As the long weekend traffic rolled off the ferry in Langdale, around 25 people were at the top of the hill to greet them with a message.
On Feb. 17, from 4:30 p.m. past 5:30, a group of people carried signs in support of Telus employees. Their messages included “Just practicing,” “Fair contract NOW," and “Telus hands off our pension!” A banner stretched across the concrete barrier facing the oncoming traffic read: “Keep telecom jobs Canadian."
Terry Joyce is a Telus employee and the Sunshine Coast chair for the United Steelworkers Local 1944, which represents Telus union employees across the country. He came down from Powell River for Friday evening’s rally, and told Coast Reporter that collective agreement negotiations between the union and Telus has “reached an impasse” after bargaining for 15 months. The previous agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2021.
Local 1944 says the Telus employees have not been given raises in more than two years, and calls Telus’s most recent offer “subpar.” Outstanding items the union takes issue with include wages, capping one of the pension plans and rolling back benefits. Joyce said employees have seen a 0 per cent wage increase for five of the last seven years.
Telus declined Coast Reporter’s request for an interview or comment.
“When you look at average wage increases across the industry, we are falling further and further behind,” Joyce said. “We think that these are good times for Telus. Telus made record profits due to the pandemic. These people here have been working every day through the last two, three years through the pandemic, and we deserve more than below average.”
Instead, Joyce said the union is primarily asking for wage increases that keep pace with inflation, and to protect the pension plan. The number of unionized Telus employees has been shrinking in Canada, as the company is hiring more offshore work, Joyce said. Those jobs could be done in Canada, especially with the ability to work from home, he adds.
When Telus presented an offer to the membership, it was rejected in a nearly two-to-one vote, Local 1944 announced publicly on Feb. 1. A federally appointed conciliator will meet with the two groups, but Joyce said Telus refuses to come back to the bargaining table.
United Steelworkers Local 1944 represents approximately 6,800 Telus workers across Canada. There are 32 unionized full-time Telus employees on the Sunshine Coast, including in Powell River, Joyce said. They include mostly field service technicians.
Alongside active and retired Sunshine Coast Telus employees at the practice strike were members of other local unions including hospital and postal workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees BC. Miyuki Shinkai, the president of the Sunshine Coast Labour Council, told Coast Reporter they were happy to support job actions like this, and to stand in solidarity with service workers raising families on the Coast.
The rally on the Sunshine Coast is not the first to take place during the negotiations. In Burnaby, a much larger crowd of Telus employees gathered outside the Telus Mobility building on Jan. 15. They were picket-training for “potential escalating job action,” a press release from United Steelworkers said.
As for people passing the rally in Langdale, Joyce said, “We want them to see that we're having difficulties getting fair wages, and we're having difficulties keeping good paying jobs in Canada and on the Sunshine Coast.”
To Telus, he says, “Come back to the bargaining table… Our members have rejected your offer, so obviously something isn’t right. We need to fix it together.”
