The Future is Hostile?

Telus on Wednesday applied for a BC Supreme Court injunction to try and block the Voices for Change website from posting pictures of their employees crossing picket lines. Meanwhile, an Alberta court issued an interim injunction that prevents the posting of any pictures on Internet websites with the intent to harass or intimidate Telus employees crossing the picket lines.

While I personally can't comment on what I see going on at my current assignment at 'a major telecommunications company in western canada', I've posted comments that others have made in letters to the editor of the local paper, blogs or forums on the internet.

I can comment that both sides are preparing for the long haul, and we'll see plenty of mudslinging going both ways. I predict a hostile future for this standoff.

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If there has been no change in service levels with all these people walking the picket lines, then perhaps there is excess labour employed.
- Alden Gushnowski, Edmonton

Please stop whining about job security. I work in an industry that employs tens of thousands of people who protect life, property, and most importantly, the peace. We risk exposure to blood and disease, weapons, criminals, assaults and life-threatening events every day. Do we have a union? No! Will we ever? Most likely not, but I've been doing what I do for seven years without a complaint. Why? Because I love it!
- Adam Storms, Edmonton

It's time to reform union rights and policies in this country. We don't need unions anymore. Giving employees rights is one thing; letting them join a regime that has no accountability for its actions and is a mixture of 50-per-cent actual work and 50-per-cent playing gimme gimme is a plague on our economy.
- Chris Steffensen, Edmonton

The TWU didn't ask any of the people they photographed coming into work if it could post their photos on its website. Therefore the site should be closed down. I know several Telus employees who are still working and who have seen their photos on this site with rude comments.
- Valerie Comer, Edmonton

I am not a Telus customer but I can assure you if my provider ever prevented me from accessing any part of the Internet they'd be hearing from old Publius. I'm paying for access to the Internet, not portions thereof, as decided upon by the ISP. If I wanted a filtering service I'd ask for one. Also, which executive has such a tin ear for PR? Unions certainly engage in such bully-boy tactics, indeed they excel at them, but sinking to their level simply makes both parties look at best petty at worst desperate.
- godscopybook blog

If we can't get this settled and get back to the bargaining table in the next few weeks here then it's going to go a while.
- Bruce Bell president of the Telecommunications Workers Union

In July 2005, Telus blocked access to a Voices for Change and Telus Scabs websites run by the Telecommunications Workers Union. This restriction, with possible workarounds, applies to all customers accessing the website from Telus-controlled network. The purpose of these sites is to intimidate and harass employees.
- Updated Telus page on wikipedia.org

Protracted labour disputes serve no one's interest, least of all the business community. After more than four years of negotiation and interventions from third-party mediators, the union and Telus must face reality and return to the bargaining table to have a straightforward discussion about the issues and challenges facing them in the current market environment.
-Terrence Hopwood, Calgary - chair of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce

After more than 20 years as a Telus customer, I have changed my residential telephone and Internet services to Shaw. I cannot continue any business relationship with a corporation like Telus that treats its employees with such contempt and disrespect.
- Debbie Pohl, Edmonton

Given the vast amounts of unprotected telephone equipment criss-crossing this province, it is not surprising that there are hundreds of incidents of theft and vandalism every year. Until the dispute, Telus has never found these events worthy of a press conference. But I guess timing is everything. Telus was forced to admit that it was indeed copper thieves who had inconvenienced hundreds of Burnaby residents. Telus and the media owe the TWU and its members an apology.
- Pauline Mott, White Rock

On Tuesday, I needed to run an errand at the Telus building downtown at lunch time, and was surprised to see so few TCW members outside picketing. There were more Telus security guards to keep them in line! Is Telus restricting the number of pickets around their building and plaza?
- Judy Ruppell Edmonton

LET ME get this straight: with Telus Internet, I can access child porn, support the Ku Klux Klan, illegally download music and learn how to build a bomb, but I'm blocked from seeing a website where Telus workers talk about their concerns? Thanks, but I'll take my business to an Internet company that won't tell me what I can and can't read.
- G. DeBlasio

I concur with your editorial conclusion that "organized labour needs to examine its role in the face of ... inexorable trends" ("Labour's pains run much deeper," July 26). I dispute much of what goes before your conclusion, however. It is understandable that a layperson might make mistakes, but it is inexcusable for a reputable newspaper to promote those same errors.
- Ernie Gorrie, Cowichan Bay

It's not about money. The union has tried to negotiate with the company, unsuccessfully, for the past five years. Unable to reach an agreement, two weeks ago TELUS told employees that an agreement would be imposed. Not one word, not one punctuation quotation mark was bargained with our union - They just wrote their own book.
- Lance Trevis, speaking for picketing Telus employees

I depend upon Telus for my safety and entertainment, not to censure their employees. That is wrong and shows very bad management. Their decision to remove a legitimate web page is ridiculous and serves nobody but the few individuals that took it upon themselves to make a bad situation worse.
- Robert Saint Amour Deep Bay, B.C

For all the attacks on unions, the fact is that the labour movement continues to survive and meanwhile has done more for the betterment of society than any other group. Thanks to unions lobbying governments in the past, we have a social safety net in Canada today. Thanks to union efforts today fighting government cuts, our children will likely have a social safety net in the future.
- Justin Schmid, Victoria

Telus feels that it is justified in photographing and videotaping employees on the picket line for use in case there are any incidents of violence, yet it does not believe that those same employees should be able to take pictures of people crossing the picket line as replacement workers. The law says that pictures taken in a public place can be done so without the consent of the individual, and all picketing must take place in a public place, not on private property. Why, then, is Telus able to get away with this action?
- Steve Colby, Tsawwassen, B.C.

So in other words, If you call Telus’ customer care lines, then you’re contributing to this massive union conspiracy, this “voice denial-of-service attack.” It also appears that if you happen to be a union member with a website, you automatically qualify as being a member of some radical elite Labor Commando force whose sole job is to say very, very bad things about the phone company.
- scaredpoet's blog

I think the people should actively participate in forcing Telus, and any other corporation that treats its employees badly, to deal with these pending issues.
- Fayaz Rajabali, Edmonton

I'll add to this later but for the moment, I'm out working emergency proceedure shifts...
Monday-Sat, 10:00 am- 11:00 at night I'll be unavailable.... sorry peeps.... I'll try to post something on Sundays...
- Telus Employee blog

Some recent research from equity analysts at Merrill Lynch forecast that MTS is likely to lose fewer residential telephone customers, per capita, than Telus will in Alberta where Shaw already launched its digital phone service, at least partially because MTS is already battling Shaw on the television front.
- Martin Cash, Business Section of Winnipeg Free Press