B.C. civil servants vote to strike after failed contract talks

Public servants represented by British Columbia’s largest public sector union have voted in favour of strike action.

The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union announced the vote in late March after failed contract talks with the government.

“The strength of the turnout was 80 per cent -- that’s eight in 10 workers -- and the strength of the return was over 82 per cent,” said BCGEU president Darryl Walker. “I think that sends a message. I hope that the employer and the government [are] listening to that message.”

The BCGEU had asked for a 1 per cent wage increase in each of two years plus a cost of living allowance, totalling 8 per cent over two years at the current rate of inflation.

To pay for the increase, the union proposed money-saving and money-generating measures that it said would bring in $350-million, such as using sheriffs for road safety services rather than the RCMP and opening government liquor stores on Sundays. The government rejected the ideas, offering instead 1.5 per cent in each of the two years.

“I don’t know that we ... were ever clearly given a reason why these revenues shouldn’t be collected,” Mr. Walker said.

Public servants haven’t had a general pay increase in three years and inflation has reduced their spending power by more than five per cent, he noted.

“The government ... presented a wage and benefit offer well below inflation and far less than 6 to 20 per cent pay raises the government gave some of its executive and ministerial assistants recently.”

The parties will return to the bargaining table on May 23. The current contract expired on March 31.

The government’s offer ends a 2010 pledge to freeze public-sector salaries into 2012 in efforts to balance the provincial budget by 2013-14.

Public sector employers can now negotiate modest wage increases, but revenue must come from within the workplace, through productivity gains or cost reductions, for example. Wage increases cannot be funded through cuts to services or higher fees.

More than 25,000 BCGEU members work in the public service bargaining unit, in fields including hospital services, retail liquor store and warehouse operations, social workers and government administrative and support services.

The BCGEU master agreement typically sets the tone for the rest of the public service – and most of the province’s 300,000 public-sector workers will be negotiating a new contract in the coming months.

The Ministry of Finance had not returned a call for comment as of Tuesday afternoon.

Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: ANDREA WOO