Telus Corp. (TSX:T) and the Telecommunication Workers Union (TWU) began negotiating a new contract Monday.
Neither side was commenting publicly on what they are seeking, but representatives from both sides said they want to avoid a replay of the heated and protracted labour dispute that occurred five years ago.
It took Telus and the union, which represents about 13,000 Telus employees in Canada, five years to agree on their last labour contract. That contract was settled in November 2005, following a nasty and drawn-out PR battle, an employee lockout and, later, a four-month strike by the union. The current agreement ends November 2010.
A Telus spokesman said that given the competitiveness of the telecom industry right now, Telus has an obvious interest in seeing a smooth bargaining process. Both parties have opened up lines of communication in recent years.
Telus and the TWU also met twice in recent months for preventive mediation talks that were led by the federal government’s Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
In those meetings, the two sides laid out ground rules and procedures for the bargaining process and took part in joint training related to communications and impasse avoidance.
“We’ve made some pretty positive changes in my view,” said TWU president George Doubt regarding the union’s relationship with Telus.
See this week’s print edition of BIV for more on the labour sitation between Telus and the TWU.