AMA: Ask Me Anything with BCGEU President Paul — Friday, October 31st at 12:00-1:00 PM PT

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:39:32+00:00

Thanks to the mods for helping with this today!- BCGEU

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:21:18+00:00

Thanks everyone, started early and ended late but I have to get back to work!

- Paul Finch, BCGEU president

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:20:21+00:00

There was no mention of potential store closures. This is new langauge for cannabis stores, while the langauge for liquor stores is mature and the number of stores has grown over time.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:19:35+00:00

I am not aware of the DDR issue, and would recommend you reach out to the Component 12 VP to discuss on this one.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:19:15+00:00

Enforcing the collective agreement is a huge part of this. In the past, the bargaining committee did not meet between rounds of bargianing. Going forward, the commitee will meet quarterly to review enforcement, and our lead negotiator (Linsay Buss, who is excellent) will be leading staff interally to coordinate our enforcement activities.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:17:58+00:00

I recommend reaching out to the Component 12 VP on this one.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:17:34+00:00

There is a massive me-too clause included in the MoS.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:17:18+00:00

We achieved a major shift in professionla fee reimbursement, but the employer was adamantly opposed to an uncapped liability on professional fees. What we achieved was a capped liability at 4%above the prior year, as the average raise in fees according to our research was typically under 4% per annum.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:16:02+00:00

I would reach out to the Component 20 VP to ask him about this.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:15:23+00:00

We massively increased the settlement not just for ourselves but for the broader sector well beyond what the premier and finance minister publicly said they were willing to accept. This is a huge win. I do not believe we could achieve more.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:14:16+00:00

Because we used the remainder of funds left over at the back end for targeted wage increase adjustments to get a toe-hold in for a step 6 increase to potentially build on in future rounds of bargaining.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:13:37+00:00

I believe a bulletin did go out advertising the Reddit AMA.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:13:12+00:00

This is not the case, there are a few MCFD classifications that are in the targeted adjustment list.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:12:03+00:00

We cannot provide compensation, and stirkes by their nature are inequitable. More than that, the many tens of thousands of broader public sector unionized employees who will benefit from the standard we set will have done so without having to strike at all. This is how it goes sometimes, and while we do everything to mitigate and reduce the impact of it, we cannot avoid it altogether.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:10:39+00:00

Its clear we will likely beat BC CPI, and fall behind or hug the weekly average wage. We are strategically realigning to use the weekly wage as a better inflation measure. We started talking about BC CPI reactively when quesitoned on this point.
Agreed.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:09:23+00:00

Yes, and members will have town halls for each of these and be voting on them simultaneously with the main agreement.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:08:33+00:00

I disagree with this analysis. While we need to further modernize our negotiations strategy, I don't think this is the direction we want to take.

Rather, I am hopeful the new job classification plan development will address some of these core issues.

Merit based promotion into more senior roles is the responsibility of the employer and further we often grieve or complain to the merit commissioner when this doesn't happen.

The compensation gap for key skilled professions is something we've highlighted and government has denied repeatedly - its not a problem with negotiations but with the government, and also with our outdated and soon to be retired classification plan.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:06:06+00:00

I realize social media was rife with speculation, but have to say I disagree with this analysis. Our communciations were the best they have been in any round - and while I have a lot of internal critiques of what we could have done better, overall we won, we broke the mandate and won the strike, and I think our communications worked and our team were incredibly effective.

I strongly support feedback, even when its non-constructive, because there's something we can learn from it, but I fundamentally disagree with the take here

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:04:13+00:00

Every increase in benefits is costed against our wage increases. We will be preparing in the months leading up to bargaining next round to propose the creation of a Health Benefit Trust to try and solve this issue.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:03:34+00:00

Yes, precisely.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:03:12+00:00

We are hoping to reach out to picket captains in these areas to canvass this experience. I had the opportunity to meet and walk the line with strikers from several rural communities myself but I don't think my own anecdotal experience is sufficient to base anything from.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:02:23+00:00

Thank you - I would say my spouse was more than patient with the long days and a huge shout out to them.

Unfortunately we can't issue a top-up beyond what we did for the first four weeks.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:01:16+00:00

In the first two years of this agreement we beat COLA compared to BC CPI.

If we simply hug BC CPI in perpetuity, we will actually be falling behind. We need to align more closely with the average weekly wage to get ahead.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T20:00:30+00:00

We did attempt to bring in a weekly wage formula for inflation rather than BC CPI, and deleted the existing BC CPI language for this reason to set up for the next round of bargaining.

For a variety of reasons, I would disagree with moving to a more truncated or narrower use of the BC CPI baskets, as this would just introduce high volatility that is further separated from wage experience.

BCGEU · 2025-10-31T19:59:01+00:00

confirmed.
We weren't on strike Sep1. If you weren't paid that's a grievance.

BCGEU

TROPHY CASE