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UPDATED: BCGEU begins job action

Contributor
By Contributor
August 13th, 2022

The BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) public service bargaining unit will begin targeted job action at select BC Liquor Distribution Branch wholesale and distribution centres at 3:30 pm today after issuing strike notice on Friday, August 12.
 
Picket lines will go up at the following locations:

  • Delta Distribution Centre (DDC) – 7003 72nd Street, Delta, B.C.
  • Kamloops Distribution Centre (KDC) – 9881 Dallas Drive, Kamloops, B.C.
  • Richmond Distribution Centre (RDC) – 3389 No 6 Rd, Richmond, B.C.
  • Victoria Wholesale Customer Centre – 2291 Government Street, Victoria, B.C.

Members at the Wholesale Customer Centre and the Customer Care Centre (Cannabis division) in Burnaby will be included in the targeted job action but there will not be a picket line at that location.
 
Retail liquor and cannabis stores will not be part of this phase of job action.

BCGEU serves strike notice on provincial government

The bargaining committee representing 33,000 members of the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) who work for the provincial government issued 72-hours’ strike notice Friday afternoon.

The B.C. public service bargaining unit will be in a legal position to take job action as of 2:46 p.m., Monday, August 15. 

The union will not be releasing details about the job action at this time.

The most recent collective agreement between the union and the Public Service Agency (PSA) expired on April 1, 2022.

Negotiations for a new collective agreement started on February 8. Bargaining reached impasse on April 6, and union members voted 95% in favour of job action on June 22. The parties met again in July but talks quickly broke down.

Earlier this week, the PSA invited the union back to the bargaining table. Exploratory discussions were held, and the bargaining committee unanimously decided a return to the table would not be fruitful at this time.

“Our members have been crystal clear since day one that their priority this round of bargaining was cost of living protection for their wages,” said Stephanie Smith, BCGEU president and chair of the union’s public service bargaining committee.

“The bottom line is they’re not asking for anything that MLAs don’t already have. The strike vote in June and issuing strike notice today is a message to government that our members are serious.”

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