Community service workers to strike Victoria sites Tuesday

Community service workers move their rotating strike action to Victoria Tuesday, with pickets slated to go up across the city.

People who help adults with developmental disabilities, new immigrants and other vulnerable individuals will walk off the job to press their demands for higher wages and better working conditions.

Community Living Victoria is expected to be behind picket lines set up by the Hospital Employees' Union at 3861 Cedar Hill Cross Road.

Union members working in day programs at Kardel Consulting Services and Crossroads Human Services are also expected to be off the job, the Community Social Services Bargaining Association announced Monday.

B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union members will picket the Inter-Cultural Association for Greater Victoria at 930 Balmoral Road.

Over the lunch hour, the unions plan to take their protest to Aboriginal Relations Minister Ida Chong's constituency office at 3930 Shelbourne St., where they will be joined by Health Sciences Association members from the Victoria Women's Transition House Society.

There are 15,000 unionized workers in the sector across the province, represented by a variety of labour organizations.

The unions say it's impossible to find the savings that government demands in order to pay for wage increases in sector.

They say the starting wage of $15.54 an hour is less than it was 10 years ago, when workers began at $16.83 an hour.

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