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Telus expects minimal disruptions during dispute

New lines, service calls affected as employees dig in for job certainty

Things are tense both inside and outside of Telus Corporation after 13,700 employees walked off the job on Thursday, July 21 – one day before Telus planned to impose a new contract on its workforce that was rejected by the union in April.

The employees have been without a contract for four and a half years, despite more than 200 meetings between management and union representatives. Most of the employees are now on picket lines outside Telus buildings in Alberta and B.C. Even in Whistler, where Telus maintains a small office on Lorimer Road, a handful of picketers have been taking shifts.

The two sides have not met since Thursday’s walkout, except in court on Monday, and are currently waging a battle of words through the media.

According to the Telecommunication Workers Union (TWU), Telus management forced the union to go on strike by attempting to impose their own contract on employees. The union believes that the contract will result in entire departments within Telus being replaced by outside contractors in order to cut costs.

For its part Telus believes the union is misrepresenting the wishes of its employees and the purpose of the contract. They say the contract was necessary to remain competitive with Bell, Rogers and Shaw, which are gaining market share in Western Canada.

Additionally, Telus feels that it has negotiated fairly, pointing to recent rulings from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board and Federal Court of Appeals that found no fault regarding their labour relations practices.

For the most part telephone, Internet and cellular services have been unaffected in B.C. and Alberta, although there has been four cases of phone lines being cut since the start of the strike, in Lake City, Fort Langley, Pritchard and Ladysmith.

According to Telus the vandalism was conducted by a person or persons with the proper tools and some knowledge about phone lines. In the Lake City case, the vandals even removed some of the wire, making it more difficult to repair.

Telus did not directly accuse disgruntled workers of sabotage, acknowledging that vandalism does happen and that wire is often stolen for scrap.

The RCMP are taking the matter seriously, noting that the vandals also cut 911 service as well as phone and Internet lines.

For its part the union has denied that any members are involved in the vandalism, and voiced their support for the RCMP investigation.

But while the lines are up there are some areas where the strike is having an impact.

"Things are going well, we seem to be handling all of our customers’ requests reasonably well," said Bruce Okabe, vice president of business solutions for Telus. "Over the last five days we’ve been averaging 91 per cent with business customers that call in getting answered in 20 seconds or less. I should note that’s above normal, a bit above what’s expected in a normal situation.

"We’re going to miss the occasional appointment, and we’re working with a contingency plan we’ve put together regarding service issues.

"It’s a bit of a triage," Okabe added. "For instance, yesterday, when the major cable was cut in Burnaby (Lake City) it took a lot of time and resources to fix that, which means that, in terms of priority, someone who has something like a crackle in their line or a request about a bill would be downgraded in terms of priority."

While most of the company is functioning, Okabe acknowledged that there are some areas where service has been cut drastically. For example, a residential or business customer may not be able to move or change their numbers. It will also be harder to deal with billing inquiries.

Telus is offering employees a minimum 2.1 per cent raise on top of already scheduled raises, as well as job guarantees, in exchange for more flexibility regarding mandatory overtime situations. This would improve customer service, says Okabe, helping Telus to compete with other telecommunications companies.

Telus has also asked for union exemptions for "non-core" positions, such as janitorial services, which would allow Telus to save money by eliminating those departments and contracting the work out to other companies.

Only 375 employees would be affected, says Okabe, and those employees would have the opportunity to be retrained for another position within Telus, follow their position to the contract company, or accept a departure package.

"We guarantee nobody is going to lose their job to contracting, it’s in writing, it’s in our offered statement," Okabe said.

Telus would like the employees themselves to vote on the contract, rather than deal with the union. Okabe says the problems stem from the fact that two companies merged to form Telus, AGT and B.C. Tel, and the B.C. Tel union is seeking the same protections they had under their previous management.

"The union wants a collective agreement based on 1950s style wording that doesn’t recognize that the business has changed with cell phones and the Internet. Today customers have all kinds of choices, and we’re just looking for flexibility to remain competitive," he said.

According to the TWU, the Telus contract does not specify which departments would be cut or limit those cuts in any way.

"The issue, contrary to any noises Telus might make to the contrary, is not money, the issue is strictly about contract language," said TWU research director Sid Shniad.

According to Shniad, Telus is using the same chief negotiator Bell Canada used to resolve a contract issue a few years ago.

"He used a similar strategy to what Telus has been trying here, which is to stonewall on the issue of contract language, meanwhile sweetening the pot with more money until they get people to go for it," he said. "(This strategy) is really a sucker punch. If you focus on the money you’re ignoring the fact that without the right contract language you’re not going to be around to collect that money."

According to Shniad, Bell used the concessions made by the union to shut down several departments in favour of contractors within months of signing the contract, including their installation and repair service, and operators.

As for the argument that Telus needs concessions in order to stay competitive with other telecommunications companies, Shniad says the union is not buying.

"Telus is a world leader in revenue growth and cash flow improvements, et cetera, and they do so well they pay their top manager… six and a half million dollars as a reward. If anything (Telus’) competitors should have similar, quote-unquote, restrictions (on contractors), then they might be able to catch up with Telus as a world leader."

For now the dispute will be limited to picket lines, but according to Shniad the union will look at ways to escalate the job action in the coming weeks if an agreement isn’t reached. At press time no meetings were planned between the two sides.