On Tuesday, more than 1,500 Insurance Corporation of British Columbia claims staff members took to the picket lines.

The escalated job action by the members of the Burnaby-based Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, Local 378, went well, according to Sage Aaron, media contact for the union.

"Our members found a lot of support on the picket lines, lots of honks as people drove by," she said. "We had random folks coming up telling them they were doing a good job, dropping off coffee and donuts and that kind of stuff."

There are bargaining dates set with ICBC this week, and the union hopes the strike action will have moved things forward, she said.

"We are hopeful that this will have focused them on getting down to business to move towards a fair and reasonable agreement," Aaron said. "We'll just have to see what happens at bargaining before we decide what's next. If there isn't movement there, we'll have to look at our options, but hopefully there will be."

Adam Grossman, senior media advisor for ICBC, said in a recent interview that he couldn't comment on any of the specific details of the negotiations.

The strike took place at 55 locations throughout B.C., including the Burnaby Claims and the Burnaby Litigation/Commercial Claims centres and the New Westminster Claims Centre.

jfuller-evans@burnabynow.com