The union representing ambulance paramedics and emergency dispatchers in British Columbia says its more than 6,000 members will be taking a strike vote in early February.

Ambulance Paramedics of BC- CUPE 733 says the vote will happen Feb. 2, after negotiations for a new collective agreement hit “an impasse” last week.

Ian Tait, the union’s social media director, tells 1130 NewsRadio the union met with its employer to float an alternative bargaining framework to avoid a strike “at all costs.”

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“We heard back from the government on Monday that they just weren’t interested in any of those things and that nothing’s changed as far as money or willingness to move forward,” Tait said.

“So we had to make the tough decision today to inform our executive board and our membership that we’ll be conducting a strike vote from Feb. 2 until Feb. 16.”

In a statement, union president Jason Jackson said the government’s offer continues to fall short of what members need to support themselves and their families and protect their mental health and safety.

The statement says voting will take place electronically over two weeks, and once an essential services order is in place, workers will be in a legal strike position.

Tait says union members are frustrated and sad.

“This isn’t something that we wanted. We know the realities of a strike,” he said.

“We’re already struggling to keep ambulances staffed now, and we just know that this is not a position we wanted to be in.”

He says the union can say it did absolutely everything it could to avoid getting to this point.

“We’ve bent over backwards to give the government more time to help to find efficiencies in our contract to save money, but at the end of the day, you need two people that are willing to negotiate to get a contract done.”

The union says the ambulance service operates under significant staffing pressures, and paramedics are deployed across the province to address long-term service gaps, particularly in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities.

“Not only does government’s offer fail to address the serious challenges we face, but it also doesn’t even live up to what other public sector workers have already been guaranteed,” Jackson says in the statement.

“Our members have stepped up time and time again to ensure patients across the province get the urgent care they need, but they are being stretched to their breaking point. It’s time for the B.C. government to recognize the desperate situation we’re in and work with us to find solutions.”