United Steelworkers reach an impasse with Rogers in Metro Vancouver

The United Steelworkers union (USW) has reached an impasse in negotiations with Rogers Communications, formerly Shaw Communications, and has formally requested conciliation from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).

Approximately 300 members of the USW Local 1944, Unit 60, have been in negotiations since February and the workers continue to work under the terms of their previous collective agreement that expired on March 23.

“It’s disappointing that negotiations have reached an impasse with Rogers while our members continue to experience attacks on their jobs that will have a significant impact on their futures and their families,” said Scott Lunny, USW Director for Western Canada and the Territories.

“During the Rogers-Shaw merger, Rogers sold the government and the Canadian public on being a good Canadian employer by bringing call centre jobs back to Canada. Now, at the bargaining table, Rogers is sharing its intentions to rely heavily on contractors and reducing its in-house technician workforce of good-paying union jobs. They’ve also signalled a desire for further reductions through voluntary departure packages. Rogers is heading down a very dangerous path and our members are not going to stop fighting for better job security and contracting-out language that will serve them now and into the future,” added Lunny.

FMCS has 15 days from July 21, the date of the USW request for conciliation, to commence conciliation and appoint a conciliator. If the parties are unable to reach a deal within 60 days of conciliation, they will enter a 21-day cooling-off period, after which a 72-hour strike or lockout notice may be given.

“We’ve been down this path with Rogers in the past before they sold their operations to Shaw in 2000. Make no mistake, Rogers is a Toronto-based employer that doesn’t understand the West Coast and they will have to prove to our members and British Columbians they are invested in building strong communities here,” said Jayson Little, USW Staff Representative.

“Rogers is focused on profits, rather than its people and the communities they serve. Rogers needs to be building and strengthening its workforce in the West and it can do that by renewing a respectable collective agreement that its workers can depend on, instead of attacking them. The public will not forget that Rogers was run out of town before, and now that it is back in town, it really should be a community partner – not an enemy,” added Little.

The union plans to seek a strike mandate from its members in September to back up their demands to reach a collective agreement.

“Our members are fighting to defend their work with clear and unambiguous contract language to avoid convenient reinterpretations by the company that threaten to erode good jobs. That’s why we’re seeking a strike mandate from our members – to draw a very clear line between what a contractor can and cannot do, to protect good-paying jobs in our communities,” said Little.

The USW represents 225,000 members in nearly every economic sector across Canada and is the largest private-sector union in North America, with 850,000 members in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.

Each year, thousands of workers choose to join the USW because of our strong track record in creating healthier, safer and more respectful workplaces and negotiating better working conditions and fairer compensation – including good wages, benefits and pensions.

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