B.C. LifeLabs to see temporary closures due to strike action

More than 100 LifeLabs centres in B.C. will be subject to rotating temporary closures starting Thursday as part of job action taken by its union workers.

The B.C. General Employees’ Union, which represents about 1,200 LifeLab workers, announced the job action Sunday after what it said was months of negotiations and the company’s refusal to bring wages and benefits in line with the cost of living.

LifeLabs, a lab testing service provider, says in a statement that as a designated essential service, it will continue to operate and do everything in its control to minimize service disruptions from the rotating closures.

Paul Finch, president of the BCGEU, stresses that essential services will remain open for the people who need it.

“To be very frank, the essential service levels are very high in this industry, for just that reason. Obviously, our members that do this work care tremendously about the patients they serve, or customers, as the companies put it,” Finch told 1130 NewsRadio on Wednesday.

He suggests that the people who frequently rely on LifeLabs services understand the need to address the union’s concerns of understaffing and wage gaps.

“I think anyone that relies on the service on a regular basis, knows the almost assembly line-like conditions that have been created by poor scheduling and by high turnover as a result of not having proper compensation, and the understanding that what we’re fighting for is going to make those conditions, we believe, better,” Finch explained.

Lab technicians working in the public sector are doing the same work as LifeLabs’ employees, Finch explains, but there is a substantial wage gap between four and 16 per cent, or up to $4 an hour.

He adds that the BCGEU believes that Canadians are uninterested in an American for-profit-style health-care system.

“We’ve seen an outpouring of support from the general public, and we also know that there’s a high essential service level in place, so this is a limited strike on that basis. And all of the public facilities are open, of course, and especially important in case of emergencies,” he added.

The union says the workers have been working without a contract since April 1, 2024, and in November, it voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action.

LifeLabs says it serves more than 7.1 million patients in B.C. at 129 collection centres located in urban and rural communities.

LifeLabs was purchased by U.S.-based Quest Diagnostics last summer in a $1.35-billion deal, a transaction that has raised concerns from the union.

With files from Raynaldo Suarez.