The union for Metro Vancouver outside workers announced on Sunday that its members are starting to strike, effective immediately.
The job action applies to all non-essential services workers.
“Any non-essential services workers who are acting will return immediately to their posted roles and will not perform any overtime or standby until further notice,” the Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees Union (GVRDEU) said in a written statement.
The union officially filed a 72-hour strike notice with the BC Labour Relations Board (LRB) on Thursday.
“Bargaining has reached an impasse with the employer, Metro Vancouver management,” said GVRDEU spokesperson Bill Tieleman in an interview with CityNews.
He adds that the job action is not only about salaries.
“We have several non-monetary items that are very important on the table. Health and safety for workers is one of them. WorkSafeBC just fined Metro Vancouver $167,000 for a very serious confined space accident where a worker was crushed and nearly killed.”
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Tieleman explains that the union is also concerned about Metro Vancouver’s actions regarding contracting out of bargaining unit work, which he says is “increasingly happening in Vancouver.”
Another reason why negotiations are at an impasse is that the regional district is not doing enough for the retention of the union’s skilled workers.
“Also, recruitment and retention, because if people leave, it’s harder to find new people who have the experience. And it’s important for any employer, but particularly in the public sector, to make sure you keep the right workers that need to do these jobs and can find new ones, when necessary,” Tieleman said.
The job action will continue indefinitely without an end in sight, and Tieleman says that negotiations have been difficult in the last few weeks.
“One of the big issues is the employer has said, ‘if you don’t accept many of the terms and conditions in the last offer we tabled, we don’t want to talk to you until you accept them,’ and that’s capitulation, that’s not negotiation.”
The strike comes just a few days before the FIFA World Cup arrives in Vancouver.
It is not yet clear how the job action will affect daily life in Metro Vancouver and whether it stretches into the time the tournament kicks off.
“This dispute doesn’t need to happen, and it could have been settled months ago, long before FIFA, long before all sorts of other things going on in the city and all the municipalities in Metro Vancouver and the employer, Metro Vancouver management, has dragged its feet,” Tieleman said.
He warns that the union could escalate this strike if the negotiations do not continue with an offer from the employer.
“We are trying to take a measured but escalating approach to this dispute. We don’t inconvenience the public unless absolutely necessary.”
More than 97 per cent of GVRDEU members voted in favour of the job action in March.
GVRDEU members operate and maintain regional services, such as protecting water, air, and natural resources, providing drinking water, sewer, and infrastructure services and stewarding parks, ecological reserves, and housing communities.