More than 1,500 Insurance Corporation of British Columbia claims staff members are striking next Tuesday.
The escalated job action by the members of the Burnaby-based Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union, Local 378, was announced on Wednesday in a press release. In total, 4,600 COPE 378 members are employed by ICBC.
The Burnaby Claims and the Burnaby Litigation/Commercial Claims centres are on the list of 55 ICBC locations where strikes will take place on Sept. 18, as is the New Westminster Claims Centre.
"These are employees who have been without a contract for over two years," COPE 378 president David Black said in the release. "Their wages are falling behind while ICBC executives and business partners got massive salary increases and $1.2 billion of ICBC profits went into government revenues."
Nearly 1,200 workers will be on strike in the Lower Mainland, according to the release, with the remaining 300 in communities throughout the rest of B.C.
"Striking is never an easy decision," Black said. "We sincerely hoped our strike action on Sept. 5, when we coordinated with the BCGEU and the PEA, would help ICBC focus on reaching a fair and reasonable collective agreement. But ICBC's attitude hasn't changed."
The union participated in a general strike with the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union and the Professional Employees Association last week.
"Our members felt it was very important to take another day of action so they could talk to the public about how the government is mishandling ICBC, not just for the workers but also for drivers that haven't seen a rate reduction in years," Black said.
Last week was the first time members had ever walked off the job, Jeff Gillies, vice-president of COPE 378, said in a previous interview with the NOW.
The union has been at the bargaining table with ICBC for a year-and-a-half, he added, and has engaged in job action since June.
"Unfortunately, it's made no to little difference at the bargaining table," Gillies said.
The union's main concerns are wages, improved benefits, employees' workload, and job security, Gillies said.
In July, the B.C. Labour Relations Board
found that ICBC had not been bargaining in good faith with COPE 378 members regarding wages, as the Crown corporation had kept the issue out of negotiations.
However, since then, ICBC has not greatly increased what it is offering, Gillies said.
"That money is not sufficient," he said. "We don't feel it's fair or reasonable given the circumstances."
ICBC's last offer was a two per cent wage increase over four years, according to the press release.
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.
COPE 378 members voted 87 per cent in favour of job action on April 24.
But ICBC had made an essential service application to the B.C. Labour Relations Board on April 19, suspending the union's ability to take action.
The board then handed down an interim order on June 13. The union can take job action with 48 hours' notice, "if the job action does not dip below the essential service levels applied for by ICBC."
ICBC has asked that claims, insurance and driver licensing services be declared essential during any potential job action. The order is in place until the board issues a final order after the essential service hearings are finished.
The union began job action in June with an overtime ban.
Union members also tried to engage in job action in July by attaching a signature to emails from their work accounts. The signature said, "We Work. You Drive. We Both Deserve Better." But a court decision has since prohibited the union from sending out information via work accounts, according to Gillies.
The union has also done some leafleting since then, he added.
ICBC's collective agreement expired in 2010. The two parties have been in negotiations since January 2011.
