Nurses in B.C. could strike as early as Thursday afternoon.
The B.C. Nurses’ Union filed a 72-hour strike notice to the B.C. Labour Relations Board and the Health Employers Association of B.C., union president Adriane Gear announced Monday (June 29) in Burnaby.
“I can assure you this decision was not made lightly,” Gear said.
As of Thursday, July 2, at 12:01 p.m., B.C.’s nurses will legally be able to begin job action.
This can take many forms. In the case of the nurses’ union, job action could include a ban on certain non-nursing duties, overtime restrictions, or even the withdrawal of labour, which could lead to service disruption and delays in care.
The union has “taken every step to ensure that access to patient care continues and that essential services are maintained in the event job action is required,” Gear said.
She says the government has requested that negotiations continue.
“While we have agreed to do so, I want to make it very clear that nurses have spoken,” Gear said. “The status quo cannot continue. It is time to value nurses and value our public healthcare system in this province.”
Gear said B.C. nurses have continued to show up for people in the province through the pandemic, staffing shortages, workplace violence, overcrowded emergency rooms and hallway nursing.
“But today we are demanding to be heard,” she said. “Nurses are demanding that our work be valued, and we are demanding that government and health employers recognize a simple truth: there is no healthcare system without nurses.”
She said that for many nurses, this is about more than a collective agreement.
“It is about a profession that has reached a breaking point,” Gear said. “It is about nurses who can no longer stay silent as they watch experienced and novice colleagues leave the profession injured and burnt out. It is about nurses who are facing shocking levels of violence.”
She cited union statistics showing there are more than 4,500 nursing vacancies, with one nurse going off the job every 16 hours on a WorkSafeBC claim due to violence.
She added that nurses understand the province is facing financial difficulties, but “this government has shown it can find resources when something is a priority.”
Gear pointed to the half-a-billion dollars spent on private-agency nursing and the up to $729-million cost of being a 2026 World Cup host city.
In a statement provided to Black Press Media, Health Minister Josie Osborne says the government respects the right of all workers to bargain collectively, including union members’ decision to take job action.
“The best agreements are found at the bargaining table,” Osborne said. “These negotiations are important and sensitive, and we want to give the Health Employers Association and the Nurses Bargaining Association space.”
Osborne added British Columbians will continue to get the healthcare they need.
“The Labour Board has robust processes in place to thoughtfully set what constitutes an essential service.”
The strike action notice comes after 67 per cent of B.C. nurses voted to reject a tentative collective agreement negotiated between the B.C. Nurses’ Union and the Health Employers’ Association on May 22.
Ten days earlier, 98.2 per cent of the union’s more than 50,000 members had voted in favour of job action, which could include striking. The union said it was the strongest strike mandate in the union’s history. This followed six months of negotiations and the declaration of an impasse on April 20.
The union says that during that time, the Nurses’ Bargaining Association put forward many solutions to address the quality of patient care that British Columbians receive, only to see the majority of those proposals rejected by the Health Employers Association.
The impasse followed a ruling from arbitrator Vince Ready regarding massage therapy benefits, which directs coverage for plan members and their dependents be capped at $1,427 in 2027 and $1,145 in 2028. Subsequent limits to massage therapy reimbursements would be determined based upon actuarial calculations.
An April 20 B.C. Nurses’ Union email obtained by Black Press Media says that Ready’s decision threatens the benefits members rely on. The email also says the cap will likely continue to decrease over time.
The union says there will still be no immediate changes before a new plan model is implemented Jan. 1, 2027.