Unions converge in downtown Vancouver in push for B.C. public service contract

By Canadian Press on October 1, 2025.

VANCOUVER — Hundreds of British Columbia public sector workers marched through downtown Vancouver in a push for a new contract, after talks broke down with provincial government negotiators on Monday.

Members of other unions, including the Professional Employees Association, joined the march in what the BC General Employees’ Union calls a show of solidarity.

Participants chanted “union power” and “the workers united will never be defeated” as they marched through the streets from the Vancouver Art Gallery toward Jack Poole plaza, near the Vancouver Convention Centre, for a rally.

It comes after BCGEU president Paul Finch said the resumption of talks Monday didn’t last long, after the province presented a contract that was little changed from an earlier offer.

Meanwhile, Premier David Eby says his government is trying to balance the valuable work of public servants and the fiscal reality the province faces.

Eby told an unrelated news conference happening at the same time as the march that the province made a “good faith” offer of a five-per-cent wage increase over two years, with “special consideration” for those in lower paid roles.

“We’re fiscally constrained right now. The global economy is slowing. There’s huge cost inflation pressuring not just our government but governments around the world and across the country,” the premier said.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure that taxpayers are protected, as well as the hard-working public service, and I believe we can do that, but we need to make sure that we’re sitting at the table and hammering it out.”

The union has asked the province for a raise totalling eight per cent over two years.

About 15,000 of the union’s 34,000 workers involved in the dispute have been conducting some form of job action, including walking picket lines and refusing overtime.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2025.

Nono Shen and Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press