Contract talks break down between B.C. and community health workers: union

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This article was published 03/10/2025 (371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

British Columbia’s public service workers’ union says contract talks have broken down between the bargaining association representing community-based health workers and the Health Employers Association of BC.

The BC General Employees’ Union says the Community Bargaining Association, or CBA, announced Friday that negotiations had reached an “impasse.”

It’s the latest blow for the B.C. government as it contends with job action by more than 17,000 public service workers, though the BCGEU says the nearly 23,000 health workers represented by the CBA have yet to vote on a possible strike.

The CBA represents health-care workers in publicly funded community-based settings, such as drug and alcohol treatment centres, group homes, women’s clinics, seniors’ services and home-support programs.

Scott De Long, bargaining chair for the CBA, says its members serve some of the most vulnerable people in the province, often working in “precarious, high-risk environments.”

De Long says in a statement that the health workers have been “underpaid and undervalued” for more than 30 years.

The possibility of an additional 23,000 workers joining the current job action by the BGEU and Professional Employees Association comes at the end of a week of escalating strike action by the public-sector unions. 

Striking BCGEU workers further expanded pickets at provincial liquor and cannabis stores on Friday, adding 20 more locations to the list, and the union says the escalation also included job action by front-line staff at several ministry offices.

It says more than 17,000 workers were participating in job action across B.C. on Friday, amounting to half the 34,000 public service workers it represents.

A joint statement from the BC Coroners Service and Ministry of Public Safety said the ongoing job action has forced the postponement of an inquest into the deaths of a family of four that was scheduled to begin on Monday.

The province says the coroners’ inquest into the deaths of Janet Nguyen, Christopher Duong, Alexander and Harlan Duong has been tentatively rescheduled for Oct. 14, but there still could be a “risk” of job action on the revised date. 

Union president Paul Finch said in a statement that every day the government delays, pressure on public services will grow, and it will continue to step up its job action until the province comes back to bargaining table with a fair wage offer. 

Finch has said his members will be outside the legislature on Monday just as the fall session begins and the union enters its sixth week of job action. 

Talks on Monday broke down not long after they started, with the union saying the new provincial offer had few meaningful changes, while government officials have said they are trying to balance a fair deal with B.C.’s constrained fiscal situation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2025.