Calling on Call Centres

There's an interesting article posted on the Our Times website, entitled: Calling on Call Centres.

This article is about a union organizing drive, certification, and first agreement bargaining at a large (very anti-union) call centre in B.C. It's a first hand view of the process that was conducted under the extremely anti-union labour laws that were brought into B.C. by the Campbell government.

Without question, Saskatchewan's labour laws will be WORSE for workers than those in B.C. if Bill's 5 and 6 pass in the Saskatchewan Legislature this spring.

Some politicians and political parties think that workers' rights are disposable and that they get in the way of their business buddies. That is why they constantly attack workers.

The following excerpt from the article illustrates the kind of corporate behaviour we can expect if the Sask. Party's new labour laws are inacted. Why would any worker want to move to a place where this kind of corporate behaviour is prevalent and accepted (in fact encouraged) by the government?

"In response to the BCGEU's organizing efforts, RMH began an anti-union campaign that included projecting continuous slide shows with offensive anti-union messages onto different screens set up around the facility and providing gifts containing anti-union messages to workers. The company also installed video surveillance cameras to monitor employee contact with union organizers.

Complaints were filed with the B.C. Labour Relations Board that RMH was intimidating and coercing workers and initially the LRB ruled that there was no violation of B.C. labour law. The decision was appealed and finally, after many months, a reconsideration panel ruled that the law had in fact been broken. The panel found that the offensive company slide shows amounted to "forced listening" and "were so prominent, persistent and impossible to miss" that the behaviour constituted "coercive or intimidating" communication by the company with its employees. The panel also ruled that the company's so-called gifts to employees were so "improperly intrusive and persistent" that they too violated the labour code."

Given the changes planned by the Sask. Party government, it won't be long and Saskatchewan will have the WORST labour laws in Canada.