On Tuesday, Sept. 2, 34,000 public sector workers organized with the BCGEU and the PEA hit the picket lines in cities across British Columbia. With eroding living conditions, workers are forced to strike in order to make ends meet. This is the only way that working people can get ahead.
Eroding living conditions
The crisis of the system has led to an erosion of the living conditions of millions of people. Rents have sky rocketed and wages have failed to keep pace with inflation. This has led to a situation where 50 per cent of BCGEU members are living paycheque to paycheque and nearly a quarter are working a second job to make ends meet.
Low wages mean that there are year-round vacancies in every department. Too much time is spent on training new hires who end up leaving anyway, leading to mass burnout, more vacancies, and the cycle continues.
To attempt to address the eroded living conditions of their members, the BCGEU is demanding an 8.25 per cent pay increase over two years and cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for the lowest paid positions.
In response, the NDP government has made the counter offer of less than two per cent per year for two years. This is far below the inflation rate for both food and housing.
NDP betray their base
The NDP are formally a “labour party” connected to the unions, including the BCGEU. Logically, it should follow that they would therefore increase the wages of the government employees. However, this is obviously not the case and now the NDP find themselves at loggerheads with a major affiliate union.
But why is this happening? Explaining why they have lowballed the workers, BC NDP Finance Minister stated that they’re committed to finding “operational efficiencies” in the face of “serious, serious global economic challenges.” To cut through the jargon, capitalism is in crisis and the working class is going to be the one to foot the bill!
And the crisis of the system is being accelerated by the trade war with the United States. This has meant that the provincial budget deficit this year is projected to be $10.9 billion. Just the government’s own offer to BCGEU would grow the deficit by another $2 billion.
At the end of the day, the capitalists need to make profits and unions stand in the way of that. This is all the more true in an epoch of capitalist crisis like the one we are living through. With unions representing 450,000 workers currently in contract negotiations, meeting the demands of the BCGEU would set a precedent that capitalism cannot accept. As the NDP are managing the sinking ship, they must resist the very unions they are supposed to represent.
Scandalously, but unsurprisingly, the B.C. Labour Minister is looking to classify certain workers in the BCGEU as essential, taking away their right to strike. So far, the government has not budged on the BCGEU’s demands and looks set to fight to the end.
This strike demonstrates clearly why Marxists explain that betrayal is inherent in reformism. This is all the more true in times of economic crisis. Any party, regardless of intentions, that accepts the capitalist system, will be forced to betray.
If the NDP was a genuine party of the workers, it would take the fight to the capitalists and not accept the rules of their system. This would mean fighting to improve the conditions of workers, including implementing COLA for all workers. This is what communists fight for.
All-out strike to win!
The backdrop of this strike is the BCGEU strike in 2022. At the time, inflation was at nearly eight per cent and the union correctly put forward the demand for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to help workers wages keep pace with inflation. Tens of thousands of public sector employees were mobilized behind this demand.
However, at the time, the leaders of the BCGEU shied away from a determined struggle with the government and capitulated on COLA and accepted wage demands which baked wage erosion into the contract. The disconnect between the labour leaders and the rank-and-file was evident by the fact that only 53.4 per cent voted in favour of the contract recommended by the leadership.
This time around, the union leaders have chosen the strategy of rotating pickets, with different groups of government employees striking at different times. This is similar to the strategy adopted in 2022 which led to the bad contract that many were upset with.
A broader struggle is clearly needed. All the workers must be mobilized. The power of a strike comes from its ability to shut down the workplace. The 34,000 striking workers have immense power to do this, and disrupt the functioning of large sectors of the economy and government.
This would truly get the government’s attention. The economic disruption it would cause would force the government back to the bargaining table and—with a determined struggle—could force it to concede to the workers’ demands.
We also need to be prepared for a back-to-work order, whether it comes from declaring workers “essential” or otherwise. This cannot be ruled out, especially if the strike escalates into an all-out strike. In 1975, during a stagflation crisis similar to what we’re seeing today, Dave Barrett’s NDP legislated 50,000 workers back to work.
Here, the Air Canada workers showed the way. Last month, facing a back-to-work order, they defied the order, went on strike anyway, and left the federal government with a bloody nose. The BCGEU leadership must be ready to do the same.
With fighting tactics like these, the BCGEU can not not only give the government a fight—it can win. In this fight, the workers can count on mass public support. Seventy-four per cent of the public supports the BCGEU strike, including a vast majority of NDP supporters. The Air Canada workers also enjoyed mass support when they defied the law.
An example to the entire labour movement
This struggle is vital—and not just for the BCGEU workers. With the existential crisis of Canadian capitalism today, austerity and attacks on the workers are on the agenda. Capitalism needs to reduce the conditions of the workers to below-poverty levels. Corporate taxes need to be cut, social programs need to be slashed, and regulations need to be repealed. NDP or no, austerity is on the agenda.
Only a ruthless struggle can win serious improvements for workers. If it wages one, the BCGEU can set an example for the entire working class. In 2026, numerous large unions like PSAC will be in legal strike positions. Many unions in every province will be in negotiations too—not to mention the over 450,000 workers in B.C. who will have their contracts expire this year.
The BCGEU has an opportunity not just to win, but to offer a shining example to all these workers. Capitalism is crumbling before our eyes, austerity is on the agenda provincially and federally. Even greater clashes between workers and capitalists are on the horizon, and the fights that the labour movement wins today will lay the groundwork for future victories.
Expand the strike!
Strike against inflation!
Victory to the PEA & BCGEU!
