Weekly Update: June 22 - 30

New Telus CEO starts Wednesday

CEOs come and go, some staying longer than others, yet this Union remains after 82 years, because the work that you do is more important to keeping Telus running than any CEO. Thanks for the important work that you’re doing everyday.

Victor Dodig will begin his tenure as Telus CEO this Wednesday July 1st, a very welcome change from my point of view. Troubles have been mounting at Telus, from quality of service, to cashflow, to excessive debt, and so on, and the Local wishes Mr. Dodig well in turning the company around. First and foremost, we will be calling on Mr. Dodig to raise the value that Telus puts upon its Canadian workforce, as so many of Telus’ current issues have become exacerbated since the first massive Voluntary Severance Package waves in 2023 (including customer complaints). If Telus begins to properly value its workforce, a much better relationship between the Union and Company should be possible. The Local will be reaching out to Mr. Dodig shortly, once his tenure has begun, to open up a dialogue along these lines. 

More Telus and ADT by Telus packages

Last week there was yet another offer of 317 Voluntary Severance Packages to Telus members in the Customer Experience – Customer Solutions Delivery Back Office department, which does provisioning and job ticketing for consumer account technicians. As well, 17 Voluntary Severance Packages were offered to ADTbyTelus members in Client Representative and Client Representative Retention roles. Now that Telus is leading Canadian telecoms in customer complaints, it should be clear that job cuts at Telus aren’t ‘trimming fat’ but rather cutting to the bone. These are necessary jobs, and customers experience these cuts in terms of diminished quality of service. We’ll see whether Telus under its new management will reassess the value it puts on service quality (which unionized Canadian labour provides) and also whether they will soon be forced to care by telecom regulators, which Local 1944 is lobbying for.

In Solidarity,

Michael Phillips

President

USW Local 1944