The British Columbia General Employees\u2019 Union (BCGEU) says a portion of its members who work for the province\u2019s public service will begin walking picket lines Tuesday after the union issued 72-hour notice of a strike last week.<\/p>\n
The union says in a news release that its president, Paul Finch, will join striking workers on a picket line in Victoria.<\/p>\n
The union has said a strike vote was called after a breakdown in negotiations between the union and the agency in July, and Finch told a news conference Friday that 92.7 per cent of members voted in support of job action \u201cif necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the union is seeking a four-per-cent general wage increase in the first year and 4.25 per cent in the second year, as well as an unspecified cost-of-living adjustment.<\/p>\n
The release does not specify which members would be striking, but says there will also be picket lines in Prince George and Surrey.<\/p>\n
The Union says 93 per cent of its members voted in favor of job action.<\/p>\n
The vote was initially announced back in July after the union said negotiations with the province fell off, and members then began voting on August 11th.<\/p>\n
Finch said the impasse was related to wages, work-from-home rules, and the need to modernize the contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cBritish Columbians know that working people need wages they can live on. That\u2019s what it comes down to, and our members know that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur message to government: revise your mandate and come back to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Union rejected the government\u2019s offer<\/p>\n
The union said the proposal it issued to the government in July asked for a two-year deal with wage increases for members at the lower end of the pay scale.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s last offer was a 1.5 per cent increase in the first year and two-per-cent in the second year.<\/p>\n
The union rejected the government\u2019s offer. <\/p>\n
In an interview with 1130 NewsRadio, Finch says that the government did not approach the union regarding a new offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no talks this weekend at all,\u201d Finch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the wake of the strike vote, the government did not come forward with an enhanced monetary mandate or a revised offer, and so no talks took place over the weekend. We are moving ahead with the job action.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explains that firefighters, who are currently tackling wildfires across the province, make $28 an hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur membership, on average, earned 2.7 per cent below the average wage in the province. That\u2019s not acceptable,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Finch hopes that the government will return to the bargaining table soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur whole bargaining committee is ready to talk, but that requires the government to have an enhanced mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n
B.C.\u2019s Minister of Transportation and Transit, Mike Farnworth, said that in the event of a job action, he health and safety services will be protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the event of job action, it\u2019s important to remember that the services that protect health, safety, and the welfare of British Columbians will continue,\u201d he explained at a press conference on Friday.<\/p>\n
The BCGEU has about 34,000 members in fields including social services, health care, education, government liquor stores, prisons, courts and public administration.<\/p>\n
More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British Columbia General Employees\u2019 Union (BCGEU) says a portion of its members who work for the province\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-112966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112966","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=112966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}