Finance Minister Kevin Falcon sure sounds easy-going.
The union representing most of the civil service just voted 82 per cent to strike, you say?
"Entirely appropriate," was his serene response Tuesday.
Earlier, he told the legislature it was "legitimate public posturing" for the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union to pitch Sunday liquor-store openings as a way to raise money to pay for a wage increase.
"Where a union ... is putting out a position to advance an argument, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. I want to be clear that I'm not critical that they would do that."
It's just when you get to the point of actually trying to do a deal that his government gets difficult.
That's what prompted the strike vote in the first place. They've been meeting since January, and BCGEU president Darryl Walker said the process has been mostly futile.
Eighty-two per cent is a middling sort of mandate for the union brass to take into the nitty-gritty round of talks that will start next week. It's enough to go to the wall, if need be. But it's also a message that the civil service isn't madly keen to do so.
Walker said the message from the 25,000-strong membership is that if the government doesn't move from its position, they'll have to consider job action.
Unlike the teachers' dispute, where learning conditions and all sorts of educational issues get larded into the fight, the BCGEU contract talks are a straight argument about money.
The members haven't had a general pay increase in three years. The government is offering a minimal lift, but only if the money can be found through "co-operative gains," meaning cuts from elsewhere in the system. The published mandate states there will be no additional funding for wage increases, meaning no new money for payroll costs.
Government divisions are supposed to develop savings plans from existing budgets to provide for "modest" wage hikes.
But they can't come from service cuts, or transferring costs to the public. They have to come from operational efficiency, service redesigns or business gains.
NDP critic Bruce Ralston asked Falcon in the house about an apparent problem with the scheme. Most of the knowledge and expertise about that level of budgeting resides with management.
So how does the union get the information to make suggestions?
Falcon said they've accomplished it in the health sector over the past few years, and it's doable in government.
He confirmed the "lean" program detailed in this paper last week is an attempt to produce savings to be used for the contract.
If they can increase productivity with the same number of employees so they don't have to hire more to deal with future demands, that would count as a saving, he said. The finance ministry has designated a senior official to be the "savings officer," charged with validating any proposed agreements.
Falcon was just as cheerily optimistic about all the griping that's going on "co-operative gains" so far.
The challenges are "very much the normal part of the process."
He said there's a "really healthy, good tension" between the employer and the union in the talks so far.
If four months of stalemate followed by an 82 per cent strike vote is a "healthy tension," I can't wait to see what the minister calls a full-blown series of rotating strikes.
Falcon also obliquely referred to why the Sunday-openings idea apparently went nowhere. The BCGEU calculated they would produce $120 million more that could fund a wage hike.
Falcon said when you drill down and examine the business case behind ideas like that, "it gets a little tougher."
"On closer examination it turns out that sometimes that is not always the case," he said, citing overtime costs.
It may still be on the table, but it looks dormant at this point.
Something that did fall off the table is the government's initial offer of a 1.5 per cent wage hike.
Walker said the union understands that offer has now been rescinded and there is no specific wage offer outstanding.
The union was looking for at least four per cent, and removal of a number of concessions.
It's a kinder, gentler version of the teachers dispute. They're both going nowhere, but the government and the BCGEU are getting there more politely.
lleyne@timescolonist.com
