British Columbia’s care services workers are the latest public sector union threatening strike action to accelerate contract talks with the provincial government.
Members of the Community Bargaining Association (CBA) voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, the union announced on Thursday, Nov. 27.
The majority of the 26,000 workers in the CBA belong to the B.C. General Employees Union (BCGEU), which is leading negotiations. They reached an impasse with the Health Employers Association of B.C. on Oct. 3.
The CBA is one of many public sector bargaining units renegotiating deals this year. Almost 450,000 workers in total will be bargaining for new collective agreements. This includes the BCGEU public service unit, which went on strike for eight weeks earlier this fall.
Those workers eventually landed a four-year deal with a 12 per cent raise split evenly across the years. Most other bargaining units will likely look to this as a baseline.
CBA members include workers in seniors’ care homes, detox and treatment programs, mental health group homes, and supportive housing. The union says those workers are seeking parity with other health-care workers in terms of benefits, overtime rules, scheduling protections and equal pay for equal work.
“For over 30 years, community health workers have been paid less and given fewer benefits than others in the health care system doing the same work,” bargaining chair Scott De Long said. “We’re calling on government and HEABC to return to the table with a mandate to fix these long-standing inequities and deliver real improvements to our day-to-day working conditions.”
Black Press Media has reached out to the BCGEU to find out about job action plans.