Lək̓ʔəŋən [LEKWUNGEN] TERRITORY / VICTORIA, B.C. — Leader of the BC Greens and candidate for Saanich North and the Islands Emily Lowan released the BC Greens plan to strengthen and support B.C.’s workers and unions.
Lowan began by asking a question: “Which side are you on?”
“For too long, our government has taken workers for granted,” said Lowan. “It has used the NDP brand as cover to enact an anti-labour agenda, evident in Eby’s BC NDP overseeing the longest public sector strike, and longest nursing strike, in our province’s history.”
“When we sat across the table from the BC NDP to try and re-negotiate a deal, we posed a fundamental question: which side are you on? That’s when we pushed for sectoral bargaining, a labour rights model developed by Vince Ready, the same labour mediator Eby has relied on to support his tense relationship with unions. When David Eby refused to support sectoral bargaining, we got our confirmation: he’s not on the side of the workers.”
The Baigent-Ready model of sectoral bargaining would allow unions to reach a collective agreement that covers all workers in a sector of the economy, rather than on a workplace-by-workplace basis.
“Working people are bearing a crushing affordability crisis, they need to be supported,” said Lowan. “The minimum wage is now more than $9 per hour lower than the living wage in Vancouver and Victoria — this is unacceptable. That’s why the BC Greens will increase the minimum wage annually, at a rate of inflation plus 1%, until parity with the living wage is reached. This is good for workers, good for our province, and builds the fair economy we all deserve.”
The BC Greens will:
- Increase the minimum wage annually, at a rate of inflation +1%, until parity with the living wage is reached.
- Implement a pilot model of sectoral bargaining following a modified version of the 1992 Baigent-Ready model updated to reflect the 2026 economy and job market. The pilot would focus on especially precarious workers with minimal access to traditional collective bargaining, including migrant care workers, retail and service workers, and fast-food and food service workers.
- Expand BC’s successorship provisions to cover all workers who work in contracted industries when their business is sold or merged.
- Reverse the NDP’s proposed direct delivery of refreshment beverages, which opens the door to the privatization of BC Liquor’s distribution centres and related work.
Click here to read our Labour policy brief.
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Media contact
Prym Goodacre, Media & Campaigns Officer
+778 650 0597
newsroom@bcgreens.ca