Metro Vancouver job action enters 2nd week as pickets go up at watersheds

Unionized workers at Metro Vancouver are escalating job action as their strike enters its second week.

The Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees’ Union said that watersheds, water filtration and water treatment plants will be picketed, starting on Monday morning.

In a statement, the union said that turbidity of drinking water, brown or cloudy water, could be possible, but Metro Vancouver said that there is no risk of that happening.

President of the union, Jesse Medeiros, said there are no negotiations scheduled with Metro Vancouver management and that until Metro Vancouver management get back to the bargaining table without preconditions and reach a new contract that addresses health and safety, contracting out and recruitment and retention issues important to the union, there will be escalating job action, up to and including a full strike.

“From the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant costs skyrocketing from $700 million to $3.86 billion or management staffing for pay, compensation and staffing jumping by 69% in just five years or huge fines from WorkSafeBC for injuries caused by serious violations of multiple safety regulations, Metro Vancouver management is incompetent and elected Board directors need to get involved to end this dispute,” Medeiros added.

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Metro Vancouver job action escalation

Current picketing locations are:

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• Capilano Watershed

• Seymour Watershed

• Coquitlam Watershed

• Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve

• Seymour Capilano Filtration Plant

• Coquitlam Water Treatment Plant

No talks are scheduled so far between the two sides.

The union says that outstanding issues continue to be improvements to health and safety, ending contracting out of bargaining unit work and improving recruitment and retention.

Metro Vancouver has offered increases of 3.5 and three per cent over three years, with a one-time adjustment of 25 cents an hour in 2027.

More than 700 people are members of the Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees’ Union and they operate and maintain regional services, such as protecting water, air, and natural resources, providing drinking water, sewer, and infrastructure services and stewarding parks, ecological reserves, and housing communities.

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