VANCOUVER – The B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU) is stepping up its support for locked-out members of the Telecommunications Workers’ Union (TWU) by urging its members who are Telus customers to switch internet providers.
“This is a warning to Telus that this lockout is more than just an attack on TWU members. It’s an attack on all working people,” said George Heyman, BCGEU president, in a release. “We are mobilizing our 57,000 members to send a strong message to Telus: get back to the bargaining table and negotiate fairly with your employees or you will risk your customer base.”
The BCGEU is urging any member who currently uses Telus to switch to the unionized Shaw Cable or, if that’s unavailable, any other Internet provider.
“The BCGEU cancelled special calling services like call display soon after the lockout began and encouraged our staff and members to do the same,” Heyman said. “We will be terminating the contracts we have with Telus Mobility as they expire, and are exploring switching all 68 cell phones used by union staff and officers to another cellular provider.
This follows an identical tactic announced by CUPE earlier this week.
“We’re taking the next step of urging our 200 staff and 57,000 members and their families to switch internet providers and have started the process of switching to Shaw at our headquarters in Burnaby and 12 area offices, where available.”
Heyman said he has heard from many BCGEU members who are disgusted over the company’s plan to ship thousands of customer service jobs to places as far away as the Philippines.
“Telus is a greedy, anti-union company that’s reaping huge profits, giving senior managers big raises but refusing to share any of the profit with customers or employees. They’re cutting thousands of jobs without a care in the world about the impact on customer service, or workers and their families. That’s not a company our members and our union want to deal with.”
