and as a result, the union was issuing a 72-hour strike notice, with job action effective at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBCGEU employees union members heading to strike vote\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Government Licensed Professionals (GLP), which represent about 1,800 licensed professionals, engineers, foresters, geoscientists, psychologists, and other specialized experts, also announced plans to issue a strike notice on Friday.<\/p>\n

The provincial government has yet to respond to the job action.<\/p>\n

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Finch declined to share details about which union members could be on the picket lines on Tuesday, barring a negotiated breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken great care with our strike planning in the event we do have to strike. Obviously, our hope is that the government comes back with a revised wage mandate. \u00a0That hasn\u2019t happened yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The BCGEU\u2019s public service bargaining unit last took job action in 2022, resulting in a two-week strike targeting the B.C. Liquor Distribution Warehouses that disrupted alcohol and cannabis sales.<\/p>\n

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On Thursday, the province and the Hospital Employees\u2019 Union announced the 60,000 member Facilities Bargaining Association had reached a framework aimed at reversing wage cuts imposed by the former BC Liberal government over the union\u2019s next two collective agreements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a commitment from the government and a recognition from the government to correct historic wrongs that have undermined public health-care workers for more than 20 years,\u201d HEU secretary business manager Lynn Bueckert said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a commitment on these issues. We still are bargaining our tentative agreement, which the framework will be a part of. And at the end of the day, our members make the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BCGEU criticized the deal, saying it was \u201cbelow inflation and undermines the very fight that public service workers across B.C. are taking on together for fair wages and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More to come\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of British Columbia\u2019s biggest public sector unions has issued a 72-hour strike notice after members overwhelmingly backed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[60630,46,43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-106346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bcgeu-strike","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}