Telus got a clear signal from its workers Wednesday afternoon outside Barrie City Hall.
Three weeks after the company announced it was closing its Ontario contact centre, which has a Barrie address and affects about 150 employees, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1944 held a noisy rally in downtown Barrie.
“This company is treating you like you don’t matter,” local president Michael Phillips told a crowd of about 25 people by megaphone. “You matter. We’re not going quietly at all.”
Telus informed its Ontario-based call centre employees they must relocate to Montreal by October, apply for another role with the company or agree to be laid off.
The move affects about 70 Telus workers who live in Barrie and about 80 in the Greater Toronto Area, Phillips said.
One is Jocelyn Smith, who has worked for Telus in Barrie for nine and a half years, nine of them remotely.
“I’m disgusted. I feel undermined,” she said. “It’s a company I loved working for, that I would never have a bad word to say about. I’ve always trusted them, I’ve always felt that they’ve been an amazing employer.
“So it just feels like they’ve ripped the sheets out from under us. They no longer care about us. It’s disappointing, really," Smith added.
“We’re vehemently opposed to this arbitrary move by Telus that tears at the fabric of the community,” said Cory Mandryk, Local 1944 trustee.
Smith said she really doesn’t have any choice but to take a layoff.
“My family roots are here; my kids, my husband’s business is in Barrie,” she said. “I can’t move to Montreal, so I will have to take the (layoff) package and hope to re-enter the job market, have a second career. I don’t really have any other options.
“We’ve grown up here (Barrie), our whole lives are here, everything we do is based in our community … to have it uproot our lives, it’s just not an option," Smith added.
The Barrie closure is part of a reorganization announced internally by Telus on July 10, which requires approximately 1,000 call centre employees across the country — who have been working remotely since the COVID-19 pandemic began — to return to the office three days a week.
But Telus says the customer service agents won't have a local office in Ontario to return to because it is closing the Barrie location, which housed its Ontario contact centre, following a review of the company’s real estate.
In a July 11 statement, Telus spokeswoman Brandi Merker said the company has experienced decreased call volumes.
Merker has said those who accept relocation will receive financial support, while the voluntary separation package being offered exceeds the requirements of the Canada Labour Code.
Phillips has said the financial package includes 18 months of wages, plus possible bonuses based on seniority.
Phillips said he met with Barrie-Innisfil MP John Brassard, Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Doug Shipley, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall and Barrie Couns. Clare Reipma and Nigussie Nigussie on Wednesday as well.
“Even when we’re talking to municipal politicians, where it’s not really their jurisdiction to regulate (telecommunications), we’re looking for their moral support and for them to be a public voice for us,” he said.
USW Local 1944, which represents the workers, says it was informed that affected employees would have the option of working in Montreal, calling it a “backdoor termination” by Telus in an attempt to reduce the company's head count.
Phillips has said that since 2020 almost all employees have been working full-time from home. Now they need to report in, at the office, for the first time since 2020, three days a week, instead of working full-time from home. But the exception is Ontario, where there is no office to return to.
It’s mainly full-time employees affected in the Ontario office and Phillips said they are earning in the high 20s or low 30s in dollars per hour.
They had done client care and cancellations for Telus customers, but not on the business end, just on the consumer end. He said the office address was 155 Reid St.
Vancouver-based Telus announced last August it was cutting 6,000 jobs in order to adapt to a "rapidly transforming industry," saying issues such as regulation and competition had prompted the need to reduce its payroll.
— With files by The Canadian Press
