BURNABY – While Telus says that more than half of its unionized employees are crossing the picket lines, the Telecommunications Workers Union says that’s not so.
"It appears that Telus is trying to damage our morale with these statements, but their ploy isn’t working," said TWU president Bruce Bell in a release.
"Since the beginning of this dispute, I’ve been saying that we have the support of 86% of our members. That’s the percentage that voted ‘yes’ when we conducted our strike vote last year. Now we can offer a precise estimate of the number of members who are supporting us," he continued.
"We just paid out our first installment of picket line pay for people who have spent the required amount of time on the line. In that period, 78% of TWU members in Alberta and British Columbia drew picket pay,” he continued.
“That figure shows a tremendous amount of internal support. What makes the figure even more dramatic is that it doesn’t include our supporters who are not on the picket line because they are off on disability or vacation, or those who have taken the union’s advice and sought alternate employment for the duration of the dispute,
"In some respects, the solidarity is too good," Bell said. "We don’t need that many picketers. It looks like we should put more emphasis on asking those members who can do it to line up other jobs.”
