The largest private sector union in the country, Unifor, considers foreign call centers like Bell’s to be a veritable “cancer” for the economy.
“We lost a lot of jobs. It’s a cancer for all the people who lost their jobs, who were relocated there, ”said Journal Olivier Carrière, assistant to the Quebec director of Unifor.
In the past 15 years, more than 1,400 well-paid jobs with good conditions and pension plans have been lost to Bell’s residential customer service, he said.
“When we see that a customer service employee gets away with an annual salary between $ 40,000 and $ 45,000, with benefits and pension plans, and that in the Philippines or India, the same worker earn between $ 3,000 and $ 6,000 a year, you can’t beat that, “he said.
In mid-March, Bell call centers in the Philippines, India and Tunisia had to close due to the pandemic, which forced the telecom company to turn to … workers ‘here in fourth gear.
“Bell had to go out of its way to transfer the calls here. We helped them. It proves that with offshoring, we are behind other countries, and that we are at risk, ”underlined Mr. Carrière.
Rogers repatriates
Yesterday, the union saluted Rogers, who promised Tuesday to repatriate 150 customer service positions from abroad to the country. Unifor also indicated that Videotron did not know of any overseas customer service.
For his part, the professor of labor relations at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Jean-Claude Bernatchez stressed that nothing forces companies to have a place of production near the place of consumption.
“We could intervene on the fiscal level. If you do work outside, you will have to explain why. If you continue, we will tax you accordingly, ”he proposed.
Bell did not respond to our interview request yesterday.
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