VANCOUVER \u2014 Unionized workers in Metro Vancouver who oversee drinking water, wastewater treatment, air quality and other important jobs across more than 20 municipalities are taking full-scale strike action starting today.<\/p>\n
The union representing more than 700 Metro Vancouver outside workers says all non-essential staff will walk off their jobs, although those who are designated as essential service will remain at work.<\/p>\n
Jesse Medeiros, the president of the Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees\u2019 Union, said in a news release Friday that members are \u201cangry and frustrated\u201d after 17 months without a contract, and Metro Vancouver\u2019s management is ignoring their concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cGVRDEU members are the front-line workers that keep Metro Vancouver running and we are sick and tired of management incompetence and disrespect,\u201d Medeiros said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaxpayers and the elected mayors and councillors on Metro Vancouver\u2019s Board should be demanding better \u2014 starting with getting a new contract with our members and then fixing the problems management has created.\u201d<\/p>\n
Metro Vancouver said in a statement on Friday that it \u201crespects the right to lawful job action and remains focused on reaching a fair and sustainable agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said it is ready to negotiate with the help of a mediator and has proposed 10 dates to restart talks with the union.<\/p>\n
The regional district said bringing in a mediator would be a \u201cpractical step\u201d after nearly a year of bargaining.<\/p>\n
It said the latest offer to workers includes a wage bump of more than 10 per cent over three years, in line with other recent labour agreements, and that it goes over and above other public sector agreements.<\/p>\n
Metro Vancouver said it wanted to reassure residents that services won\u2019t be disrupted during the strike.<\/p>\n
The union accuses the regional district of setting preconditions before contract talks can resume, which Metro Vancouver has denied.<\/p>\n
Rotating pickets have been set up by the union over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n
Medeiros said the public would notice the full-scale strike immediately, with unionized staff walking off their jobs in regional parks, at water and wastewater treatment plants, construction sites, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe regret the inconvenience to the public and appreciate their support in this dispute, but we can\u2019t wait forever to get a new contract for our members,\u201d Medeiros said.<\/p>\n
The union also said workers would rally at the Metro Vancouver headquarters in Burnaby on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 Unionized workers in Metro Vancouver who oversee drinking water, wastewater treatment, air quality and other important…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-738343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738343","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=738343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}