WINDSOR, ON — Freedom Mobile’s customer care employees at its call centre in Windsor, Ont., have rejected a contract offer put forward by the company last week, the employees’ representatives from the United Steelworkers (USW) union announced Friday.
The employee vote took place Thursday, after a series of meetings were held throughout the day at a Windsor hotel. After reviewing the company’s contract offer, the employees held a secret-ballot vote and the offer was rejected, the USW said in a press release.
The 185 employees at Freedom Mobile’s Windsor call centre joined the USW in January and bargaining talks for a first collective agreement for the employees began in March. Last week, Freedom Mobile tabled what it called a “final offer”, according to the USW press release. The union’s bargaining committee agreed to put the offer to a vote by employees, with a unanimous recommendation by the committee for the offer to be rejected.
The union’s bargaining committee recommended rejection of Freedom Mobile’s offer on the basis that “it lacked basic seniority rights to recognize employees’ service to the company; it sought a divisive, two-tier system in which new employees would be saddled with inferior vacation rights; and it proposed inadequate wage increases,” the USW said in its press release.
“These employees make a huge contribution to Freedom Mobile’s success and this vote should kick-start renewed talks toward a fair collective agreement,” Ken Neumann, national director of the USW, said in the press release. “It is completely reasonable for these employees to expect that their hard work and years of service should count for more.”
USW staff representative Bryan Adamczyk, added: “After counting the votes last night, I contacted Freedom’s lead negotiator to tell him that we are ready and willing to meet anytime, anywhere, to resume negotiations to achieve a fair collective agreement. We expect that Freedom will do the right thing and agree to resume good-faith negotiations with its employees.”
When contacted by Cartt.ca via email on Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for Freedom Mobile’s parent company, Shaw Communications, responded: “We have issued a proposal to the union that would have ensured our continued success, however, the United Steelworkers have chosen to reject this proposal. Our goal is to conclude an agreement with the union that will allow us to continue operating successfully with our customers in mind.”
Freedom Mobile and its call centre employees are approaching a possible strike or lockout deadline of 12:01 a.m. on August 16. In a prior press release issued last week, USW representative Adamczyk said he thought a settlement could be negotiated before that.
Lee Riggs, president of the Telecommunications Workers Union, USW National Local 1944, which represents more than 11,000 telecom sector workers across Canada, echoed Neumann and Adamczyk’s calls for renewed bargaining talks.
After the employees voted on Thursday to reject the company’s contract offer, Riggs was quoted as saying: “This is not the right way for Freedom Mobile and its parent company Shaw Communications to display how much they value their employees. Freedom and Shaw have the means to do better by their employees. Now they have a new opportunity to do that.”
