Divide and conquer. The BC NDP unveiled a new strategy in public sector bargaining on Thursday, pitting one union against another on the eve of a strike vote in an attempt to sow dissension into the ranks of the organized labour movement.

On the one side, the Hospital Employees’ Union, backed by an opportunistic (and broke) New Democratic government trying desperately to head off labour unrest this fall in the cheapest way possible.

On the other, the BC General Employees’ Union, fighting for wage increases more than twice as large as the David Eby administration is willing to offer.

So far, the BCGEU has had the upper hand in the public relations campaign, moving swiftly this summer to declare talks at an impasse and organize a strike vote.

The results of that vote were set to be revealed Friday, on the eve of the Labour Day long weekend, as a symbolic precursor to actual job action.

The NDP scrambled to chop-block that strike announcement Thursday with a “framework agreement” with the HEU that Finance Minister Brenda Bailey trumpeted as “a major milestone in........

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