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Real talk: Slashing jobs and building resistance

Posted on May 13, 2019

Bell’s business plan is to cut good jobs to increase profit.  

Over the past 10 years, Bell has slashed the number of unionized employees in nearly every unit. This is not a well kept secret, with Bell employees witnessing the job erosion through various tactics. Erosion continues despite all bargaining committees trying to address this at the bargaining table.

Where did the jobs go? Bell has automated some, and sent others overseas or to domestic contractors. But that’s a Real Talk for a different day.

The only job growth in the last 10 years has been in the Bell Technical Solutions (BTS) group. A company that was founded to contract out technical work for lower pay.

Unifor has fought to defend members in BTS and raise standards for them. Now, even this prosperous unit has been passed over for the next major project Bell is in the process of launching.

Bell has now punished workers for standing up for our rights through the complete outsourcing of the Wireless to the Home project. This is a massive installation of high-speed infrastructure that will increase the company’s reach into rural communities.

So, is a job at Bell a good job? Can you rely on your job to exist in one year, two years, or ten years? Not at this rate, but there is a way to reverse the trend.

We are coming up to the 100-year anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike, where telecommunications workers, phone operators, began an act of solidarity and resistance that changed the history of our country.

The women who walked out that day demanded better for themselves and their fellow working families. Acting in solidarity is the only way that we have won in the face of profit-driven employers.

We must organize, build capacity, and show that telcom workers in Canada are united in the face of corporate greed.

And together, we will speak out and speak up. It is not acceptable that Bell is allowed to operate in this way, reaping record-breaking profits while contracting out good telcom jobs.

Bell’s in need of some real talk. Good thing the workers are ready to share our stories.