Monday September 1, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated September 2, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Some members of the B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) who work for the BC Public Service will begin walking picket lines on Tuesday morning, September 2, at various locations throughout the province.
The strike vote was called following a breakdown in negotiations between the BCGEU and the Public Service Agency (PSA) on July 18, 2025.
A 72-hour strike notice was issued on Friday, August 29, after BCGEU members voted 92.7 percent in favour of striking.
Over 34,000 workers:
The BCGEU’s public service bargaining unit is one of the largest in B.C., consisting of over 34,000 members including 2,000 BC Wildfire Service workers, 2,350 correctional officers and sheriffs, 4,850 liquor and cannabis retail and distribution staff, 3,600 Ministry of Children and Family Development workers, and over 14,000 administrative professionals working in ministries and departments across the provincial government.
Almost 600,000 people work in B.C.’s broader public sector.
Victoria and other locations:
BCGEU President Paul Finch will join striking workers on a picket line in downtown Victoria in front of a government office building across the street from Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Blanshard Street. And there are other picket line locations in Victoria including in front of the Royal BC Museum (across from the BC Parliament Buildings).
Picket lines will also be in Prince George and in Surrey (at the Guildford Corporate Centre, making ICBC drive licensing services unavailable today).
The public is expected to respect picket lines.
What the union wants:
Key BCGEU demands include resolving what they call an ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in the public service through:
- Competitive wages that address the affordability crisis facing public service workers (a two-year deal at 4% in the first year and 4.25% in the second year);
- Fair access to telework;
- A modernized contract with a classification system that more fairly values their work; and
- An improved process to review and limit excluded positions, restore a reasonable ratio of excluded-to-union positions, and protect union jobs.
Timeline up to now:
The previous public service collective agreement – the 19th Main Agreement – took effect April 1, 2022, and expired on March 31, 2025.
Negotiations for the 20th Main Agreement began on January 22, 2025.
The BCGEU was the first union representing workers in B.C.’s broader public sector to begin bargaining, with the PSA this round.
Public impact and tolerance:
BCGEU feels that the affordability crisis experienced by their workers “puts the services everyone relies on at risk”.
BCGEU members earn 2.7 per cent less than the average wage in the province, and 22% are working a second or third job to make ends meet, Finch told media as the strike has loomed.
Meanwhile, many other workers outside the labour union process — as well as small businesses and low-income individuals and seniors — also currently experience the country-wide affordability crisis, without much organized recourse. So it remains to be seen the level of public support for this strike.
BCGEU also feels too many managers are being hired. See: B.C.’s public service: An investment in public safety and a healthy economy [PDF]
Provincial budget squeeze:
The Province made it clear in March that Budget 2025 would cut back or not expand in any possible areas as the disruptive impact of the US trade war was heating up and with the loss of revenue from cancellation of the federal carbon tax (which BC paired along with for social income supports).
===== RELATED:
- BC premier, NDP & prime minister articulate important needs on Labour Day (September 1, 2025)
- BCGEU public sector workers could strike by Sept 2 (August 30, 2025)
- BCGEU strikers joined by PEA at downtown Victoria street rally (August 17, 2022)
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