The B.C. General Employees’ Union is raising new concerns about persistent problems with the Kootenay Lake ferry operator Western Pacific Marine (WPM), warning that issues with scheduling, staffing and service reliability continue months after last year’s prolonged labour dispute.
BCGEU vice-president Sebastian Kallos said the union continues to hear about challenges its members are experiencing on the job.
“From what we’re hearing from workers on the ground, there are still ongoing issues with scheduling, staffing and overall operations,” Kallos said.
He highlighted problems with overtime and worker burnout.
“At some point, you need to protect yourself and your family, right? They can’t sustain their lives running off of infinite overtime because almost all the inland ferries are just running a crazy amount of overtime,” he said.
Kallos said there is a global shortage of mariners, which is affecting competitiveness and sustaining a hostile work environment. He also criticised the Vancouver-based operator for lacking local commitment.
“We’re concerned that WPM doesn’t really have any vested interest in Nelson and the area. They’re a Vancouver-based company, they’re wanting to run the operation to the ground before the next contract renewal in 2028. And what’s going to be left for the next contractor?”
Pay and arbitration disputes
Kallos also raised concerns about retroactive pay from the new collective agreement.
“WPM is withholding the majority of the collective agreement bargain language through that binding arbitration and not honouring a ratified collective agreement and has not paid a single member any retro pay that they’re entitled to since April 2024,” he said.
He explained that the employer is refusing to finalise the ceremonial signing process, known as the “faceplate,” until certain articles of the collective agreement are renegotiated.
“They want to remove at least one article and they want to change the language on another. Even though we’ve been through binding arbitration, our perspective is that once a deal is ratified by the members, it is the collective agreement,” he said.
The concerns follow a nearly five-month strike in 2024 that significantly disrupted ferry service. The dispute began after negotiations for a new collective agreement broke down in May 2024, with major sticking points including wages, scheduling and working conditions.
Roughly 90 proposals were put forward during bargaining, mostly from the union, with about 60 per cent resolved before mediation. The remaining issues were handed to special mediator Vince Ready, who was appointed by the province to bridge what he described as a “Himalayan gulf” between the two sides.
Ready issued his final report in June 2025, laying out 17 binding recommendations covering wages, scheduling, training and certification requirements. Those recommendations formed the basis of a new collective agreement, retroactive to April 2024 and in place until March 2028.
One of the most contentious issues during the dispute was scheduling.
The union pushed to move away from a six-days-on, three-days-off model to a day-for-day rotation. Ready ultimately required a seven-days-on, seven-days-off schedule to be implemented across all vessels by January 2026.
Union proposals and long-term solutions
Kallos said the BCGEU believes a solution could be returning inland ferries to public service.
“There was a time when the ferries were in the public service. Employees got training, they got time off to get ship experience abroad. They were invested in, and it seems like what’s happening is these contractors are just trying to sustain a profitable operation without investing anything into the workforce, which is their most valuable resource by far,” he said.
“We’re going to be pushing that up until 2028 that we think the ferries should be brought back into the public service and that the service would be more reliable, it would be more sustainable employment for those members.”
Vista Radio reached out to WPM for a response, but didn’t hear back in time for publication.
Be the first to know! Don’t miss out on breaking news and daily updates in your area. Sign up to MyNelsonNow News Alerts.
