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 telecommunications industry has undergone tremendous changes in respect of increasing competition, technology, regulation and customer requirements. The TWU has not made a single proposal that represents a significant departure from the BC TEL collective agreement, which contains provisions and contract language that is decades old.”
Telus says it wants to achieve a replacement collective agreement that “provides it with the flexibility to compete on an even playing field with its competitors. Telus proposes to do that with an offer that would provide its unionized employees with job security and make them the best paid telecommunications professionals in Canada.”
TWU leadership must take some accountability for contributing to a resolution, rather than holding on to outdated views of the state of the telecommunications industry. Telus is urging the TWU to put Telus’ offer and subsequent addendum to a vote.
The union, on the other hand, has been issuing edicts and press releases of its own of late, in addition to its counter-offer.
“The TWU proposal did not in any meaningful fashion directly address the Telus offer and addendum but instead maintained as its base the expired BC TEL / TWU agreement with minor amendments,” adds the release.
For example, added the release:
* The TWU’s proposal includes a contract expiry date of December 31, 2006. Telus’ employees have been without a contract for four and a half years; the TWU’s proposed contract would expire 18 months from now.
* The TWU has proposed that "variable" performance pay should be guaranteed. The TWU’s variable pay proposal would establish a guaranteed 3% regardless of corporate results and performance. When combined with other incremental increases, the TWU proposal is financially and competitively irresponsible to our customers and shareholders.
* The BC TEL / TWU collective agreement contains the most restrictive contracting out language in North America. The TWU proposal seeks to extend regressive and inflexible contracting out terms in a manner that hurts the core competitiveness of the company, while prohibiting Telus’ ability to procure from the market basic services such as vehicle maintenance, janitorial services and coin counting.
* The TWU’s proposal relating to vacations and holiday time off represent a significant widening of a gap relative to the flexibility Telus seeks, and would pay team members for, to allow it to serve its customers better. It also does not include any acceptance of scheduled mandatory overtime. These measures fundamentally restrict the flexibility required to serve customers in today’s competitive marketplace.
