B.C. – The latest effort to end a three month labour dispute between FortisBC and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local 213 fell flat on its face.
More than 200 workers across the Southern Interior were locked out at the end of June.
After this latest round of talks, the sides are still no closer to reaching a deal.
A provincial mediator was brought in to hopefully solve the three month dispute.
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Last week both sides met for what FortisBC describes as two days of promising talks with the union and a mediator.
The mediator came back with his recommendations and while FortisBC says it agreed to the proposal, the union voted strongly against it.
The specifics of the proposal haven’t been released; but FortisBC Communications Director Joyce Wagenaar told Global News, it included an increase in wages to a competitive market level, flexible scheduling and no changes to benefits.
“We really felt it was an opportunity to end the job action; we’re really disappointed with the choice to continue the job action. We had hopes to resolve this with our employees and customers… and hopes for our employees to be back at work on Monday” said Wagenaar.
She said she’s not sure what is going to happen next.
Global News tried to to get a hold of a spokesperson from the IBEW local 213, but no one was able to get back to us.
There is no scheduled date for the two sides to come back to the bargaining table.
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