Date: Sunday September 15, 2024, 10AM – 1PM

Place: 17535 55B Ave, Surrey, BC V3S 5V2

The Area 04 Cross Component is holding a day of Solidarity for the Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1742 who work at HandyDART.

We will be supporting their picket line on Sunday September 15th from 10:00am to 1:00pm.

The worksite is located at: 17535 55b Ave, Surrey, BC V3S 5V2

We will be walking the picket line to show our support for the struggle of workers currently on strike.

The committee is inviting all BCGEU members in the Fraser Valley to come out and support these workers in their struggle for a fair collective agreement.

Download PDF of bulletin here

UWU/MoveUP

Area 01 Cross Component Committee is inviting you to The Victoria Labour Council Labour Day Picnic (https://victorialabour.ca).

This family-friendly event will include live music, food, and games for the kids!

WHEN:       September 2, 2024

TIME:         11:00 am – 2:00 pm

WHERE:     Memorial Park, Esquimalt (1200 Esquimalt Rd)

Please share this invitation with your friends, family and fellow union members.

We hope to see you there! Everyone is welcome!

On Behalf of your Area 01 Cross Component Committee

Download PDF of bulletin here

UWU/MoveUP

Area 04 Cross Component Committee is excited to be a sponsor of this cultural event in recognition of National Truth and Reconciliation Day. The upcoming 3rd Annual stɑl̓əw̓ pow-wow has a limited number of tickets available, and you are invited to enter into a raffle to win a ticket and attend for free. Single tickets can be used to attend any of the days the Pow Wow is running, from September 13th to September 15^th 2024, being held at the Langley Events Centre.

 
PLACE:        Langley Events Centre, 7888 200 Street, Langley BC

DATE:          Friday September 13th to Sunday September 15th 2024       
           
TIME:           Various
 
Click on the link below to enter the draw for a chance to win! Registration for the raffle will close at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, September 2nd. The draw for the ticket will be done on September 3rd and only winners will be contacted! Each individual winner will win one ticket, valid for any one of the three days and details on how to claim your ticket will be provided to the designated winners. 
 
Details on this event including a schedule of events, and how to purchase additional tickets (or for anyone interested in attending) can be found stalewpowwow.ca
 
RSVP/Raffle link: https://events.bcgeu.ca/ccc_st_l_w_pow-wow_raffle
 
The BCGEU Code of Conduct is in effect at all Cross Component events. Any participant engaging in unacceptable behaviour may be asked to leave and not invited to future events.
 
In Solidarity,
 
Kevin Hagglund                                                              Erica Cardarelli
Staff Representative                                                       Area 04 Cross Component Chair

Download PDF of notice here

UWU/MoveUP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 14, 2024

BCGEU reacts to WCB report on fatal accident in B.C.Wildfire Service last year

In response to a recent Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) report regarding the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS), B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) president Paul Finch released the following statement: 
 
With the release of the redacted WCB report, our thoughts are with the Gale family and colleagues across the province who continue to be deeply impacted by this traumatic event just over a year ago. The systemic issues identified in the report should not be read as criticism of individual firefighters doing their best to protect the province during increasingly difficult wildfire seasons.
 
As the WCB report shows, the BCWS has not met its obligation to ensure the appropriate supervision of safety protocols are in place. Processes like completing dangerous tree assessments and implementing safety training and orientation for new workers have fallen by the wayside due to an inability to retain experienced staff.  
 
The employer’s failure to retain experienced staff means that many workers are put in dangerous situations. There is no substitute for experience fighting wildfires, and the Ministry needs to address the dire retention crisis currently facing BCWS. That starts with the Ministry reversing its current stated position that there is no retention issue among junior to mid level leadership positions, and working to take the appropriate steps to resolve the retention crisis.
 
The BCGEU has been calling on the BCWS to change its culture of normalizing risks; the onus for worker safety cannot be placed on the workers themselves. 
 
To end the retention crisis, the BCWS must take the steps needed to make wildland firefighting a safe and sustainable career, by providing adequate compensation for junior and mid-level leadership roles and ensuring appropriate staffing throughout the season. 
 
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For interviews, please contact Nadja Komnenic, BCGEU Communications at [email protected] or 604-291-9611.

The Area 04 Cross Component invites you and your family for a cultural and carnival celebration taking place at our Fraser Valley Office!  

                             
                                           Date:               Saturday, August 24, 2024
                                           Place:              8555 198 A Street, Langley BC V2Y 0A9 (Fraser Valley Area Office)
                                           Time:               11 am – 3 pm
                                                     

The goal of this event is to bring together the rich ethnic diversity of BCGEU members by celebrating and integrating cultures amongst us along with all the fun of Summer Carnival games. The Day will feature lunch, entertainment, cultural booths, face painting, games and much more.

The event will be open to all BCGEU members and their families.
 
Please register by clicking on the link  View Cultural & Carnival Day Event

 

Please email the Fraser Valley Office at [email protected] with any questions. We hope to see you there!
 

Download PDF of notice here

UWU/MoveUP

Union members win significant pay increases, pledge to continue fight for full equity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BURNABY, B.C. (Coast Salish Territories) – Supportive housing workers are celebrating a major step toward pay equity in the sector. Effective in September, workers at 50 supportive housing agencies will receive significant raises that bring them closer to peers at higher-paid agencies.

These pay increases come after months of pressure from B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), led by union members at Atira Women’s Resource Society (AWRS) who launched a campaign calling for pay equity last year.

“The other women and gender-diverse workers at Atira and I do the same jobs as our peers at co-ed agencies like Lookout and Raincity. When government decided we should be paid less, we were outraged and launched a campaign demanding gender pay equity,” said Shirley Ram, a BCGEU member and Women Support Worker at AWRS. “We’re pleased to see an initial victory today, but serious gaps remain. We will continue to fight until government makes good on their commitment to full pay equity.”

Despite government committing to achieve pay equity between supportive housing workers in B.C., these raises still leave workers at AWRS and other agencies up to $4.97/hour short of their peers.

“The government’s stubborn refusal to deliver pay equity for supportive housing workers is frustrating.” said BCGEU president Paul Finch. “These workers do incredible – often life-saving – work on the front lines of the poisoned drug epidemic and the housing crisis and they deserve to be paid fairly.”

“Inadequate and unequal wages are pushing workers out of the sector, creating a recruitment and retention crisis,” Finch continued. “The half-measures announced today fall short of fixing the fundamental inequality, and our union will continue to fight for pay equity.”

Supportive housing workers provide a variety of services that keep residents and communities safer, including providing housing, responding to overdoses, and helping people struggling with mental health and addictions get access to support and treatment.

In B.C.’s supportive housing sector, not all workers who do the same work are compensated equally – despite most funding coming from the provincial government. Wages for the supportive housing workers covered by the Community Social Services collective agreement have historically been lower than wages for workers doing the same jobs under the Community Health collective agreement.

The newly agreed upon increases range from 5.9 to 9.5 per cent, take effect in September, and apply to specific positions at AWRS and 49 other supportive housing agencies covered by the Community Social Services agreement.

One of the largest unions in British Columbia, the BCGEU has over 90,000 members in almost every community and economic sector in the province. As the lead union in the sector, more than 4,000 supportive housing workers are unionized with the BCGEU.   

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For more information, please contact BCGEU Communications Officer Aaron Donovan at 604 306-9122 or [email protected]

Our union’s Constitution and Bylaws describe the rights and responsibilities of union membership and how we govern ourselves. At the BCGEU’s 2024 Convention in May, delegates adopted changes to Article 7 of the Constitution which lays out the process of discipline for members found to have violated our union’s constitution. 

These updates affect the role of local chairs under the Complaint Procedure (see page 14 of the Constitution and Bylaws). At the initiation of a complaint, a written statement will no longer be sent to the complainant’s local chair but to a designated email instead ([email protected]). A copy will be sent to the local chair within seven days.

A new form for filing a complaint under Article 7 is also available on the Member Portal. Go to General Resources under the Resources tab and then scroll down to find Documents and Forms. Sign in here for access.

Please note, if a member submits a complaint to you directly as a local chair, please direct the member to the fillable form and the designated email. 

Other minor updates have also been made to improve language around what evidence must be submitted by the complainant, as well as the appeal process. For full details, we encourage you to review the Constitution and Bylaws here. 

In solidarity, 

Paul Finch 
BCGEU president

UWU/MoveUP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 11, 2024

As the CRD grasps at straws, striking workers hold the line for fair wages 

WILLIAMS LAKE (Traditional territory of the Williams Lake Band, home to the Secwepemc people) – It's week four of the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) strike, and instead of taking the necessary steps to end job action by amending its last wage offer and negotiating in good faith, the CRD is making unfounded claims.

"The CRD's management is saying that our members are the ones refusing to return to bargaining, but that's simply not the case," says BCGEU President-Elect Paul Finch, who was on the Williams Lake picket line today, and the Quesnel picket line yesterday.

The BCGEU has reached out to the CRD bargaining team's hired gun multiple times during the strike to remind management of their responsibility to make a counteroffer that can financially sustain workers, so they can deliver the highest quality services. On June 10, the BCGEU sent another email to the CRD's bargaining team. The union has yet to receive a response.

"Management knows that the only way out of this strike is by adjusting their last offer, which our members could not accept because it would only exacerbate recruitment and retention issues at the CRD and destabilize services," says Finch. "The Regional District's upper management stopped talking after members voted down that insufficient final offer. In other words, they refuse to honor the bargaining process while our members are deeply invested in settling a deal."

Picketing workers are fighting for language that will protect their future wages from the eroding forces of inflation, in case the cost-of-living spikes again. The union's proposal follows a clear pattern of deals recently settled between other unions and municipalities that recognize workers need wages in-line with the regional cost-of-living to keep contributing to their communities.

"Instead of valuing their staff with a reasonable wage offer, like other comparable employers, the CRD is racking up legal fees and pitting residents against their neighbours - our members - just so they can win an argument. It's unproductive." 

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For more information, please contact BCGEU Communications Officer Celia Shea at 780-720-8122 or [email protected]

UWU/MoveUP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 10, 2024

BCGEU issues statement on the CRD's strong-arm tactics 

WILLIAMS LAKE – The union representing striking Cariboo Regional District (CRD) workers says that the Regional District's upper management has a responsibility to its staff and the entire community to adjust its last offer and bargain fairly for an improved contract that will serve the needs of all residents.

BC General Employees' Union (BCGEU) President-Elect Paul Finch says, "It's incredibly unfair of the CRD to continue passing the buck to our members in the media, when they already know where the workers stand on the CRD's insufficient wage proposal."

In May, months after BCGEU members voted in favour of strike action to win a fair deal, the CRD's upper management put its final (and only) wage offer to a vote. This offer did not include critical inflation-matching wage protections, even though the CRD never provided evidence that they could not afford such measures.

The members voted the offer down. Many of them are already struggling to pay their bills, and they need financial assurance in the face of an uncertain economic future, where cost-of-living could spike yet again.

"Final offer votes are a last-ditch effort on an employer's part to compel staff to accept a less-than-ideal contract," says Finch. "Two paths to resolution remained when their tactic failed: members could strike or the CRD could improve its offer. The CRD did not adjust their offer, so our members went on strike. The workers made their move. Now it's the employer's turn."

He adds that striking was not an easy decision for the CRD workers, who want to be at work supporting their neighbours. However, job action was necessary to prove that critical services in the Cariboo don't run themselves.

"Communities need skilled and dedicated workers like our members to ensure regional governments can service residents now and into the future," says Finch. "There is a logical and reasonable next step for the CRD to take - provide a contract that attracts and retains workers, so they can do their jobs and give Cariboo residents the support that they deserve."

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For more information, please contact BCGEU Communications Officer Celia Shea at 780-720-8122 or [email protected]

UWU/MoveUP