I know essential service levels would have to be maintained, but what does that look like in practice? Would we expect picket lines at both Vancouver General Hospital and Royal Jubilee Hospital? What’s the best way to support them?

Just curious if anyone has details on how this will work.

Edit: Correction - The strike begins Tuesday July 7th*

Email from BCGEU:

Nurses across B.C. begin first phase of job action 

As you may know, nurses across B.C. have begun the first phase of job action in support of a fair collective agreement. Effective immediately, members of the Nurses’ Bargaining Association (NBA) have ceased to perform non-nursing duties and have restricted all non-essential overtime. The job action applies only to those members who work under the NBA agreement.

What does this mean for you? 

If you are not a member of the NBA, but you work at a location with nurses who are members of the NBA, you may be impacted by their job action. As of now, there are no active picket lines up. That means that you can continue to work as usual, and it would not be considered crossing a picket line or ‘scabbing’.

However, we have heard concerns from members about increasing workload as a result of NBA job action. Members are concerned that their workloads are changing because they are being assigned tasks that their nursing colleagues would otherwise be doing. It is your right to request that a manager reprioritize your duties if you find that your workload is no longer manageable. Members are encouraged to abide by the ‘work now, grieve later’ principle – except in circumstances where the work is unsafe. For more information about refusing unsafe work, please see the Refusing Unsafe Work section of the WorkSafe B.C. website.

If you have any questions about how to pursue a workload complaint or if you have any questions about additional duties that may have been assigned to you, please reach out to your steward and review the language in your collective agreement. If you do not know who your stewards are, please contact your area office for a list of stewards at your worksite.  

Solidarity with nurses 

This job action sends a clear message to employers that nurses are no longer willing to accept the status quo. As union workers, we will continue to stand in solidarity with striking nurses.  

We will continue to keep you updated, so please keep an eye on your email.  

I live in a residential area, and while my home is tucked away from the main road, it is under a 10 min walk to a popular area that sees a lot of foot and vehicle traffic. So, I'm curious if people are using security cams for their homes and if they find them helpful/necessary?

Recognizing that different sizes and materials make a price difference, but curious what people paid to have this company build them a catio?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and curious where other BC public servants are at today, and what their home arrangements are like.

It's predicted to take over two decades for wages to grow enough to cause single-family homes to become once again affordable to middle-class families.

Do you think being unionized will help us keep up with housing costs over time/eventually be able to afford homeownership? Or do you think housing affordability is a much bigger issue that wage increases alone won't solve? Do you think homeownership should still be considered a realistic goal for middle-income public servants, like it was 10 years ago?

It’s fascinating how many activities are built around the premise that employees are interested in watching senior leadership do things (food challenges, dunk tanks, trivia, etc)

I don’t think they’re quite the celebrity attraction they imagine themselves to be.

As per the CITZ intranet, certain clerk 12s, 15s, and Band 2s in Service BC can now request a transfer to a different geographic location through the Employee-Initiated Transfer Request (EITR) process.

It’ll be interesting to see if other areas of government will adopt this approach as well.

How did you find it?

It's the scenic view of the harbour or the eternal search for a space to park downtown that brings most people to the quiet concrete lot between Wharf Street and the ocean in Victoria, B.C.

But the old stone wall tucked underneath Wharf Street is one of the oldest pieces of the city's colonial past — it contains some forgotten artifacts recently unearthed by a restoration crew.

When built in 1859, the wall made up the lower storeys of the Hudson's Bay warehouse, a central point of where goods flowed in between the dockyards and Fort Victoria.

I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth getting one and if it’s just a “nice to have” or a necessity. Between the rain, wind, and hail we get, esp in the winter, do people here notice that it actually makes a difference in protecting their car? Have you noticed any real issues from not using one?

Places I’ve been:
- House of Boateng
- Ramen Arashi
- 900 Degrees
- Six Mile Pub
- Tacofino
- Kurry King
- Sushi Ya
- Big Wheel Burger
- Authentic Cuisine of India
- Green Leaf
- Asian Noodle House
- Colwood Pizza
- Kasumi Kitchen

What local, independent spots am I missing out on? Anything new I should try?

I know we’re currently in a hiring freeze, but that won’t last forever, and I’d like to think ahead about how to grow into a more senior role, but I’m not interested in supervising staff. Do roles at that level exist without people management? If so, what kinds of things should I be doing now to strengthen my resume beyond subject matter expertise?

I’ve also noticed that many job postings use generic job profiles that include accountabilities like “supervising staff.” Are those listed requirements typically intentional for that specific role, or just standard profile language? Would it be worth contacting the hiring manager to clarify?

Any advice from people at these levels would be helpful :)

What’s the norm in this city nowadays?

Are younger employees still motivated by moving up through management and executive roles?

The more I talk to people our age, the less anyone seems interested in moving up. They say that the small rise in BCPS pay doesn’t feel worth it once you factor in cost of living in BC and the fact that a lot of leadership roles seem to come with way more stress + politics.

Are others in the same age bracket feeling the same way or is just my bubble? Are there young folks who still have aspirations to move “up”?