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A hospital worker walks past the entrance to the Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday, May 12, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan CairnsEthan Cairns/The Canadian Press
Nurses in British Columbia started targeted job action at work sites across the province on Thursday in an effort to push to government to improve its offer to union members, the British Columbia Nurses’ Union said.
Nurses stopped working non-essential overtime and won’t be doing nonnursing duties such as answering phones, processing doctors’ orders and cleaning.
The BC Nurses’ Union is legally classified as an essential service. The provincial Labour Relations Board has set out minimum staffing levels to ensure patient care and to allow emergency services to continue.
The union, which represents 60,000 British Columbia nurses, issued the 72-hour strike notice on Monday days after its members voted to reject a tentative contract deal bargained with the provincial health employer in May.
B.C. nurses issue 72-hour strike notice after rejecting tentative contract offer
The union said in a statement that its job action is the result of the B.C. government failing to meaningfully respond to nurses’ concerns.
“This marks the first phase of a broader escalation plan that could expand in the coming days if the government does not return to the bargaining table with an offer nurses can accept,” the statement said.
In an interview before the deadline on Thursday, BCNU president Adriane Gear said the union hasn’t had formal negotiations with the Health Employers Association of B.C. since May.
No one from the provincial government or the Health Employers Association was immediately available to comment on the union’s job action or on restarting negotiations.
Gear said the union doesn’t plan to withdraw workers in the first phase of its job action.
“We will be in a position where we can legally withdraw labour while maintaining essential service levels. But that’s not something that we are going to do today,” she said on Thursday.
Gear said the job action is designed to put pressure on the employer and not patients and will not affect essential services.
“Could there be some disruption? There could be, but our hope is to minimize that,” she said.
Gear added that the lack of an agreement has created uncertainty for patients, but she hopes British Columbians can understand and support nurses in the meantime.
“We’ve been there for our patients and we hope that the public will be there for us right now. We need your support,” Gear said.
She said the union is ready to return to the bargaining table at a moment’s notice.
The tentative agreement rejected by union members offered a 12-per-cent wage increase over four years and other improved benefits.
The union said the rejection was a message from nurses about the frustration they feel over the pressures on their profession and the health-care system.
Gear has said those pressures include staffing shortages, unmanageable workloads and workplace violence.