Thousands Rally at Bell Canada, Protesting Job Erosion

Pictured above are Local 44 President Eric Johnson and Treasurer Russ Sparkes at the Rally with Unifor President Jerry Dias and Telecommuniations Director Tyson Siddall amongst others.

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August 20, 2019

QUEBEC – Thousands of workers rallied outside Bell Canada headquarters in Quebec City, demanding an end to job erosion.

“Bell benefits from the hard work and innovation of Unifor members,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “Instead of treating them with respect, the company has continually eroded our jobs and inflicts a stressful work environment on current employees.”

Unifor members have experienced a decrease in the number of jobs in virtually all Bell bargaining units across the country in recent years. Earlier this year, the union discovered Bell had taken action to outsource 1 million installations of its new “Wireless to the Home” technology, a project partially supported by federal grants.

At today’s rally, Bell workers from across the region marched alongside delegates of Unifor’s National Convention to the Bell building, where together, they called on the company to maintain good jobs in Canada’s telecommunications industry, and not outsource the jobs of tomorrow.

“At a time of growth and new technology, coupled with an affordability crisis for Canada’s workers, corporations like Bell must show leadership with decent work and job security,” said Renaud Gagné, Unifor Quebec Director. “It is immoral to take millions in government subsidies while outsourcing good, unionized work.”

Employees of Bell Canada and Bell subsidiaries have long campaigned against contracting out and other forms of job erosion. These efforts recently led to the company reversing a layoff notice for 78 technicians, and won the removal of the infamous “Stacked Ranking” performance management system in the Bell Sales bargaining unit.

For current updates about this campaign, visit bellrealtalk.ca.

Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy. The union advocates for all working people and their rights, fights for equality and social justice in Canada and abroad, and strives to create progressive change for a better future.

For further information, contact Sarah McCue, Unifor National Communications Representative at 416-458-3307 (cell) or sarah.mccue@unifor.org.

For French interviews, please contact Unifor Quebec Communications Representative, Marie-Andrée L'Heureux at marie-andree.lheureux@unifor.org or 514-916-7373 (cell).