Tough Battles Ahead for BC Government Unions in ‘Crazy’ Times

Unions for B.C. public sector workers are expecting challenging negotiations as the province struggles with economic uncertainty and big budget deficits.

And one major union is already warning that the province’s wage offers don’t “come close” to meeting members’ needs.

Unions for about 452,000 B.C. public sector workers, including the Hospital Employees’ Union, BC Teachers’ Federation and BC Nurses’ Union, are at the table this year as their contracts expire.

The BC General Employees’ Union, or BCGEU, representing about 34,000 provincial workers, has been in talks for more than six months.

On June 20, the province made an initial wage offer, the union said.

It proposed a two-year agreement, with two options for Year 1: either a one per cent increase plus a 30-cent-per-hour salary bump, or a 1.5 per cent increase.

The government proposes a two per cent increase in the second year.

The first-year option with the 30-cent-per-hour increase would provide a boost to lower-paid employees. A person making $50,000 would get a 1.2 per cent gain, while the raise would be half that for a person making $100,000.

This round of negotiations is the first in 15 years in which the provincial government hasn’t released a public sector bargaining mandate to guide negotiations and set financial limits.

The 2022 mandate, for example, called for a three-year agreement with wage increases of about 11 per cent.

The government is facing a record $10.9-billion deficit for this fiscal year as well as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade threats.

Meanwhile, public sector unions say they plan to fight hard to keep workers’ wages above inflation and protect employees’ benefits. The B.C. budget forecast inflation of 2.2 per cent in 2025 and 2.1 per cent in 2026.

“The employer tabled a monetary proposal that did not meet the needs that you identified for us. We don’t believe it came close,” BCGEU president Paul Finch said in a video bargaining update.

“We have tabled a counter that we believe is more in line with your expectations.”

Finch did not disclose his union’s wage proposal and added the union and employer were still far apart on issues like remote work and language requiring gender parity. The BCGEU did not respond to further questions in time for publication.

Other public sector unions are locked in similar clashes.

The Hospital Employees’ Union said in a June 20 press release that the province offered an increase of up to 3.5 per cent over two years. The union said it wasn’t enough.

“The best way to strengthen health-care services across B.C. is to keep pushing at the bargaining table for fair wages and safer working conditions so we can prevent injuries and reduce violence — and that’s just what we intend to do,” the union’s secretary-business manager, Lynn Bueckert, said in the release.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees council representing more than 30,000 education workers in B.C. said in its own press release that it was offered the same wage increases, and that it planned to ask for more.

The BC Nurses’ Union contract for more than 50,000 nurses and health-care workers expired at the end of March. The union plans to start negotiations in October, said president Adriane Gear.

“We certainly understand as a profession that there are financial pressures and challenges,” she said. “But for a strong economy, you need to have public services, including a strong, accessible and responsive health-care system. And currently we don't have that.”

Gear said the union is looking to protect wages and the current benefits package, which she said will help retention and staffing issues.

“We are in a critical nursing shortage, not only in B.C. but across this nation,” Gear said. “For us, it's important that our collective agreement remains competitive.”

Gear said the union will push the province to finish implementing mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios — a measure Gear said would ensure nurses’ safety and improve patient care.

“Nurses are very excited about that agreement but aren't necessarily trusting that it will be implemented,” she said. “We’re looking for some kind of enforcement mechanism around that.”

The B.C. Ministry of Health said in a statement that it is not involved with negotiations, but the nurses’ union will be negotiating under the same provincial mandate as other public sector unions.

B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey said the province “is navigating a challenging fiscal environment and we have a responsibility to ensure that public dollars are used as effectively as possible,” she said. “We also recognize the importance of fair and reasonable compensation for workers in the provincial public sector.”

Bailey added bargaining is “best kept to the parties at the table” and she has confidence both sides will reach negotiated settlements.

Public sector compensation is the provincial government's biggest expense and accounts for nearly 60 per cent of its budget. The government’s bargaining page says a one per cent wage increase for the 593,000 people working directly for the government or in schools and the health-care system would cost $532 million.

Kenneth Thornicroft, a professor emeritus with the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, said this year’s negotiations are unprecedented.

“I've never seen anything quite like this in terms of our economy; it's just crazy times,” said Thornicroft.

He said the province was likely still struggling to reduce the budget deficit while preparing for the economic impact of tariffs.

“It's certainly hard to bargain from the employer's point of view,” Thornicroft said.

“We are in very, very dicey times economically, and it's really not the time for unions to be thinking they're going to hit a home run on their compensation.”