B.C. Local Earns Another Traffic Control Triumph

Vancouver, British Columbia, Local 258 scored a big organizing win when a group of traffic controllers on Vancouver Island recently voted to accept IBEW representation.

That means the addition of about 75 new members employed by Domcor Traffic Control International when Local 258 officials finalize a first contract with the company. The local continues its work in recent years to organize traffic controllers across the province and provide them an improved work environment with higher wages.

“We’re going to change their lives because they’re now going to have a collectively bargained agreement,” said Dayna Gill, a former Local 258 assistant business manager who worked as a traffic controller and is now the First District’s lead organizer in western Canada. “Their safety, the number of hours they work, the PPE they need to do the job, that all will be in writing in the contract.”

In a sense, the move seems logical because it involves BC Hydro.

Local 258, an outside construction and utility local, has long had a partnership with the company and represents linemen and other bargaining units there.

But the traffic control workers are employed by Domcor, a private company contracted to handle those duties by BC Hydro that has resisted voluntary recognition efforts in the past.

“We had done a top-down approach to organizing it for years, where we engaged in talking with the company,” Local 258 Business Manager Cody Gatzke said. “It always ended up falling apart, and nothing ever materialized.”

So Gatzke and others changed their tactics. Gill and Local 258 organizer Dean Kotaras visited Vancouver Island last fall, where the employees signed digital support cards requesting IBEW representation.

The cards were recognized by the BC Labour Relations Board, the provincial body that oversees relations between management and workers in unionized industries. That earned the employees IBEW representation, and bargaining will begin soon.

Local 258 represents about 800 traffic control employees across the province, and it has negotiated a master agreement that covers all of them, no matter what company or government entity they work for. Gatzke said it is unclear whether Domcor will accept that agreement or insist on negotiating one for its own employees.

Safety regulations protecting utility and skilled construction workers near roads and byways have been strengthened in British Columbia in recent years. That’s led to more companies getting involved in providing traffic controllers — which, in turn, has led to Local 258 having more organizing opportunities, Gatzke said.

“We identified it as a pretty large market, and it’s only grown over the years as the regulations have changed,” he said.

Adding the traffic control workers has allowed Local 258 and the IBEW in Canada to diversify its membership. They are overwhelmingly women, although Gill said more men are getting into the work.

“It’s not just a job,” said Gill, who added that Local 258 would like to organize another 221 traffic control workers employed by Domcor in the province. “It can be a really great career.”

Gill and Gatzke also saluted the work of Kotaras, who was working one of his first campaigns since joining the Local 258 staff as an organizer.

“It really was a team effort,” Gill said.

First District International Vice President Russ Shewchuk said Local 258’s work serves an example for all IBEW locals in Canada on how to grow their membership.

“I salute Local 258 for staying persistent and finding a new way to approach this opportunity,” Shewchuk said. “This is a great example of what we can accomplish when we work together and remain focused on improving the lives of workers. We look forward to continued growth in this sector.”

This article was originally published in the April 2026 issue of The Electrical Worker Online.