Recent TEAM focus group – thank you to the seven TEAM members who shared their knowledge and perspective at the November 20th focus group. The discussion was lead by TEAM’s Labour Relations Officer, Gordon Lillie, with support from me, Katherine Johnson, TEAM’s Executive Director, and Dave Eyjolfson, TEAM’s President. The group talked about the alignment, or lack of alignment, between unionized (TEAM) jobs and equivalent non-unionized jobs at Bell. The four take-aways were 1) the nature of the work performed by unionized (TEAM) Bell employees is the same as the work performed by non-unionized Bell employees, 2) job titles and classifications may differ, however, differences in labels and categories are often superficial, and mask that the work is the same work, 3) the jobs performed by unionized (TEAM) employees are often broader in scope than equivalent work performed by non-unionized employees; i.e. the non-unionized jobs tend to be more specialized and have more clerical support, and 4) Bell needs to do a much better job of aligning its unionized (TEAM) jobs with its equivalent non-unionized jobs; this starts with proper job descriptions and transparency of Bell’s organizational structure.
Why alignment matters – the lack of alignment between unionized (TEAM) jobs and equivalent non-unionized jobs is a barrier to TEAM members advancing their careers within Bell. (From front-line leaders and supervisors, we’ve heard that Bell does not offer future opportunities to TEAM members and does not allow TEAM members to supervise non-unionized employees).
Remote working makes it possible for Manitoba-based TEAM members to perform work that impacts across Canada; and, likewise, for other Bell employees to perform work that impacts in Manitoba. With Bell playing games with job titles and descriptions, TEAM members are too often left out of serious consideration for those jobs that can be performed from anywhere, including from Manitoba. And with Bell systematically reducing its workforce, including unionized (TEAM) jobs, and contracting out more of its work, the pool of available jobs is shrinking.
Bell bought MTS in 2017 – it is long overdue for Bell to fully align and integrate TEAM union jobs into the entire Bell telecommunications workforce.
Your information and opinions are needed – a second focus group will dig deeper into the alignment of TEAM jobs with Bell jobs (classifications, descriptions, compensation) and is scheduled for Wednesday, December 4th from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm at the TEAM office boardroom, 200 – 1 Wesley Avenue, Winnipeg. Pizza lunch is served for those attending in person; remote participation is also an option. We need to hear from you! Help your Union help you. Please get in touch if you’d like to participate on December 4th. team@teamunion.mb.ca 204-984-9470