Friday October 17, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 9:11 am]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Employer and employees union are returning to the bargaining table.… the BC Government and BC General Employees Union (BCGEU) both issued news releases this morning around 8 am to announced a return to negotiations between the two sides.
BCGEU says it has agreed to enter non-binding mediation with the BC Government.
Mediators will be Vince Ready and Amanda Rogers.
The BCGEU decision to return to the table “follows a request from government late Thursday afternoon” and comes after seven weeks of province-wide strike action by more than 25,000 public service workers, states BCGEU.
Thursday morning the BCGEU and PEA had held a high profile press conference nearby to the BC Legislature buildings, during which BCGEU President Paul Finch said that government is misspending when it comes to infrastructure — putting more into the construction and contractors than the employees who play key roles in developing infrastructure.
That point — which came in response to a media question from Island Social Trends during the press conference — may have touched a nerve for the BC NDP government that prides itself on ‘putting people first’ and building a province that ‘works for everyone’.
Today in their news release, government leads with saying that the BCGEU has agreed to enter into medication with the assistance of the mediators “in an effort to find a resolution to the current dispute between the parties that has resulted in the public-service strike”.
Clearly, the public has experienced impacts (lack of various government services) in a BCGEU strike now in its seventh week. The government is now acknowledging that, with a summary statement to day.
“The strike is having an impact on the public, businesses and employees, and government is committed to reaching a fair agreements that works for everyone,” it was stated in a Ministry of Finance news release.
===== RELATED:
- BC income assistance payments continue during postal & government worker strikes (October 16, 2025)
- BCGEU escalates job action, says government misspends on infrastructure (October 16, 2025)
- BCGEU job action seems stalled in 7th week (October 15, 2025)
- BCGEU strike impact on restaurants gets relayed to BC premier by BCRFA (October 15, 2025)
- BCGEU rally in Victoria Oct 6: how much can it move the needle? (October 6, 2025)
- Preparing BC Budget 2026 with input from municipalities and economists – Finance Minister Brenda Bailey at UBCM (September 29, 2025)
- NEWS SECTION: BCGEU | 43rd BC PARLIAMENT | JOBS & EMPLOYMENT