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(Image Credit: Vahid Aghdasi)
By Nathaniel Leigh
Job Action

BC Rig Welders walk off Sept. 1, Alberta walk off planned for Oct. 1

Sep 2, 2026 | 6:02 AM

Rig welders in northern BC have walked off the job.

Effective Tuesday, roughly 160 welders from Fort St. John and neighbouring communities are participating in a job action, refusing to come to work for any of their employers at this time.

Spokesperson for Rig Welders of the North Peace Region, Vahid Aghdasi, says they want to see their hourly rate increased from $125 to $150.

“The cost of everything has gone up dramatically, and drastically,” Aghdasi says. “The cost of welding rigs has gone up double and a half in the past twenty years. The price of welding machines has tripled and quadrupled. So, that’s how we get our rates increased here. We end up striking because there’s no other way; we have to work as a collective group.”

Aghdasi says they marked the start of the job action with a convoy of vehicles honking and drawing attention to their cause.

“Drive by all the companies where we work, and we beep the horns at them,” he says. “It’s a big, long convoy, 120-160 trucks. And that’s our first day. Then we came to Dawson Creek and did the same thing with the welding companies here in town. On the second and third day, we’re just going to be hanging out, really. We’re just going to meet up in the morning in the parking lot for a little bit, and we’re not going back until they change [our rates].

A walk-off in Alberta communities, including Grande Prairie, is set to begin October 1.

“Grande Prairie has always followed suit with us, usually the next day,” says Aghdasi. “Any time that we’ve walked off here, like when I did this once before for $125, we didn’t have a collective group with Grande Prairie at the time. But the next day after we raised our rates, their rates went up too.”

Aghdasi says any BC employers that want to discuss raising the rates can contact him.

He says the welders are not negotiating and are not backing down until the rate is increased from $125 to $150.

by Nathaniel Leigh