| As the Telus labour dispute drags on, the picket lines are buzzing with talk about a video that shows high-ranking Telus managers making lewd sexual comments to female employees at a private company function in January of 2003.
The video, which was taken during a sales conference in Montreal and is now circulating on picket lines and the Internet, shows several Telus employees singing pop songs on a stage in front of a neon "TELUS Idol" sign. Afterwards, company managers critique the performances with comments laced with sexual innuendo.
After one woman performs Shania Twain’s "Up!," one of the managers says he liked the performer’s "cowgirl position." Another jokes about having an erection.
"I’m up. I’m up big time," says the manager. "You know that thing called the CN Tower? It’s right here in my pants. Up, up, up. Holy shit. If I buy stock, would that be insider trading? I mean, speaking of inside, do those pants come off?"
As another woman performs a Telus-friendly version of Avril Lavigne’s "Sk8r Boi," the video shows Telus executives dancing on the stage. Afterwards, a judge says, "If you have a cellphone out there, and you’re a man with a penis, you have to vote for this woman."
There are jokes about breast implants and "alternative sexual orientation." One manager speaks obnoxiously with a mocking Québécois accent. The managers also joke about inviting the women to their hotel rooms.
The Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) is livid about the managers’ behaviour.
"It appears that there is a deep-seated culture at Telus, supported or condoned by the CEO, in which it’s OK to discriminate and demean different sectors of the population," says TWU vice-president Hope Cumming.
Telus VP of corporate affairs Drew McArthur says the offending managers have been "dealt with appropriately," but he wouldn’t say who they were or how they were disciplined. He says the video "is not relevant in today’s situation" and is part of TWU efforts to "malign Telus at any chance they get."
"Look, this is a labour situation," says McArthur. "(The video is) totally out of context. It’s two years old. It was a private company function. This was not a public display."
McArthur says that after Telus Idol, the company developed a respectful workplace policy that protects employees from sexual harassment and other forms of abuse. He accuses union members of breaking that policy on the picket lines with "harassment, intimidation and threatening actions — and I can tell you that very little of that went on in the Telus Idol."
McArthur, who told Fast Forward he’s never seen the Telus Idol video, says that instead of passing around copies of the video, union members should "internalize the message of a respectful workplace and take appropriate action like Telus did in this instance."
His digs against the TWU infuriate union members who say the company’s attempt to deflect criticism about the video by talking about the pickets is outrageous. The union is demanding a public apology.
"Not in your wildest dreams does (Telus Idol) ever equate with what goes on at the picket lines," says Cumming.
Many employees say the video is evidence of a chauvinist culture in the higher ranks of the company.
"It’s the tip of the iceberg," says Jeff Morris, a Telus employee and TWU organizer from Burnaby, B.C. "It continues on today. And in the arbitrary contract placed before us, there is no protection for employees that are subjected to that – zero."
The TWU says the company broke a confidentiality agreement by speaking to the media about the video when they had agreed not to. Cumming says that after a human rights complaint was filed with the TWU regarding the managers’ behaviour, the union and Telus negotiated "at very high levels" to deal with the issue and came up with an agreement that satisfied both sides. She says that because McArthur commented on the video, the union will no longer keep silent.
Telus isn’t commenting on the alleged confidentiality breach.
The Telus Idol video is increasingly hard to find, as it’s recently been yanked from several web sites. On one site where the file was available until early August, there is now a message saying "the item is not available due to issues with the item's content." Other sites that recently hosted the file now come up with error messages. |
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