Working class hero
Almost 30 years ago, Premier Glen Clark used innovative ways to get labour deals done.
February 03rd, 2026
Co-authors Tony Penikett (left) and John Calvert celebrating their book, "35 Accords."
Having little money for big wage increases, Glen Clark’s government turned to better working environments including long-term disability provisions, health & safety measures, better pensions and benefits, and workload management.
Review by Keith Reynolds
With a narrow election win in the summer of 1997, British Columbia NDP Premier Glen Clark’s government was short on money and faced bargaining with most of BC’s public sector.
Clark sought union agreement for increases of 0, 0, and 2 per cent over three years. He hoped to sweeten the deal with special agreements outside of the normal bargaining
process approach offering non-monetary benefits and policy innovations without breaking the province’s budget.
To lead the process Clark called on Tony Penikett, a former aid to Ed Broadbent and a former Yukon premier. Penikett’s first hire was John Calvert, a former researcher with the union CUPE and a public policy author. The two led negotiations for 35 public sector accords as they outline in 35 Accords: Re-Imagining British Columbia’s Public Sector Labour Relations (Ethics International $58) by Tony Penikett and John Calvert.
Wage restraint was not the only goal. The government saw this as a means to change policy in the public interest. They hoped to accomplish this and maintain labour’s support for the NDP.
The process was new and not well understood. Bargaining stretched across multiple sectors, unions and employers. Relations between some unions and employers had been tense. Neither the unions nor the employers were always in full agreement among themselves.
Special agreements, or “accords” as they were called, addressed changes in the workplace ranging from efforts to modernize systems, recruitment and retention strategies, long-term disability provisions, health and safety measures, and workload management. Early retirement incentives and lowering the age threshold for retirement generated savings. Newer employees typically earned less. Additional funding supported long-term disability programs, job security initiatives, minimum work hours and a pilot project on workload. In the social services sector, accords tackled critical issues of workplace violence and successorship. Newly-won low bid contracts for social services meant clients had often experienced a complete turnover in service providers.
Several of the policies negotiated appeared in more than one accord. One was to insource work that had previously been contracted out, both to provide more
opportunities for public sector workers and to save money. Both unions and the government felt the government spent too much money on private sector training (an estimated $250 million) with questionable results. The province’s colleges were only permitted to bid on 10 per cent of this work. Also, students at private sector colleges faced financial and educational problems with facility closures. An accord enhanced the role of public sector trainers. A second accord expanded the use of public laboratories in health care and promoted increased use of hospital rehabilitation services by the Workers Compensation Board and ICBC.
The government already had policies in place promoting pay equity and increasing wages for low wage workers beyond the 0-0-2 mandate. This accord work particularly affected the schools and Social Services Sectors.
Rather than each employer negotiating with large corporations to buy benefits for workers, benefits trusts were created across sectors were created to manage and purchase workplace benefits. “With hundreds of employers in the [Social Services] sector purchasing benefits, the administrative costs of each employer individually buying benefits for its employees were extremely high,” write Penikett and Calvert. Small employers particularly benefited. CUPE had estimated that the K-12 school sector could save $4 million through consolidated purchasing.
Penikett and Calvert describe the introduction of joint management and trusteeship of pensions as “the largest accord achievement.” Joint trusteeship gave unions and their members an unprecedented measure of control over the savings and investments that underpin their members’ retirement. Union members gained a say on an employer’s right to take contribution holidays and how surpluses could be used. But “It meant that unions were accepting half of the fiscal responsibility for meeting plan obligations to retirees. This potentially reduced the government’s cost of borrowing because it lowered its pension liabilities,” say Penikett and Calvert.
John Calvert (left), Glen Clark (middle) and Tony Penikett at the book launch.
Despite the success of these accords, the Liberal government, elected in 2001, fully or partially repealed many of the accords particularly targeting those increasing union
input. They repealed successorship provisions for social services and health workers. In social services benefits trusts became voluntary for employers.
Accord measures to bring contracted work back in house that private employers had complained about were eliminated. Accords dealing with benefits trusts and joint management of pensions were largely left untouched.
Despite accord rollbacks, Penikett and Calvert still consider the process a success. Looking at the original goals: “Settlements were within its money mandate, enabling the
government to implement its goal of funding pay equity and raising the pay of the lowest paid workers,” they say.
The accords had advanced policies in the public interest. Industrial Relations Professor Mark Thompson is quoted in the book saying the accords process was a new model for Canada showing unions could be involved in coming up with innovative solutions.
The authors acknowledge the NDP lost labour support in 2001. Only two New Democrats were elected.
35 Accords documents a unique experiment in public sector labour relations showing the possibility of policy innovation through collaboration. While much was repealed, important pensions and benefits provisions remained.
Could such a collaborative approach have made a difference in bargaining with postal workers, with teachers in Aberta and even with BC’s public employees in 2025? 9781837112777
Keith Reynolds worked for public sector unions in BC during the accords but was only peripherally involved with the process. He has written on government issues for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Columbia Institute. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from Queens University.
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