Faculty and staff at BCIT are the latest employees of a Post Secondary institution to give their union a strike mandate.
Six hundred and eighty nine members voted 78 percent in favor of job action.
Paul Reniers with the union says it isn’t yet clear what strike action could look like or when it could happen.
“We feel right now our message is to the government and the members have told the bargaining team and our board they’re behind us.”
Reniers says the focus for the next week will be getting that message to the government before students are significantly inconvenienced.
He says the union is disappointed the government hasn’t given BCIT a fair mandate to settle a contract.
“We see bargaining units across the public sector settling for two and two percent for 2012/2013, even bargaining units in the universities, our sector. And BCIT has not got the authority to put that on the table for us, so we can move ahead and settle other outstanding issues as well.”
Higher salaries and working conditions are among the issues the union has been negotiating with BCIT for more than two years.
Union members include faculty, assistant instructors, technical staff, and researchers.
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