In February, the Council was informed of Bell Aliant’s intention to follow the Bell model of contracting out its buildings management and maintenance to SNC / Lavalin. It was only after the Council sought legal advice and had several discussions with Bell Aliant management, that the company altered its plans regarding the Bell Aliant buildings department. The current unionized BET / BMT members will continue to do their same job function roles but be managed by SNC / Lavalin staff. We have been advised that it is the company’s intention to not backfill any of these unionized employees positions in the event that union members choose to leave this classification.

In April, the Council was informed by Bell Aliant management that it would not be replacing any of the retiring logistics technicians in the St John’s, NL warehouse operation. Once all of these union members retire in 2015, Bell Aliant will be contracting out these materials warehouse positions and operations to a non-union company, Progistix Solutions Inc.

On May 21, 2015, Bell Aliant management informed the Council and the affected union employees, that in the fall of 2015, they would be contracting out part of their assignment centres workload to the India division of a non-union company, Wipro. The contracted out assignment work will impact employees in all four assignment centres located in Mount Pearl, NL, Charlottetown, PEI, Moncton, NB and Kentville, NS. Again, any assignment job position vacancies which occur in either the Mount Pearl or Charlottetown contact centres, will not be backfilled, according to Bell Aliant management.

Although no unionized employees are directly losing their jobs or required to move from their current reporting centres, some work will be centralized as part of this Bell Aliant plan. It is important that both Union leadership and all unionized employees are watchful of the actions of this ongoing Bell reorganization plan.

In our collective agreement, Article 12 – Workplace Change & Employment Security and Article 33 – Transfer & Reassignment, describe the process that Bell is required to follow for any changes to the workload or workplace. All unionized members should make themselves familiar with these two particular articles so that in the event that they are affected by the Bell consolidation plan, they understand the process.

In Solidarity

David Gates,           Bobby Macdonald,

Joyclin Coates,       Susan Rice,

Steve Howlett,        Sandy Brideau