B.C. nurses vote for strike, as union boss raises prospect of dispute amid World Cup

VANCOUVER — Members of British Columbia’s nurses union have voted overwhelmingly to strike, with union president Adriane Gear raising the prospect of a dispute while “the whole world is watching us” during the FIFA World Cup that begins next month.

Almost 51,000 of the approximately 55,000 BC Nurses’ Union members voted, with 98.2 per cent in favour of strike action after talks reached an impasse in April over issues including benefits, pay and staffing shortages.

Gear said as she announced the results of strike vote that it came after six months of “super frustrating” negotiations that had been going nowhere.

She said the union had been met by an “employer who has refused to offer any substantive contract improvements or commit to the compensation and funding made available in other public sector contracts.”

“Nurses are a critical part of the health care system, ” she said on Tuesday. “Why should we accept less?”

She said the six months of negotiations with the Health Employers Association of B.C. have been difficult as they proposed and counter proposed 140 items, but heard back on only 65, with just four accepted — including correcting a spelling mistake in the collective agreement.

“So, we aren’t getting anywhere,” she said.

Gear said their “next move is to get back to the table,” noting the FIFA World Cup is just one month away.

Vancouver is one of 16 host cities across Canada, the United States and Mexico that will host games during the tournament, which kicks off June 11.

“Nobody wants to have a labour dispute,” Gear said.

“Definitely, we do not want a labour dispute going into a situation where the whole world is watching us, so we are highly motivated. We want to get back to the table. We want a deal.”

She said that while she knows health employers came to the table with “marching orders,” she hoped that the strike vote sent a message to both the employers association and the provincial government.

“It’s time to come to the table and seriously respect nurses.”

The last agreement between the union and the province expired in March 2025.

B.C.’s Health Minister Josie Osborne said the strike vote was “one step” in the collective bargaining process.

“I hope that the parties will return to the table to resume negotiations. In the event of any job action, essential services plans are in place to help ensure the continued delivery of services and essential care for people,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Osborne pointed to the government’s recent tentative agreement with Doctors of BC and ratified agreements with the Health Sciences Association and the Hospital Employees Union as evidence of successful negotiations between health care workers and their employers.

The B.C. government’s so-called balanced measures negotiating mandate for 2025 public sector bargaining involves an annual three per cent general wage increase for the balance of the contract.

Doctors of BC reached the tentative four-year agreement in April that would give them wage increases of three per cent a year along with measures to address workload, training pressures, financial support for education and lump-sum payments for residents to help with costs of training materials and exam preparation.

Gear said health employers had refused to commit to enhanced funding offered in other public sector contracts, which leaves around $100 million on the table that could improve services and decrease nurses’ workload.

The vote gives union members the ability to take job action with 72-hours notice, but Gear said it doesn’t mean nurses “are going on strike tomorrow.”

“We want to get back to the table. We want a deal,” she said.

Gear said the vote’s outcome shows that the nurses are united more than ever.

She said they are “ready to fight” for an agreement that values and respects them and strengthens public health care.

The union has said there’s an increasing burden on its nurses, with about 4,500 vacant positions that can’t be filled.

Gear said escalating workplace violence and proper funding to meet nurse-to-patient ratios are among the other concerns nurses are hoping to address through bargaining.

In a news release, the B.C. Conservative Party said the NDP government was to blame for staffing shortages, hospital closures and others issues affecting nurses, whose demands are “long overdue.”

“This government has had every opportunity to address what is driving nurses away from the profession, and it has not,” the Conservatives’ health critic Anna Kindy said.

At an unrelated news conference on Tuesday, B.C. Premier David Eby said he remains “optimistic” an agreement will be reached, calling nurses a “cornerstone of the health-care system.”

“This negotiation is one that we’re entering into very carefully and respectfully,” he said.

“We are encouraging all of the parties to come back to the table to hammer out an agreement,” Eby said. “We recently entered an agreement with the doctors, and I believe firmly that we can get to an agreement with the nurses for British Columbians.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2026.

Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press