OTTAWA – Canada’s largest telecommunications workers’ union is urging Industry Canada to add job guidelines that protect Canadian workers’ jobs to its list of criteria for telecom companies wanting to participate in next month’s 700 megahertz spectrum auction.
“The sale of this highly coveted spectrum is a prime opportunity to protect Canadian telecommunications jobs from being moved offshore. Industry Canada needs to add job guidelines to its list of non-monetary criteria for telecom companies wanting access to these public airwaves,” said Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, in a prepared statement.
According to CEP, the telecommunications workforce is down 10% since the early 1990s with, telecommunications employment accounting for 1.15% of all industrial employment in 1991 and only 0.78% of the workforce in 2009.
“Over the past five years, telecommunication companies have been making $7 billion in profit annually so they have the money to pay Canadian workers a proper wage,” said Coles. “Companies granted access to public airwaves should commit to Canadian workers.”
