Municipal Employee Strike 2025
Scroll down for Operational and Service Impacts, and Frequently Asked Questions.
On September 29, 2025 the District of Squamish received strike notice from CUPE 2269, the Bargaining Unit representing approximately 250 employees of the District.
The Union began job action on October 2 at 10:11 a.m..
District operations, programs and service impacts will be communicated on this page.
What residents can expect:
In the event the Union initiates a general strike, all Union members, in all departments within the District, would stop working completely at all locations. If the Union initiates a rotating strike, there would be a series of work stoppages by different departments or at different locations. The Union could also initiate what is commonly referred to as “work to rule”. This generally means that employees attend work and do exactly what is required of them in their job descriptions and nothing more, including refusing overtime.
Work deemed as essential services will not be disrupted. Essential services are those that are necessary to maintain the health and safety of the community. These include services such as water and sewer treatment, and fire and police protection.
Background:
The Collective Agreement between the District and CUPE 2269 (the “Parties”) expired on December 31, 2024. The District bargaining team has been at the table with the Union since October 2024. Negotiations progressed until the Union indicated that the Parties were at impasse on July 4, 2025. The Union walked away from the bargaining table stating that they did not believe the District had proposed sufficient wage increases.
The District’s most recent offer included general wage increases equal to those already agreed to in much larger metro municipalities, such as the Cities of Coquitlam and Vancouver. The increases proposed equate to a 3.5% increase in 2025 and a 3% increase in 2026. This follows the most recent three-year contract (2022-2024) which increased wages by 11.5% over three years, plus a 4.5% one-time cost-of-living cash payment in 2024.
Employee wages are funded by taxation and utility fees, and the District is responsible to taxpayers in the amounts of its offers at the bargaining table. The District empathizes with affordability challenges that employees may face and highly values its hard-working and dedicated employees. The District maintains that the package offered to the Union is fair and works to address affordability and work/life balance concerns that employees have raised, while ensuring the District remains responsible to taxpayers given the substantial tax and utility fee pressures anticipated in the coming years.
Stay informed:
The District will continue to provide updates to the community as the situation develops and notify the community of any disruptions to programs and services. Stay tuned to this page for ongoing updates.
Updates
On Thursday morning (October 2), CUPE 2269 began job action in certain District of Squamish departments. This includes an overtime ban in Public Works, and not performing certain job-specific tasks in Bylaw Services, Recreation Services and the RCMP administration.
The Union advised that, effective 10:11 a.m., they would be taking the following action:
- An overtime ban across the entire Public Works Department.
- Cessation of collecting drop-in admission fees at the Brennan Park arena.
- Bylaw Officers will not be issuing parking tickets.
- RCMP Operations Coordinators will go to essential levels until end of day today.
In terms of anticipated public impacts, please be advised of the following:
- When or if overtime within Public Works is required, the necessary work will be performed by non-Union staff. Weather-related issues are considered an emergency response and will be actioned appropriately as an essential service.
- Water, wastewater treatment, and wastewater collections services are essential to ensure community safety. Certain unionized staff working in these areas have been designated as essential service workers and will continue to perform their role during any strike action, including if overtime were to be required. Qualified exempt staff will be redeployed to cover technical roles that are not staffed by essential workers, and aspects of the work that don't require certifications will also be conducted by non-unionized staff.
- Parking tickets will continue to be issued where required by other authorized departments.
- Essential services will continue to be provided at the RCMP detachment.
- Collection of recreation user fees will continue, and will be undertaken by non-Union staff.
- The patience of the public is appreciated during this time. The District’s goal is to reach an agreement with the Union that is fair and works to address affordability and work/life balance concerns that employees have raised, while ensuring the District remains responsible to taxpayers given the substantial tax and utility fee pressures anticipated in the coming years.
Current Operational and Service Impacts (check daily for updates)
- Recreation facilities remain open.
- Certain job-specific tasks will not be performed. Specifically, Union staff will cease to collect drop-in admission fees at the Brennan Park arena.
- However, collection of recreation user fees will continue, and will be undertaken by non-Union staff.
- The Aquatic program schedule will be delayed from being published on October 1. Aquatic program registration will be delayed from opening on October 8. New dates will be shared when possible.
- An overtime ban is in place across the Public Works Department.
- When or if overtime within Public Works is required, the necessary work will be performed by non-Union staff. Weather-related issues are considered an emergency response and will be actioned appropriately as an essential service.
- Water, wastewater treatment, and wastewater collections services are essential to ensure community safety. Certain unionized staff working in these areas have been designated as essential service workers and will continue to perform their role during any strike action, including if overtime were to be required. Qualified exempt staff will be redeployed to cover technical roles that are not staffed by essential workers, and aspects of the work that don't require certifications will also be conducted by non-unionized staff.
- Certain job-specific tasks will not be performed. Specifically, Union Bylaw Officers will not be issuing parking tickets.
- Parking tickets will continue to be issued where required by other authorized departments.
- RCMP Operations Coordinators will go to essential levels until the end of day October 2. No public impacts are anticipated at this time.
Frequently Asked Questions
A strike is a work stoppage or slowdown organized by a union during the collective bargaining process. A “general” strike means that all unionized employees stop working completely in all departments and at all locations. A “rotating” strike is a series of stoppages in different departments or at different locations. “Working to rule” is where unionized employees strictly adhere to the terms of their collective agreement or job description, performing only the minimum required tasks (e.g. not performing overtime). A union may employ one or all of these types of action at different times during a strike.
On July 16, 2025 CUPE 2269 received a strike mandate from its members. This put the Union in a position to serve the District with 72-hour strike notice should they choose to take any job action. The Union provided 72-hour notice on September 29, 2025. The timing of the notice means that the Union is able to begin strike action as of Thursday, October 2 at 8:35 a.m.
On July 16, 2025 CUPE 2269 received a strike mandate from its members. This put the Union in a position to serve the District with 72-hour strike notice should they choose to take any job action. The Union provided 72-hour notice on September 29, 2025. The timing of the notice means that the Union is able to begin strike action as of Thursday, October 2 at 10:11 a.m.
The District’s most recent offer included general wage increases equal to those already agreed to in much larger metro municipalities, such as the Cities of Coquitlam and Vancouver. This includes a 3.5% increase in 2025 and a 3% increase in 2026. This builds on an 11.5% increase between 2022 and 2024, and a one-time 4.5% cash payment cost-of-living allowance in 2024.
The Union has cited wages and work life balance as key outstanding issues. They are seeking a 4.5% increase in 2025 and a 4% increase in 2026. District employees work either a 35 or a 40 hour week. In addition, they receive paid vacation and paid sick leave that exceeds the minimum amounts under Employment Standards. Where operations and customer service permits, employees are offered compressed work weeks where additional days off are available.
The Union is also seeking additional changes including an expansion of compressed hours to other areas of the organization where the District believes customer service would be negatively impacted. The Union is also seeking new language to have finance calculate union dues differently; a new bank to accumulate time off related to standby pay; an increase to the amount of time people can take off from their overtime bank and an increase in the amount of time they can carry over into the next year; additional vacation time; new language about banking time during holiday closure; labour market adjustments to three positions.
The Union is required to provide the District with 72-hours notice before a strike begins. The notice period can include weekends. The Union provided 72-hour notice on Monday, September 29, 2025. The timing of the notice means that the Union is able to begin strike action as of Thursday, October 2 at 10:11 a.m., unless the two parties reach agreement.
The duration of a strike depends on when the Union chooses to return to the bargaining table. The District welcomes the return of the Union to the bargaining table at any time to continue discussions.
Essential services are the minimum levels of services designated by the Labour Relations Board as necessary to maintain the health and safety of the community during a strike. These include services such as water supply and distribution, wastewater (sewage) treatment and collections, snow and ice control, and fire and police protection.
No, essential services are not disrupted during a strike.
Programs and services that have not been designated as 'essential' by the Labour Relations Board include recreation and culture programs, special events, parks and sports field maintenance, in-person financial services, for example. These may all be impacted during a strike. Once known, the District will share information on impacted services on this page of the District’s website.
If District programs and services are impacted (e.g. if a service is unavailable or a facility is closed for a period of time), information will be shared on the District’s website (on this page) and notices on facility doors will provide links or contact information if a building is closed.
As we know more, the District will keep the community informed of all impacted programs, services and closures. These will be listed here on this webpage (squamish.ca/strike).
After the 72-hours notice period expires, the Union may determine day-by-day which locations/departments will be affected. The District is unlikely to be provided with advance notice by the Union but as soon as we are aware, we will provide updated information here on this webpage (squamish.ca/strike).