Rotating strike action by the United Steelworkers Union is now impacting a major employer just north of Kamloops.
Workers at the Tolko Mill in Heffley Creek hit the picket lines on Sunday night.
Local union president Marty Gibbons says those workers will be striking until at least midnight tonight.
“Two-hundred-twenty workers (are) feeling very frustrated with the position the employer is taking in bargaining despite making record profits,” Gibbons says. “They took to the streets and basically engaged in strike action as at 11 o’clock last night.
Gibbons adds that smaller Tolko operations in Lumby and Kelowna are also on the picket lines today, meaning more than 300 unionized workers in the southern Interior are currently on strike.
The contract between the United Steelworkers Union and Interior Forest Labor Relations expired on July 1.
“We’re trying to send a very clear message to Tolko who is a major player at the bargaining table, with all the industry associations, that it’s time to get a fair collective agreement that actually shares in the profits that these employers have been seeing and will continue to see,” Gibbon says.
Rotating strike action by the union began in B.C. on Nov. 24.