Office workers at B.C. Transit’s Victoria headquarters have voted 96 per cent in favour of striking over a proposed 50 per cent cut in their extended health benefits.
Members of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union Local 378 are determined not to lose $250 of the current $500 in coverage for each of six or seven different health services they have been receiving for more than 30 years, said spokeswoman Jarrah Hodge.
“The rest of the public sector hasn’t had to take these kinds of benefit concessions,” Hodge said, referring to chiropractic, naturopathy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, podiatry, acupuncture and massage therapy.
“It’s unlikely that anyone needs to use the maximum on all those services, but when you need them, you need them.”
The union’s bargaining committee put forward a proposal it said would have saved money by giving full-time temporary workers time off for any extra hours instead of a 6.5 per cent pay differential, but that was rejected and negotiations have reached an impasse, Hodge said.
COPE 378 represents 130 B.C. Transit employees, including transit planners, administrative workers, and those in payroll, marketing and graphic design. They were last on strike for about two weeks in 2001.
There is “no specific plan” to take job action that would shut down transit service, Hodge said, saying the union wants to get back to the negotiating table. B.C. Transit also would have the option of applying to the Labour Relations Board have the members’ work declared an essential service.
“I’m hopeful that B.C. Transit hears this message and comes back to the table to negotiate a fair agreement,” said COPE 378 vice-president Heather Lee in a statement.
“Our members want to work with the company to conclude an agreement that works for all parties, but they’re being asked to sacrifice unnecessarily.”
B.C. Transit spokeswoman Meribeth Burton declined to comment on the issue of health benefits.
Burton said that B.C. Transit would not negotiate in the media and “will continue to work with its unions to negotiate fair and affordable contract.”
