Bargaining
BCGEU: Update on Bargaining, Job Action Activities, and More
August 27, 2026
To: All MoveUP members at BCGEU
Hello MoveUP members,
I hope you are taking the time to enjoy the last bit of summer with your loved ones.
I would like to provide a brief update on our bargaining progress, as well as address questions related to bargaining communication and support gear that have come up recently.
Bargaining timeline update
Your bargaining committee, including myself, will be at the bargaining table with your employer for 4 full days from September 8 to 11.
We are hopeful to continue signing off on agreed to proposals and get deep into negotiating our monetary proposals from our bargaining proposal package.
Further, we have additional bargaining days jointly with the BCUWU around our shared proposals in the third week of September, and 2 more days with your employer on our own at the end of September.
We will continue to keep you updated throughout the process after the conclusion of these sets of meetings.
Job Action Committee has been formed
We are encouraged to see some members are already starting to get active and looking for ways to visibly demonstrate support for your bargaining committee.
Christy Slusarenko, your Vice-President, has formed a Job Action Committee specific for our members at BCGEU. We will be providing them with orientation and training during the second week of September.
Please keep in mind, however, that this step is just a proactive step to make sure we can act quickly should job action occur. Our goal is to reach an agreement at the bargaining table that our members will feel confident in ratifying.
We are still very far away from any potential job action.
The process to requesting MoveUP support swag
Requests for MoveUP swag to support the bargaining process should be made either to myself (pbargen@moveuptogether.ca) or your Vice-President, Christy Slusarenko (cslusarenko@moveuptogether.ca).
We ask kindly that you do not contact MoveUP administrative staff for swag items as they are not able to authorize these requests directly and it puts a strain on them as they must still relay the request to myself or Christy.
We will be providing materials for solidarity support in the coming days.
I have dropped off some “Solidarity” and “I support my bargaining committee” buttons and stickers to the Organizing Department at Head Office for those of you who work out of that location. I can drop some more at other Lower Mainland offices if requested. We can also get some shipped to Area offices at your request.
But once again, I reiterate, please make all requests directly to myself or Christy.
Thank you for your understanding and your ongoing support.
In solidarity,
Phil Bargen
Union Representative