Two unions representing British Columbia professionals and public service workers have escalated their weeks-long job action to include about 26,000 staff across 14 ministries and provincial Crown corporations.

The Professional Employees Association, whose members include engineers, foresters and geoscientists, says more than 1,000 staff from the health, mining, transportation, resource stewardship and attorney general ministries are on strike.

The association had previously joined job action by the BC General Employees' Union in the dispute with the province by picketing a number of government offices in Victoria, Metro Vancouver, Kamloops, Prince George and other communities.

The BCGEU also escalated its job action on Thursday to include about 25,000 public service workers across 475

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