VICTORIA – Contract talks between the British Columbia government and the union representing public service workers broke off shortly after they began on Monday.
Paul Finch, president of the BC General Employees’ Union, said government negotiators showed up three hours late and offered scant improvement to previous contract offers.
Finch, who is also the chair of the public service bargaining committee, said the union will “escalate sharply” its job action after the “disrespect” shown by the government.
The two sides were not even in the same “ballpark,” Finch said, while speaking to union members outside a government office in Victoria.
“So, our first impulse was, we came back to them and said, ‘maybe there’s been a mistake, you’ve clearly called us back to the table,’” he told the crowd.
He said the union told negotiators to go back to the government to ask for changes, but they returned without a “real offer.”
“I’d say we are incredibly disappointed. I think this was — in my view — a cheap stunt. There’s no point in calling us back to the table if you are not going to present something materially different,” Finch said.
He said the public should expect larger demonstrations, including a show of solidarity from other unions in the coming days.
There is a “possibility” of a rally outside the B.C. legislature when lawmakers return Oct. 6, Finch said.
The union was into its fourth week of job action when the government invited it back to negotiations last Friday.
The BCGEU had been asking for wage increases totalling 8.25 per cent over two years, but said in a statement Monday that it countered the government’s offer with a wage increase of four per cent in each year of a two-year agreement.
Pickets remain up, including around about 1/3 of provincial liquor stores, at liquor and cannabis distribution warehouses and at government offices around B.C.
The union said about 15,000 of its 34,000 members involved in the contract were conducting some form of job action, from an overtime ban to picketing.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2025.
