Telus union takes to the streets

Telus union takes to the streets
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published March 9, 2003

About 150 labour leaders and union members waved placards and protested the slow pace of contract negotiations outside the corporate headquarters of Telus on Kingsway Thursday afternoon.
"I think as shareholders and customers of Telus we have to send a message that things have to change," said Rod Hiebert, president of the Telecommunications Workers Union. "The way Darren Entwhistle (Telus president and CEO) is going is wrong, wrong, wrong.
"Telus needs a CEO who knows how to run a $16 billion corporation."
The peaceful protest, which involved a lot of sign waving but did not disrupt lunch hour traffic, came as part of the TWU annual convention being held just up the street from the company headquarters at the Hilton Metrotown hotel.
Telus worker have been without a contract for the past two years, and Hiebert said one of the main stumbling blocks is contracting out. While union members voted 84.5 per cent in favour of strike action last fall, Hiebert does not expect any further job action in the immediate future.
Joining the rally to express solidarity with the Telus workers was a variety of local labour leaders, including Jim Sinclair of the B.C. Federation of Labour, George Heyman of the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, plus Brooke Sundin of the Food and Commercial Workers.
After the rally, Telus employee Michael Thompson said his biggest concern is getting a "respectful contract" that maintains the union pension, stops contracting out and ensure the grievance procedures are maintained.
"This has been a great company to work for, except for the past two years," said Thompson. "Now all these things we fought for are under attack, and they want to turn back the clock.
"I believe this has less to do with the economy than it does with mismanagement."
Thompson was particularly upset by Telus' claims last summer that almost one-fifth of the firm's 30,000 employees would have to be laid off in order for Telus to remain competitive.
"We do not have 6,000 people standing around doing nothing," said Thompson, a clerk with 17 years experience with the company, whose father and uncle both worked as linemen for B.C. Tel for 30 years.
"You cannot take that many bodies away from a company and expect the work to continue to be done. I am really discouraged to see what's happening to this company, and I take it personally," Thompson said.
Jim Peters, executive vice-president and chief general counsel for Telus, shrugged off the demonstration as simple grandstanding from the union.
"It was actually a pretty small group made up mainly of TWU delegates to their annual convention," said Peters, who pointed to the recent year end results which indicate Telus Mobility is the leading wireless communications company in the country and number two firm in all of North America.
Peters also said that contract negotiations are on track, and there have been no actual layoffs since the company offered its employees buy-out and retirement packages last summer.
"These programs were so successful that Telus was able too find enough employees to take that that there were no layoffs,
Peters said. "Over 1,000 Telus workers took those packages. Even clerical and operator service reps were getting good lump sums. We know these people were treated fairly.
"At Telus, we recognize the huge contribution these employees made to our success."
Last fall, Telus employees voted 84.5 per cent in favour of strike action, however, no further escalation of job action is expected in the immediate future.