People walk by a Freedom Mobile store in Toronto on Feb. 3, 2017.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
The union representing Freedom Mobile call centre employees in Windsor, Ont. is protesting a decision by parent company Shaw Communications to shut the centre's doors, calling it an "unjustified attack on employees."
The United Steelworkers (USW) union says the telecom giant's relocation of the call centre to Victoria, B.C. will impact 130 employees and their families.
Shaw (TSX:SJR.B) says it is consolidating its Canadian customer care operations into a single location in Victoria, B.C. in the coming months, in the latest step in Freedom Mobile's integration into its overall operations. The centre will close by Mar. 28.
"These decisions are never easy, and we are grateful for the contributions of our Windsor employees," Chethan Lakshman, Shaw's vice president of external affairs, said in an emailed statement.
Lakshman says after Shaw's acquisition of then-WIND Mobile in March 2016, it deliberately deferred integration of the company to pursue its "mobile growth plan." This integration of what is now Freedom Mobile began in Spring 2017, he says.
The closure comes after the USW said in September that Freedom Mobile threatened to lock out its Windsor call centre employees – which joined the union in January 2017 – amid negotiations of a first collective bargaining agreement.
The closure also comes after Ontario's minimum wage increased to $14 per hour from $11.60 on Jan. 1, ahead of a $15 target rate by Jan. 1, 2019.
Shaw did not respond to questions about whether the Ontario wage increase was a factor in its decision.
It said all affected employees will receive a severance package that "exceeds statutory requirements, or, if unionized, in accordance with their collective agreement."
Lee Riggs, national president of the Telecommunications Workers Union and USW National Local 1944, says it's unclear whether the minimum wage hike played a role in the closure. USW says the median hourly pay in the Windsor bargaining unit is $13.68, while noting that Shaw CEO Bradley Shaw's total 2015 compensation was $13.1-million.
"The Essex-Windsor area, this is already an area of the country that's been ravaged by shutdowns by large corporations," Riggs said.
"It will have a very strong, negative impact on the Windsor economy."