Metro Vancouver workers closer to ‘full-scale strike’ with no contract progress

VANCOUVER — Metro Vancouver’s unionized outside workers are threatening a full-scale strike after no progress toward an agreement during weeks of rotating pickets.

Jesse Medeiros, the president of the Greater Vancouver Regional District Employees’ Union, says in a statement that the members are “fed up” with no progress or talks planned.

Pickets have been set up on Thursday at work yards in Surrey and Delta as part of the union’s weeks-long job action.

The union says Metro Vancouver has attached preconditions to a return to bargaining, and workers will be forced to conduct a full-scale strike despite efforts to “minimize inconvenience to the public.”