Members of the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) working for the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) have rejected the CRD’s Final Offer of an 11 per cent raise on Friday, May 10.
In a release issued Friday, the CRD said that union members voted against the CRD’s final offer of an 11 per cent raise over three years. With this offer now rejected the CRD said there is no set timeline for when BCGEU’s strike action will begin or cease.
“We are disappointed with the result, but now we also know that our employees had a chance to accept or reject the most recent offer on the floor,” said Murray Daly, the CRD’s chief administrative officer, “Obviously this vote didn’t go the way we hoped it would, and we will need to wait and see what BCGEU will do with this result. We will continue advocating for taxpayers in negotiating a fair deal that provides certainty on the cost of our services going forward.”
The BCGEU also released their own statement regarding the rejection of the offer. The union characterized it as the CRD trying to ram through a deal that “would have risked workers’ financial security and risked exacerbating recruitment and retention issues.”
Those workers the BCGEU represents cover an area of 80,252 square kilometers and provide services to Quesnel, Williams Lake and 100 Mile House. The union noted they have been in negotiations with the CRD since January and the workers stand together in the fight to improve the services locals rely on.
“From waste management and library services to utilities, on to wildfire response and flood mitigation, our members do everything they can to keep the region safe and vibrant,” BCGEU treasurer Paul Finch said. “They are truly the caretakers of the North, and in a disaster, we would be defenceless without them. But they can only continue to work in our community if they can actually afford to call the Cariboo region home. The regional district’s final offer was not going to provide the financial security they need to do this.”
A final offer like the recent one allows unionized employees to directly vote on an offer from their employer. All other offers to this date have been filtered through the BCGEU’s bargaining committee.
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Daly said the CRD’s offer included a wage increase of five per cent in 2024 and then three per cent in 2025 and 2026. Other changes agreed to at the bargaining table by the CRD and BCGEU were also included in this last offer, according to the CRD.
Finch said many CRD departments are currently understaffed and overworked. During talks with the CRD Finch stated workers have been seeking to reduce the high rate of staff turnover and ways to offset financial pressures should the region’s cost of living “skyrocket” again.
He further explained that the BCGEU voted to authorize a strike after “the CRD tried strongarming members into accepting unacceptable cuts to disability-benefits.” While such cuts are no longer on the table Finch said the CRD would not meet members in the middle on compensation and refused to consider inflation-matching protections, leading to the 72-hour strike notice issued on May 6.
In preparation for a potential strike, CRD libraries across the region will remain closed so the CRD can “protect the health and safety of library staff” especially those in rural library branches. Library staff not part of job action will still work regularly scheduled shifts, assigned to other duties within their job descriptions. Other regional services will remain unaffected pending further job action.
In their release, the CRD said the BCGEU has not communicated with the CRD about when they’d be willing to return to the bargaining table. They also do not know when potential walkouts will happen and if picket lines will be established.
Earlier this week the CRD issued guidance about the likely impacts to other regional services if BCGEU escalates job action. The BCGEU said they have simply taken the first step of job action to implement a ban on overtime work and are not picketing any services. They further added it was the CRD who chose to shut down the libraries despite employees still showing up for work.
“Our members do not take strikes lightly, but if they’re forced to picket — if that’s what it takes to achieve the improvements they need to properly service the Cariboo — they will,” Finch said. “Residents fund the CRD. They expect their taxpayer dollars to go directly towards the services they desperately need and they expect their neighbours who deliver those services to be treated with respect and fairness.”
Finch said that BCGEU will continue to try and bargain with the CRD, but if the CRD is unwilling to offer a fair deal they will advance their strike action and begin picketing in the future.
