The union representing Metro Vancouver outside workers is asking people to avoid one of the region's most popular hiking trails as its members put up picket lines.
The Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees’ Union says in a statement that members are picketing the Grouse Grind on Monday and unionized park rangers are expected not to cross their picket line.
Pickets have also gone up at Delta's Deas Island Regional Park and Langley's Derby Reach Regional Park, as well as at the Lions Gate Wastewater Treatment Plant in West Vancouver.
The union has been setting up rotating pickets at the regional district's head office in Burnaby as well as water and wastewater treatment facilities for weeks in an effort to get a new contract.
The last contract between the district and outside workers expired in December 2024, and union president Jesse Medeiros says in a statement that members "need to put increasing pressure" on Metro Vancouver to force a restart of negotiations.
The union says hikers will not be stopped from using the Grouse Grind, but it is asking users to use extra caution without unionized rangers operating and to preferably delay their visits to another day.
“Union members’ jobs affected include park operators and assistants, patrollers and other Grouse Mountain Regional Park workers who fix the trails, remove garbage and keep them is top condition — that won’t be happening on Monday,” Medeiros says.
The union says it continues to abide by operations required by positions designated as essential service by the Labour Relations Board, but most other workers have walked off the job at the picket sites.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
