The president of the BC General Employees’ Union has accused the provincial government of putting out “completely false” information about his union’s demands.
More than 4,000 of his workers have been on strike since Sept. 2 after negotiations with Victoria broke down in July.
The strike has spread across the province, including to Nanaimo, Kamloops, Kelowna, Williams Lake, Cranbrook, Nelson, Fort St. John and Smithers.
Paul Finch told NowMedia that workers had fallen “behind inflation” over the last 10 years, which the government denies.
He said, however, that he’s “very confident in our figures,” claiming that civil servants in BC today “are making 2.7 per cent less than the average wage.”
“The misinformation [the] government is claiming [is] that we did better than inflation,” he said. “That's simply not true. That's false. But I think if you benchmark this to the average wage in the province, [it] is a much better measure.”
In a statement sent to NowMedia, the government said its calculation of compensation “provides the most accurate picture of what the average employee receives and the full cost of what has been provided.”
It added: “The BCGEU's additional compensation proposals this round are equivalent to a 7.5 per cent general wage increase, and when the GWIs [general wage increases] are included the union’s overall proposals total 15.75 per cent, or 3.25 times higher than the estimated 4.8 per cent inflation rate over the same two-year period.”
Finch, though,...
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