British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union

The British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) is a trade union in British Columbia, Canada which represents approximately 65,000 members. The union employs over 180 servicing and clerical staff in 12 area offices across the province and at the Burnaby head office. The current President of the BCGEU is Stephanie Smith.^[1] Smith was elected to this position in 2014 . The previous President was Darryl Walker.^[2]

Structure and History

The union, which dates from 1919, is divided into 550 different bargaining units. Half of the BCGEU membership work in the direct government service. The other half include instructors and support staff for colleges and institutes, community health care workers, group homes staff members, bank and credit union employees, and employees in hotels, department stores, first nations governments, theatres, and casinos, amongst other places.^[3]

The BCGEU first gained full bargaining rights under the BC Labour Code in 1974.^[4] Since then the BCGEU has been involved in a number of precedent-setting legal cases, including BCGEU v. British Columbia on picketing rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Meiorin case on the test for discrimination.

The union is divided into a component structure. This is the union's component structure:

• COMPONENT 1 - Corrections and Sheriff Services
• COMPONENT 3 - Community Social Services
• COMPONENT 4 - Health Services
• COMPONENT 5 - Retail, Stores and Warehouse
• COMPONENT 6 - Social, Information and Health
• COMPONENT 7 - Education, Scientific, Technical and Administrative
• COMPONENT 8 - Community Health Services
• COMPONENT 10 - Operational Services
• COMPONENT 12 - Administrative Services
• COMPONENT 17 - General Services
• COMPONENT 20 - Environmental, Technical and Operational

Members of BCGEU Components 1, 5, 6, 12 & 20 are covered by B.C.’s Public Service Pension Plan. This pension plan currently has equity of over $23 billion.^[5]

As the nature of public sector employment has changed in recent decades in British Columbia, the number of BCGEU members who work directly for the government has declined while the number of BCGEU members doing work that has been devolved from government or contracted to the private sector has increased.^[6]

Political Involvement

The BCGEU is a significant and long-term supporter of the BC New Democratic Party, contributing $157,770.64 in the year following the 2009 provincial election.^[7]

Staff

BCGEU staff are themselves unionized, being represented by Unifor and Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE). Bargaining between the BCGEU and its Unifor (then-CEP) employees broke down in 2005, resulting in a multi-week strike.^[8]

External links

• BC Government and Service Employees' Union Web Page

References

1. Rainlander (January 7, 2015). "President's Bio". BC Government and Service Employees' Union. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
2. Rainlander (January 7, 2015). "Darryl Walker's Bio". BC Government and Service Employees' Union. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
3. Rainlander. "BCGEU - Who We Are". BC Government and Service Employees' Union. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
4. "Quick Facts about the BCGEU". BC Government and Service Employees' Union. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
5. Rainlander (January 7, 2015). "BC Public Service Pension Plan". bcgeu.ca. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
6. Morna Ballantyne (February 15, 2007). "Reorganizing for power (the case of BCGEU)". Harvard Trade Union Program - A Participant's Blog. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
7. Sean Holman (May 5, 2011). "BCGEU support for the BC NDP on the rise". Public Eye Online. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
8. http://cule.ca/2005/02/25/strike-support-for-bcgeu/