From the BCGEU’s own housing project to lobbying efforts, housing is on labour’s agenda.
How High-Priced Housing Became a Union IssuePaul Finch’s union is about to become a landlord.
“What we’re hearing from our members is, no matter the increase we were able to negotiate in the collective agreement in wages and benefits, it wasn’t able to keep up with the rapid acceleration in the price of housing or rent,” said Finch, the BCGEU’s treasurer. Today, he says, workers often have to make sacrifices to get by — longer commutes, less space, more hours and a bit less of life.
In 2021, two Vancouver teachers’ union locals applied to redevelop their shared headquarters on Commercial Drive to include 27 units of affordable housing reserved for young teachers who were increasingly priced out of the city’s red-hot market. But soon the costs and bureaucracy piled up. The project became too expensive. And the Vancouver Elementary and Adult Educators’ Society and Vancouver Secondary Teachers’ Association pulled the plug.
“The less stable your housing is, the less committed you are to your classroom. Parents of the older students who like you as a teacher want to know if you’re going to be there when their youngest child is going to be there,” Price said.