Telecom’s shrinking workforce a sign of its decline

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This article was published 03/02/2021 (1788 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Bell’s acquisition of MTS was finalized almost four years ago now, Dan McKeen, who recently retired from his position as the company’s senior executive, said: “We bought this company to grow it… We did not buy the company to shrink it.”

But the workforce sure has shrunk.

This week, the company has offered a voluntary retirement/termination incentive program to another 50 people.

It’s the eighth time since March of 2017 folks have been encouraged to retire from its three bargaining units — IBEW, TEAM and Unifor.

The so-called VR/TIPs are relatively generous, offering lump-sum payments of between 30 and 40 weeks and sometimes more.

Since Bell took over, those three units combined have about 600 fewer members.

Granted most of the reductions have been through the voluntary retirement process, and job reductions were taking place prior to the acquisition.

But during this era of corporate North America where recruiting talent is one of the most important competitive dynamics it is surprising to learn that not only have veterans been encouraged to retire early, there have been scant few new hires among the rank and file.

There has not been a single new hire at IBEW or Unifor in at least three years. There have been a sporadic few new postings at TEAM, which represents white-collar workers like supervisors, engineers, IT professionals and sales and marketing people.

And again, while early retirement packages can be a godsend for some, the spectre of layoffs is part of the voluntary retirement scenario. (Collective bargaining agreements with all three unions include language that the company’s next step is layoffs if they cannot achieve the required reductions through the VR/TIP.)

As one union official said, “It is not lost on our members that this latest early retirement program comes just a few days after the big Bell Let’s Talk initiative.”

Every company is responsible for managing its workforce for the betterment of the operations, even for the job security of the people still on the job.

The company’s broadcast division, Bell Media, has been undergoing a purge of senior managers and it was reported yesterday that a total of 210 employees, including about 100 unionized workers at Bell’s television operations in Toronto, were being laid off.

While Bell committed to growing the business in Manitoba when it undertook the purchase of MTS, it did not promise to maintain employment at any particular level.

Many of us remember the days when the chance to work at MTS — before and after it was a provincial Crown corporation — held the prospect of lifetime employment.

Regardless of Bell MTS, today’s labour market does not really include the concept of lifelong employment.

But what is particularly tough for Manitoba’s Bell MTS workforce is that in addition to the kind of operational efficiencies and technology adaptation that workers must deal with, it looks like the kind of centralization many feared would happen is slowly but surely taking place.

The same class of workers who are part of the TEAM collective agreement with Bell MTS are not unionized in other jurisdictions where Bell operates in Canada.

Erin Spencer, the executive director of TEAM IFPTE Local 161 which represents about 660 Bell MTS workers (down from about 900 in March, 2017 when the Bell deal was finalized), said, “It is confusing for our members. It’s a tough situation all around when we are seeing jobs being lost here in Manitoba but yet we see job opportunities that look very similar to what is being lost here being posted in other parts of the country outside Manitoba.”

Joe Breland, the IBEW business representative, said, “What is kind of damning to us is they (Bell) are going the contractor route more or shipping the jobs out of province or out of country.”

Manitoba’s vaunted diversified economy loses some of its punch if some of those vertical sectors are just stuck in place, with no prospects of employment for graduates from the skilled trades or otherwise.

Breland said, “Every year it’s reducing our current workforce, our current contingent of IBEW people and shipping the jobs elsewhere. It is not a good outlook.”

Maybe more than others, Bell MTS has to deal with changing technology and consumer trends. Various elements of its business are under pressure and it has to manage through that.

And even if young people may not be able to look to Bell MTS as a dream job, current employees do have the benefit of much more generous early retirement options than many of the rest of us.

But the new reality is Bell MTS’s workforce keeps getting smaller and the company is declining in its status as an institutional employer.

Clearly the days when Ma Bell was a safe place to seek lifetime employment has been disconnected.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca