BURNABY, B.C. – The Telecommunications Workers Union has added another step to its battle with Telus.
“In response to the company’s refusal to bargain, the union is upping the ante,” says the press release. Two weeks ago, as reported by www.cartt.ca, TWU initiated an overtime ban as well as a ban on relieving management. Effective today, Wednesday, June 29, it is instructing those of its members who take their company vehicles home after work to return them to Telus by the end of their shift on Thursday, June 30th.
Union president Bruce Bell explained the reasons for its concern:…
Continue Reading
THE VOIP REVOLUTION could end with a single phone call.
No, not by a call from the CRTC deregulating the incumbent telcos, but by one dropped 9-1-1 call.
I’ve often wondered why, since the launch of VOIP, the newcomers came to market without 9-1-1 service. When Primus and Vonage and others began, buried in their marketing materials in teeny type, were notes mentioning their service can’t offer some of the basics people have come to expect, like, oh, 9-1-1.
While they’ve since moved to offer the emergency calling feature, I thought its absence was unconscionable at launch.
Personally, if I’m…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canada’s wireless service providers will introduce inter-carrier multimedia message services (MMS) to wireless phone customers across the country on July 1.
This is the broadest initiative of its kind in North America, says the the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA). The move will enable customers with MMS-capable mobile phones, regardless of the customer’s wireless service provider, to instantly send and receive messages with rich content to and from the MMS-capable phones of friends, family and colleagues.
MMS, commonly referred to as picture messaging or video messaging, extends text messaging to include photos, video clips, graphics, audio clips…
Continue Reading
BURNABY, B.C. – Telus and the Telecommunications Workers Union met briefly today for further negotiations, but union president Bruce Bell expressed disappointment at the results of the meeting in a press release.
"We put a detailed counter-proposal on the table last week to get Telus to engage in substantive negotiations," Bell said. "Despite that, Telus walked away from the bargaining table."
"It was evident they were only interested in forcing us to put their offer to our members for a vote," he continued. "The union is ready and willing to bargain with Telus. But the company must address our…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Telus today announced the re-naming of a building to honor its chairman Brian Canfield.
Currently the chair of the company’s board of directors, Canfield joined BC Tel as an apprentice installer in 1956 and progressed through the ranks before becoming president and COO in 1989. In 1990, he became president and CEO and in 1993 he was chairman and CEO.
Following his retirement in 1997, Canfield retained the position of chairman of BC Tel and following the merger with Alberta’s Telus, he became chairman of the newly formed Telus Corporation. Canfield also served as interim president and…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – It took two days for Telus to reject the latest Telecommunications Workers Union’s (TWU) proposal, after it took the union two months to respond to the last Telus offer.
Telus said this afternoon the TWU’s proposal is “entirely devoid of any meaningful movement toward a resolution of this matter and even widens the gap in a number of key areas,” says the Telus press release.
The company went on to say that, “for four and a half years, the TWU has refused to accept what is obvious to Telus, its employees, its customers and its shareholders: the…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – When it does launch its digital television service, Telus doesn’t want to jump through the Commission’s hoops every time it needs to make a competitive move to match Shaw, the western telco has told the CRTC.
Telus needs to be competitively nimble, so to have to ask the Commission for permission to make certain programming additions or alterations poses problems, it says, because it won’t be able to respond in a timely enough manner in its markets.
When contacted by www.cartt.ca today, and asked about the application, which was filed on December 13, 2004 and only made…
Continue Reading
BURNABY – The Telecommunications Workers Union announced Wednesday that it will table a comprehensive response to all of the major issues that have been raised by Telus.
At the same time, union president Bruce Bell will send a personal letter to Telus president and CEO Darren Entwistle, asking him to “free his bargaining committee to engage in serious bargaining,” says the union press release.
The union is undertaking the two moves as part of its attempt to kick-start the stalled negotiating process, which has led to accusations and a work-to-rule campaign by the workers right after Telus…
Continue Reading
BURNABY, B.C – "For 4 1/2 years, we have tried everything imaginable to get Telus to bargain with us, but they have refused to budge," opens the latest press release salvo from Telecommunications Workers Union president Bruce Bell.
"Starting today, we’re trying a different approach. As of (Monday) morning, the union is initiating a campaign that combines working-to-rule with providing super service to customers," Bell continued.
Reading through the litany (below) of musts for TWU members now would be pretty funny, if it weren’t such a serious issue. It seems Telus’ union employees will now be busy topping up…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Saying it wants to accelerate the resolution of its union negotiations, Telus today made “an addendum” to its last offer to its B.C. workers.
The offer was presented to the Telecommunications Workers Union on April 13th and the addendum clarifies some of the clauses, said the western telco today. "We continue to do everything we can to reach a settlement that benefits our employees, customers and shareholders," said Darren Entwistle, Telus president and CEO, in a news release.
"We have made these adjustments to expedite settlement of a replacement collective agreement. Our offer is generous, provides job…
Continue Reading
