Workers at the Burnaby mass burn combustion facility serving the Vancouver region announced a strike on Tuesday, forcing closure of the site to most customers and a pause in operations. The announcement comes after Veolia North America took over operations of the facility from Reworld last year.
Unifor Local 433 alleged that talks broke down last month on a contract affecting nearly 40 steam engineers at the site. The union said Veolia’s costs are “largely fixed” through a five-year operating contract, yet the operator is asking for concessions.
“The employer should give its head a shake if it thinks Unifor members are going to eat concessions to pad Veolia profits,” Unifor National President Lana Payne said in a statement. “This employer won a public bid to do this service with existing labor costs. Concessions will rob our members to reward shareholders.”
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Veolia said the company has been negotiating in good faith and that the union has not proposed new terms for a contract since it rejected a proposal last month.
"Veolia stands ready to resume negotiations as soon as possible and reach a fair contract that restarts the Waste-to-Energy Facility, offers fair employment terms for Local 433," said Wes Muir, director of business development and government relations at Veolia Canada.
Veolia has managed labor disputes in the past in other countries. Last year, workers at Veolia's Energy Recovery Facility in Newhaven in the United Kingdom announced four separate weeklong walkouts over a four-month period due to a contract dispute. Another dispute involving two unions working to represent Veolia collection workers in Sheffield, U.K., ended last year.
The company has been investing heavily in expanding its presence in North America, mostly through environmental services offerings. In October 2024, the company won the contract to operate the Burnaby facility after it had been run by Reworld, formerly Covanta, for 25 years. Reworld opted not to bid on the contract that Veolia won.
The facility first opened in 1988 and processes about 240,000 metric tons of waste annually. Veolia's contract began on March 3, 2025, and had an estimated value of up to $245 million. It was the only waste-to-energy facility the company operated in Canada when the contract began, though it operates dozens of such facilities around the world.
The plant is owned by Metro Vancouver, a regional federation that counts 21 municipalities, one electoral area and one treaty First Nation among its members. The federation does not play a role in labor negotiations.
Metro Vancouver has instructed the public to continue bringing special waste to Burnaby that cannot be handled elsewhere during the labor action. This includes non-hazardous health care facility waste, international marine and airline waste and certain wastewater treatment plant residuals.
The facility can pause thermal processing of materials for up to 10 days, followed by six days of renewed processing, per an essential services order issued last week by the British Columbia Labour Relations Board. The order also instructs Veolia not to hire any replacement employees or bring on any additional volunteers to the site.
Metro Vancouver said "non-union Veolia personnel who regularly work at the facility" continue to handle special waste reception and certain other qualified tasks during the labor action.
Greg Valou, a spokesperson for the federation, added: "Metro Vancouver respects the right to lawful job action and we’re hopeful that Veolia and Unifor will reach a negotiated agreement soon."
