The B.C. NDP government is facing the spectre of a late summer strike by the province’s largest public sector union, after negotiations crumbled.

The BC General Employees’ Union says it will take a strike vote from its more than 34,000 members in mid-August, setting up the potential for job action by Labour Day.

“We do not take that action lightly, but we did that after the employer, the government, failed to move meaningfully on the asks that were critically important to our members,” said BCGEU president Paul Finch.

The BCGEU was the first union to start contract talks with government this year, and is the first to walk away from the table. There are more than 452,000 unionized employees seeking new deals, ranging from teachers, to nurses, social workers, health-care employees, post-secondary staff and more.

The two sides are nowhere close to a deal.

Government tabled a two-year, 3.5 per cent wage offer that contained the ability to redirect one per cent towards $0.30 an hour general wage for lower-paid workers in the second........

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