VANCOUVER – The Supreme Court of Canada last week rejected Telus’s bid to appeal the decision that gave the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) scope over new employees acquired from the company’s $6 billion purchase of Clearnet in 2000.
"We’re extremely pleased about this decision," said Bruce Bell, the president of Telecommunications Workers Union, in a release. "Telus has been in denial for years that the Clearnet employees belong in the TWU and now they’ve exhausted their legal angles. They did everything they could to avoid giving us contact information for these employees, who are now part of Telus Mobility, and they’re still in denial about the numbers. They say only 1,500 of nearly 5,000 employees belong in the TWU which is absolute nonsense. That would mean there are two managers for every employee. Or more likely the company wants to use these people as strikebreakers because it is really easy to transfer from work from BC and Alberta to these people in the East, or even to another country."
The TWU says it represents approximately 15,000 employees at Telus including the new members.
Telus was seeking to appeal the Federal Court of Appeal’s unanimous decision from December 17, 2004, which ruled that Telus Mobility employees from the former Clearnet were included in the TWU’s bargaining unit for Telus. The decision originally came from the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Telus’s appeal means the TWU can continue to move forward with representing its new members, once it has been determined which Telus Mobility employees in the east are in the bargaining unit, continues the union’s release. The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) is overseeing the process
that decides who belongs in the bargaining unit.
"Telus is still bickering about who’s in and who’s out of the union in regard to these new bargaining unit employees," said Bell. "We wish they’d just be honest about it, but Telus is stonewalling every step of the way, just the way they keep stonewalling in our contract negotiations which have dragged on for nearly five years.
“Maybe Telus should look at this Supreme Court decision as a sign that maybe it’s time to stop fighting and try to work with us. It would be better for everyone to avoid a labour dispute. Telus already has huge customer service problems, and a labour dispute will make them much worse. But Telus wants the right to contract out any job it wants, and we can’t just say okay because many of our members will lose their jobs, either to the contractor down the road who earns less and works without benefits or to the call centre overseas. We’re fighting to keep good jobs in Canada and maintain quality of service to our customers," he concluded.
