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BCGEU ratifies three-year collective agreement with BC

Published on October 18, 2022 by oz. staff

Photo: Twitter

The weed supply is safe – at least for three more years.

BC General Employees’ Union’s (BCGEU) members have narrowly voted in favour of a new collective agreement with the provincial government.

The deal was ratified by a vote of 53.4% with over 71% of eligible members voting, says the union.

  • RELATED: Tentative agreement reached between BCGEU and BC

There are 33,000 members, including staff at cannabis stores in the provincial distribution centres.

It’s a three-year agreement that’s in effect to March 31, 2025. The ratified deal includes wage protections against inflation, improvements to occupational health and safety, improvements to mental health in the workplace, employment security, and equity and workers’ rights, says the BCGEU.

  • RELATED: BC legal cannabis highly active in labour movement

The tentative deal was reached in early September after almost eight months of negotiations.

The contract dispute cut off cannabis supply for about two weeks in August when the BC Government Employees’ Union started job action, setting up picket lines outside of liquor and cannabis distribution centres. Dozens of private cannabis stores were forced to close and/or lay off workers during the job action.

Reaction online was not positive.

Pleased to announce stagnant wages and the lies of walking away from COLA. Great job by the negotiating team to literally destroy what’s left of the hopes for the lower classifications. 9’s cannot afford to live and this makes the divide worse. Simple math.

— Justin Van Horne (@justinvanhorne) October 18, 2022

29% didn’t vote.

12,406 vs 10,823 is not a unified membership.

This is not a success

— Labour on the line (@carie_ldb) October 18, 2022

Barely half your union approved the deal – this is nothing to be pleased about, especially as well over 90% voted for a strike and now roughly half of that endorsed the deal you just signed (which is barely better). You cannot put window-dressing on this; you should be honest.

— 1980sToday (@1980sToday) October 18, 2022