National

B.C.'s public service workers escalate strike to correctional facilities

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 10 Oct, 2025 10:52 AM

British Columbia jails have been added to the growing list of sites behind picket lines as public service workers escalate job action.

The B.C. General Employees' Union says in a release that all its remaining unionized staff at adult correctional facilities across the province are now on strike.

The union says the escalation brings the total number of work sites behind pickets to more than 470, with about 25,000 workers taking strike action across 20 ministries, Crown corporations and agencies.

Union president Paul Finch says the escalation is due to the government's "lack of urgency" in coming to the table with a better contract offer.

The government has said its last proposal to the union was fair in balancing workers' needs and B.C.'s constrained fiscal position.

The strike is in its sixth week, but job action ramped up quickly in the last week, with a march in Vancouver last Friday and a rally at the legislature on Monday as politicians returned for the fall session.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/ ETHAN CAIRNS

Prev Next

MORE National ARTICLES

Eby wants all-party probe into B.C. vote count errors as election boss blames weather

Premier David Eby is proposing an all-party committee investigate mistakes made during the British Columbia election vote tally, including an uncounted ballot box and unreported votes in three-quarters of the province's 93 ridings. The proposal comes after B.C.'s chief electoral officer blamed extreme weather, long working hours and a new voting system for human errors behind the mistakes in last month's count, though none were large enough to change the initial results.

Eby wants all-party probe into B.C. vote count errors as election boss blames weather

'It feels very bad': Brampton reels after two nights of tense protest outside temple

Monday night saw hundreds of demonstrators gather outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton, Ont., where police allege people in the crowd were carrying weapons and objects were being thrown. That demonstration came after violent protests on Sunday outside the same temple spilled over to two other locations in Mississauga, Ont.

'It feels very bad': Brampton reels after two nights of tense protest outside temple

Fatal crash on Vancouver Island

Police say they're investigating a head-on crash that killed one person on Vancouver Island over the weekend. R-C-M-P say witnesses to the crash on Highway 18 west of Duncan told police that a compact pickup truck was heading west when it drifted into the oncoming lane and struck a one-tonne pickup.

Fatal crash on Vancouver Island

B.C. man charged with second-degree murder in death of estranged wife

A man has been charged with killing his estranged wife in Montrose. Police in the West Kootenay community say officers were dispatched Monday after a report of a man assaulting a woman on the front lawn of a home.

B.C. man charged with second-degree murder in death of estranged wife

B.C. ports shuttered as lockout takes hold in latest labour dispute

One of Canada's most vital trade arteries is cut off as employers at most of British Columbia's ports lock out their workers in a dispute involving about 700 unionized foremen. The BC Maritime Employers Association says it defensively locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 after the union began strike activity yesterday.

B.C. ports shuttered as lockout takes hold in latest labour dispute

Inflation is down, wages are up. Why are Canadians still frustrated with the economy?

The federal finance minister has been taking every opportunity to remind frustrated Canadians that after a bumpy pandemic recovery, the nation's economy is actually doing a lot better. Inflation is now at 1.6 per cent, below the Bank of Canada's two per cent target. Interest rates are falling rapidly and more cuts are on the way. The economy, while weak, has avoided a much-feared recession.