Vancity BCGEU Members May Go on Strike

At the end of Vancity’s annual general meeting — far away from the table where negotiations with the union were grinding to a halt — members considered a raise for the company’s board of directors.

“You have a workforce that, as members, we all love,” she said. “If you’re going to show up tonight and talk about values and people... treat your employees right and give them a fair deal right away.”

The approximately 560,000-member credit union bills itself as a force for environmental and social change.

But prolonged and difficult negotiations between Vancity and the BC General Employees’ Union, or BCGEU, is causing a rift between members and leadership.

In March, unionized members voted in favour of a strike, but they have yet to walk off the job. Last week, mediation between Vancity and the union completely broke off.

“It’s been not the greatest to be an employee for the last little while,” said Danielle, an account manager for the credit union. The Tyee is not using Danielle’s real name and has agreed to keep her anonymous because she fears losing her job.

“We’ve felt this shift that just seems to be getting worse — we’re expected to do more with less constantly and our membership notices.”

So when she was looking to start her career in finance, Danielle said, Vancity seemed like a natural fit. She said she never expected to be fighting her own company over wages.

“We help people every day with their finances,” she said. “Because of our careers, we have tools to be able to do that for ourselves and we’re still struggling — that means there’s something wrong.”

According to the BCGEU, its members at Vancity make a wage of between $21 and $37 per hour. WorkBC data shows some Vancity financial clerks are making below the provincial median wage for their job category, which is $24.50 per hour.

One study calculates the living wage in Metro Vancouver is approximately $27.05 per hour.

But more than wages, BCGEU president Paul Finch says, the standstill hinges on an ongoing dispute over employee pensions.

According to Finch, during the last round of bargaining, Vancity agreed to a pension plan that would be jointly trusteed and sponsored by the employer and employees.

Instead, Finch alleges, the company gave unionized employees a sole-sponsored pension plan — and offered the jointly sponsored pension to non-unionized employees.

“We are still in the collective bargaining process with the BCGEU, and as such won’t be commenting out of respect for that process,” a spokesperson for Vancity said in an email.

The spokesperson said that last year leadership offered annual wage increases that would keep Vancity’s total package of compensation and benefits above market rates.

The deal included the option for a defined benefit pension plan — typically only managed by an employer — that “would provide our union members with a reliable retirement income for life,” the spokesperson said.

But Finch said the union will not budge on getting the pension plan it wants. Jointly sponsored pension plans receive contributions from both employers and employees and are also managed by both parties. Finch said the model offers members more retirement security.

“This is a key issue in bargaining,” Finch said. “We have a unionized workforce at Vancity who don’t have access to retirement security. That’s a huge issue.”

The union has until June 17 before it can walk off the job without holding another vote. Finch said he’s not yet sure if members will decide to strike, and he expects to be back at the table this month.

Meanwhile, Danielle said she’s ready to take action if needed.

“Nobody wants to go out and strike if they don’t have to, but at this point we’re just fighting for things that really should be a given — especially given the values that our employer says it has,” she said. “So if we need to go on strike, we will.”

But the drawn-out dispute is adding to tensions between Vancity leadership and members that have been growing since the credit union laid off about 200 employees in June 2024.

That rift was on full display at the credit union’s annual general meeting May 6, when the board of directors asked for a raise.

Directors at Vancity make between $53,230 and $88,120 per year for an estimated 600 hours of work annually. That’s between $88.72 and $146.87 per hour.

At the meeting, a committee of members proposed a 2.5 per cent annual raise for the board, plus extra pay for long meetings and taking on special responsibilities.

The request was met with resistance, and more than one question about the laid-off employees. Vancity member and former board member Francesca Zumpano said she would not approve the raise.

“Given that 200 people were laid off and our financials were so poor last year, it is very difficult for me to say, ‘Let’s honour these people with a new pay increase,’” she said.

Vancity CEO Wellington Holbrook said in a statement emailed to The Tyee that the layoffs happened because the company was restructuring.

“The decision to restructure was incredibly difficult,” Holbrook said. “The reorganization and change we’re implementing will enable us to maintain high levels of member service and also invest in our continued growth.”

At the May 6 meeting, fewer than half of all members voted in favour of increasing the board’s pay — meaning the board of directors will not get the raise.

The actual results of the vote may still be subject to change. In their email, the Vancity spokesperson said there were “some technology glitches with respect to the voting throughout the AGM.”

The company has hired accounting firm MNP to audit the voting, investigate what happened and report its findings in the coming weeks.