2025-2026 Annual Report
We acknowledge our presence on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of over 200 First Nations in what we now call British Columbia. We do so with gratitude for the traditional stewards of these lands and waters – the Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and Land Defenders – who, from time immemorial, have cared for and nourished communities of human and more-than beings. We are committed to redressing the harms of colonization through a process of genuine and just reconciliation – guided by, and in solidarity with, Indigenous Peoples.
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Adriane Gear
President
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Tristan Newby
Vice President
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Sharon Sponton
Treasurer
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Denise Waurynchuk
Executive Councillor, Occupational Health and Safety and Mental Health (Interim)
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Michelle Sordal
Executive Councillor, Pensions and Seniors Health
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Jim Gould
Chief Executive Officer
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Central Vancouver strengthened job action preparedness through regular updates, workplace conversations and targeted training for stewards and activists. These efforts emphasized collective rights, strike readiness and mutual support. Transparent communication and consistent engagement have built confidence and unity among members.
Gerald Dyer
Central Vancouver
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More Central Vancouver members than ever before participated at events and education sessions this year. Members stayed informed, asked questions and communicated what they are prepared to fight for. Many volunteered to support job action, reflecting growing engagement and solidarity.
Kristina Hernandez
Central Vancouver
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Coastal Mountain focused on outreach to ensure members understand what is at stake in bargaining. Members actively participated in the benefits survey and discussed job action. These conversations strengthened their understanding of the bargaining process and collective action.
Angela Crawford
Coastal Mountain
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East Kootenay held site visits, mini-regionals and a mock job action exercise. Grounded in the belief that knowledge is power, stewards and JOHS representatives participated in education sessions and peer learning, and members shared insights with colleagues, building job action readiness.
Denise Waurynchuk & Carly Vanderhart (interim)
East Kootenay
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Fraser Valley region members committed to preparing for job action, completing bargaining surveys, volunteering as job action contacts and encouraging colleagues to complete job action learning modules. These efforts strengthened communication across worksites and reinforced a commitment to standing together.
Katherine Hamilton (interim)
Fraser Valley
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Our region engaged members through worksite visits, mini-regionals, mock strike exercises and over 60 outreach events this year. Members discussed worksite challenges, job action, the importance of a strong strike vote and accessing reliable information, including BCNU’s new mobile app.
Danette Thomsen
North East
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North West region prioritized job action preparedness this year. Holding weekly conversations, helping members fact-check information and training job action representatives helped members deepen their understanding of collective action. Nurses joined other unions on picket lines, demonstrating solidarity and unity.
Teri Forster
North West
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The Okanagan Similkameen region spread job action awareness with regular in-person and virtual discussions about what job action may look like for members. WJAC representatives attended a full-day education session and supported HEU and BCGEU workers on the picket line.
Candi DeSousa
Okanagan Similkameen
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Pacific Rim members strengthened collaboration and coordination to be ready for job action through regional member engagements. These opportunities contributed to rich, thoughtful discussions that have enhanced the region’s job action preparedness, strengthened communication pathways and created a supportive response plan.
Deidre Knudson
Pacific Rim
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This year, we focused on job action readiness. We held member engagement walks, dinners and presentations on bargaining and job action, including sessions led by Sharon Sponton and BCNU staff. These efforts strengthened member awareness and preparation across the region.
Raina Sidhu (Interim)
Richmond Vancouver
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Simon Fraser engaged members in job action preparedness through regional education meetings, mini-regionals, worksite visits and newsletters. We encouraged members to complete online job action modules and held targeted education for stewards and worksite leaders to share job action information.
Roy Hansen & Frank Martens (interim)
Simon Fraser
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The Simon Fraser region supported job action preparedness through mini-regional meetings where members reviewed BCNU’s online job action modules. Participants deepened their understanding of the bargaining and job action process. These conversations strengthened connections, engagement and readiness across the region.
Wendy Gibbs
Simon Fraser
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South Fraser Valley strengthened job action preparedness through lunch and dinner meetings, worksite drop-ins and gatherings. We saw increased member engagement with HRE caucuses and networks, strengthening connections across our membership. Participation has grown, reflecting stronger communication, deeper engagement and growing solidarity.
Glesy Banton-Victoria
South Fraser Valley
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South Fraser Valley took an assessment of the region’s job action readiness, then created an info-management system for worksites and recruited key personnel like picket captains. We ran rapid briefings and encouraged members to use the BCNU app to stay informed.
Peggy Holton
South Fraser Valley
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This year, our region boosted job action readiness through direct member engagement and a visible union presence. By engaging members personally, our team focused on strengthening members readiness to advocate for their rights through collective power.
Claudette Jut
Shaughnessy Heights
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The South Islands region strengthened job action preparedness through consistent communication, steward education and integrating job action discussions into regional meetings, worksite visits and education days. These conversations helped build an understanding of bargaining processes and reinforced solidarity among members.
Leanne Roberston-Weeds
South Islands
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The South Islands region continues building job action readiness through communication, education and active member participation in BCNU events, job action modules and bargaining and benefits surveys. Regional reps identified strategic workers to strengthen coordination and communication across the region.
Caitlin Jarvis
South Islands
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Thompson North Okanagan organized Zoom meetings, worksite visits and mini-regionals in rural communities, encouraging members to follow bargaining updates and complete the job action learning modules. We also onboarded new stewards and OHS activists to build leadership capacity.
Scott Duvall & Leah Takats (Interim)
Thompson North Okanagan
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Vancouver Metro region made bargaining and job action central to member engagement through educational offerings, regional meetings, steward planning sessions, engagement events and weekly Talk Tuesday conversations. These efforts strengthened communication across worksites and reinforced the commitment to take action.
Meghan Friesen and Frances Beswick (Interim)
Vancouver Metro
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The West Kootenay region educated members and built collective preparedness through dinner meetings, worksite visits and Zoom sessions about bargaining priorities and job action. Regional members demonstrated solidarity on BCGEU picket lines, creating tangible experiences that reinforced commitment and unity.
Shalane Wesnoski
West Kootenay
Human Rights & Equity
Unions have always fought for workers’ rights, but not always for the rights of all workers. BCNU is no exception. Throughout our history, members from diverse racial backgrounds, cultures, genders and gender expressions have challenged racism, discrimination and underrepresentation – both in their workplaces and within their own union.
Because of that activism, four caucuses – Indigenous Leadership Circle (ILC), Mosaic of Colour (MOC), 2SLGBTQ+ and Workers with Disabilities (WWD) – along with three networks – Men in Nursing (MIN), Senior Nurses (SNN) and New and Young Nurses (NYN) – now play a formal role in shaping our union and strengthening representation.
BCNU strives to be a safe and welcoming place for all, but we know equity is not a destination. Rather, it is a journey that demands members’ sustained commitment, willingness to have hard conversations and courage to hold ourselves accountable.
2005
BCNU establishes the multicultural caucus, beginning our journey towards a more diverse, equitable and inclusive union. Inspired by the Combahee River Collective (1977), an organization of feminist Black women, the caucus and network model recognizes that “major systems of oppression [racism, hetero/sexism, ableism, classism] are interlocking.”
2008
BCNU hosts its first Human Rights and Diversity conference (later called the Human Rights and Equity [HRE] conference), bringing together members of the Aboriginal Leadership Circle, LGBT, Workers of Colour and WWD caucuses with nurses from across the province. The event creates space for meaningful and politically engaged discussions about equity, justice, diversity and genuine inclusion – laying the foundation for a conference that continues to grow in reach and impact.
2011
BCNU has a long history of supporting harm reduction strategies. In 2011, the union took on a high-profile role in the courts to protect Vancouver’s Insite safe consumption site from the federal Conservative government’s efforts to shut it down. BCNU’s legal support helped ensure the landmark unanimous Supreme Court decision upholding Insite’s right to continue operating.
2013
The LGBT caucus brings forward a convention resolution calling for inclusive, accessible washrooms in BCNU’s Burnaby office and provide everyone the use of these spaces without fear of judgment or harm. In 2023, BCNU updates the washroom signage to represent the fixtures (sinks, toilets, transfer bars) that users require, irrespective of their identity.
2015
At the HRE conference, Abenaki First Nation’s filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin screened her documentary Trick or Treaty? about Treaty 9 territory (in what we now call northern Ontario). The film considers the many meanings of home and reconciliation during ongoing colonial dispossession. That same year, BCNU formally endorses the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.
2016
The HRE committee launches a campaign highlighting watershed protection and equitable access to clean drinking water, noting that far too many First Nations and rural communities still experience water scarcity due to colonial and corporate theft.
2017
Author and activist Sarah Schulman’s HRE conference keynote speech on her book Conflict is not Abuse (2016) reminds members that “conflict is rooted in difference and people are and always will be different... Most of the pain, destruction, waste and neglect towards human life that we create ... are consequences of our over-reaction to difference. This is expressed through our resistance to facing and resolving problems, which is overwhelmingly a refusal to change how we see ourselves...”
Human Rights and Equity
at BCNU
2019
The ILC brings forward a successful resolution to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) to inform BCNU’s commitment to a genuine and just reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. The resolution commits the union to redressing the harms of colonialism and building a culturally safe, anti-racist and welcoming organization for all members.
2019
Responding to the Nestlé corporation siphoning water from unceded Stó:lō territory, the ILC successfully advances a convention resolution to boycott Nestlé products from all BCNU events, aligning union practices with commitments to Indigenous rights and environmental justice.
2020
Following a request from the 2SLGBTQ+ caucus, BCNU invites staff to include pronouns in email signatures and business cards. The request supports a more welcoming, inclusive environment for all members and employees regardless of their identity.
2022
BCNU launches a Gender Diversity in the Nursing Profession survey following increased reports of discrimination towards gender diverse members during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey aims to better understand challenges gender diverse nurses face and inform strategies to improve workplace inclusion and support.
2023
The Nurses’ Bargaining Association (NBA) secures key equity measures in the 2022–2025 provincial collective agreement, including leave for gender-affirming care and Indigenous cultural leave. The agreement is the first NBA contract to include a territorial acknowledgement, reflecting a shared commitment with health employers to reconciliation.
2024
BCNU installs a memorial stone at its Burnaby office, on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, following a recommendation from the ILC and TRC. The stone honours children lost to residential schools and affirms BCNU’s ongoing commitment to truth and reconciliation.
2025
Convention delegates vote to double attendance at the annual HRE conference, expanding space for members to take part in the union’s critical work to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.
2026
BCNU invites members to share their experiences of discrimination through its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Nursing Practice Environments survey that aims to better understand how workplace discrimination affects professional practice environments and quality of life while guiding efforts to foster belonging.
Our Members
The BC Nurses’ Union represents more than 55,000 professional nurses and allied health-care workers who provide care in hospitals, long-term care facilities and the community. We speak up and speak out for safe, quality, public health care. We value and respect diversity, and pride ourselves in providing protection, representation and services to all members.
By Profession
| RN/RPN | 48,043 | |
| LPN | 12,236 | |
| Allied | 1,851 |
By Sector
| Acute Care | 43,270 | |
| Community Care | 11,581 | |
| Long-Term Care | 6,903 |
By Seniority
| < 5 years | 26,090 | |
| 5-10 years | 12,270 | |
| 11-15 years | 7,983 | |
| 16-20 years | 6,602 | |
| 21-25 years | 3,669 | |
| > 25 years | 3,669 |
Please note: The figures include all dues-paying members over the most recent two-month period prior to the publication of the annual report and are therefore subject to change.
Excellence in Leadership & Advocacy Award
Jessica Machado
Jessica Machado is a registered nurse at Vancouver General Hospital. She has been nursing for 10 years and serves as her region’s occupational health and safety representative.
Machado intends to continue advocating for better conditions in nursing.
“Leadership means creating safer conditions for our profession. I remain committed to fighting for a health-care system where safety is non-negotiable,” she says. “To my frontline colleagues, I see you. I will continue to advocate for you.”
NU Leader Award
Abbey Glowicki
Abbey Glowicki is a registered nurse at St. Paul’s Hospital known for her passion for working with surgical patients and the young adult population. Her certifications and professional development experiences reflect her commitment to lifelong learning.
Glowicki says she uses her practice to promote gender equity, decolonization and reproductive justice.
“I’m deeply honoured,” says Glowicki. “I feel more inspired than ever and more committed to providing exceptional care. I’m proud to be part of a profession that constantly shows dedication, hard work, intelligence and commitment to serving people.”
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Cultivating Leaders
BCNU members show leadership in their union by advocating for their patients, speaking up for their colleagues and engaging in their union.
535
Convention Participants
206
Human Rights and Equity Conference Participants
200
Practice Conference Participants
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Investing in Members
Investing in BCNU members pays dividends. Providing the resources and support members need helps them know their rights, build their careers and remain strong advocates for their colleagues – and their patients.
1103
Member education bursaries provided
24501
Salary replacement days
33272
Bill/expense forms processed
$3.7M
in LPN to RN/RPN laddering funds paid
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Investing in Students
Our future leaders can be found studying in universities and colleges across the province. That’s why BCNU invests in students – some of the strongest advocates for health care are just getting started.
1676
New student member registrations
2205
Employed student nurses
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Labour Relations
BCNU protects and advances the health and economic well-being of our members. That’s why we dedicate significant resources to defending members’ rights with health employers and WorkSafeBC.
2354
Grievances opened
2596
Grievances closed
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Labour Relations
BCNU protects and advances the health and economic well-being of our members. That’s why we dedicate significant resources to defending members’ rights with health employers and WorkSafeBC.
83%
Success rate on members’ LTD appeals
71%
Success rate on members’ WorkSafeBC appeals
1400+
submissions for the Mental Health Awareness Month campaign
1224
OHS queries to the safety and health email
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Education
BCNU’s education programs offer members the chance to grow personally and professionally, while gaining a better understanding of their union, their workplace and the health-care system.
400%
increase in provincially delivered courses
1200+
members attended provincially delivered regional education
53
Building Union Strength courses taught by member educators
250+
members took webinars on topics like parental leave
Strategic Directions
OUR 2026 STRATEGIC PLAN reflects, integrates and affirms BCNU’s abiding commitment to the principles of Truth and Reconciliation, cultural safety and Indigenous-specific anti-racism. This commitment is informed by our values of diversity, equity and inclusion – towards strengthening a sense of belonging for all union members.
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Improve technology and digital platforms to make it easy for members to access the information they need, when they need it.
- Redesign and implement a new website, member portal, mobile app and member case management system.
- Explore and implement advanced technologies and digital tools to support organizational productivity.
- Improve communication to activists and regional teams.
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Cultivate member solidarity by expanding knowledge on the principles of unionism and the power of collective action.
- Offer resources to mobilize members on issues that align with the union’s values and strategic directions.
- Implement a recruitment and retention strategy to activate and support stewards.
- Empower members to utilize the organizing model.
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Foster leadership development and effective decision-making that is consistent with our strategic directions, vision, mission and values.
- Model our values and build trust through effective response and clear communications.
- Develop an evidence-based and inclusive decision-making framework, grounded in our principles and values, to inform and facilitate decision-making across the organization.
- Develop a competency-based framework, integrating our values and principles of truth and reconciliation and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), to foster leadership development and succession of elected and appointed members.
- Reimagine the future of our union through inclusive consultation processes.
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As the professional voice of nursing, continue to advocate for quality practice in health care including the successful implementation of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
- Engage employers and government on the opportunities to address the nursing shortage through focused retention and recruitment.
- Educate the public on the value of nurses to the public health-care system and the benefits of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
- Build relationships with nursing and labour organizations.
- Increase outreach with schools of nursing and nursing students.
- Validate the benefit of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios on patient safety, outcomes and nurse retention.
- Advance professional practice and explore other initiatives to address workload.
- Continue to support and advocate for new grads and internationally educated nurses.
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Achieve gains to negotiated agreements and protect members’ rights to safe, healthy and respectful workplaces.
- Hold employers accountable for their collective agreement obligations, inclusive of Indigenous-specific anti-racism and DEI.
- Hold employers accountable for their obligations to provide safe and supportive workplaces for members.
- Strengthen member engagement in establishing bargaining priorities.
- Bargain gains to collective agreements inclusive of Indigenous-specific anti-racism and DEI initiatives.
- Address Indigenous-specific racism in health care and support cultural safety.
- Provide members with resources and support to uphold their rights and responsibilities to physical and psychological health and safety in the workplace.