Western Pacific Marine remains holdout: BCGEU
After two days of bargaining in Kelowna, the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU) reached a tentative agreement on Oct. 24 with WaterBridge Ferries and Waterbridge Equipment, two of the three employers who operate B.C.’s inland ferry services.
“From day one our members have been focused on getting a collective agreement that addresses recruitment, retention and successorship,” says Stephanie Smith, BCGEU president. “This deal does all of that, and that’s what it will take to make these ferries sustainable for the future.”
Highlights of the tentative agreement include achieving wage parity with B.C. Ferries within the three-year term and a successorship training commitment from the employer that would ensure existing members have training opportunities and career paths in the service, says the union.
Employees working at Waterbridge Ferries and Waterbridge Equipment, which serves the communities of Arrow Lake, Adams Lake and Francois Lake, will be reviewing the tentative agreement in detail over the next week and voting on ratification, says BCGU.
Western Pacific Marine — which employs 80 BCGEU members and operates service on Kootenay Lake — did not respond to the union’s proposals and requests to return to bargaining, says the union.
The BCGEU is one of the largest unions in B.C. with almost 80,000 members.
