As previously noted, your 2019 Bargaining Committee had planned to start negotiations with our Employer in late May 2019. However, at the Employer's request, this was postponed until mid-July. 

As such, the Committee recently met with the Employer in Fort St. John over 5 days, from July 15^th-19^th for our first round of collective agreement bargaining. At these sessions, both sides tabled and discussed non-monetary proposals only. Headway was made in a number of areas while some items still require further negotiation.

The parties have scheduled additional dates in September in Victoria to continue negotiations. At these sessions, we will work on resolving the remaining non-monetary items before tabling monetary proposals. We anticipate providing another bargaining update following the next round of talks.

As we work diligently through negotiations, we still encourage you to reach out to your Bargaining Committee Members if you have any additional ideas, suggestions, or feedback. It is important to continue to share opinions and ideas so we can work together and support improvements in our careers and workplace.

To help ensure you receive a copy of bargaining updates, please provide a personal email address to the BCGEU at http://www.bcgeu.ca/update. If we already have an email address on file for you and you wish to edit or update any of your existing contact information, you can use the same form.

In solidarity, 

Amanda Fraser, Bargaining Committee Chairperson
Rachel Butler, Bargaining Committee Member
Chris Grieve, Bargaining Committee Member
Linsay Buss, Staff Representative – Negotiations