Lana Payne on journalism layoffs (updated)

From Unifor:

On February 8, Bell Canada Enterprises announced the shameful termination of 4,800 jobs, including 800 Unifor members in telecommunications and media.

Deep cuts in telco will result in job loss for 700 members, from clerical, to sales, to the boots on the ground, with hundreds more affected by modifications in their hours of work.

News programming at CTV and CTV2 has been slashed, eliminating 100 media members at newsrooms across the country.

Many of our Bell members are left unsure if they will have a job in the future as the company refuses to be upfront with its plans.

If BCE wants a fight it has found one. Unifor is calling Bell out on their actions.

This is the largest mass layoff by the company in 30 years and delivered at a time when the company is on sound financial footing, reported a whopping $2.3 billion profit at the end of last year. Bell has continued to raise dividends year-over-year during the past decade and buy back shares, helping to feather the nests of shareholders and executives.

We will not be silent as telco jobs are watered down, contracted out or eliminated while those who remain are expected to take what is given to them.  We will not be silent as journalism and our very democracy is threatened, a message that Unifor brought to the National Forum on Media hearings before the Standing Committee.

Unifor is mobilizing to fight back in the leadup to Bell executives being summoned to testify in Ottawa.

Together our members will stand against Bell’s callous disrespect of workers and demand this Canadian legacy company live up to be the good corporate citizen that it purports to be.  Additional information will be shared in the coming days and weeks.

In Solidarity,