WATCH: Nurses picket at VGH as fight for fair contract, better working conditions escalates

VANCOUVER — Healthcare workers and allies were out bright and early Tuesday morning setting up a picket line in front of Vancouver General Hospital.

It marked the latest escalation in their ongoing fight for a fair contract and better working conditions.

"This is the first time since 1989 BNCU has taken any form of a picket, a strike," BC Nurses Union President Adriane Gear told Sitka Media. "Today is the first day that we are escalating our job action to actually withdrawing labour."

She added that while it's "unfortunate," nurses "can no longer hold the system together."

Over two-thirds of members recently rejected a tentative agreement, arguing that it "does not address our working conditions."

Gear said nurses have to deal with "heavy workloads" due to a shortage of nurses, "violence," and "not having enough support."

She went on to argue that employers are not willing or not able to resolve the dispute, and noted that the BCNU is calling on the government to intervene.

Countless cars honked their horns as they drove past those lining 12th Avenue between Heather and Oak.

Gear said she believed the public was "for the most part" on the side of those on the picket lines.

"I think people that are using the healthcare system, they see it every day," she explained, referring to the aforementioned issues. "I think the general public that interfaces with healthcare, they get it."

In a press release, the BCNU claimed that it had received over 1,400 reports from nurses across BC regarding "attempts by health employers to intimidate members and interfere with their legal right to participate in job action."

"Nurses have come forward to say they are being threatened with discipline, warned their professional licences could be at risk and pressured to perform non-nursing duties or work unauthorized overtime despite the union's lawful job action directive," the BCNU wrote.

As a result, job action will expand to include more hospitals, such as Surrey Memorial and the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre, later this week.