August 19, 2015 by Sam Snyders

To The Iron Men of our union – Thank you!

Dear Lee & Sam,

Thank you very much for the immense help and support that you gave me, your efforts to assist me in resolving my issue and most importantly, getting me back my job.

Words alone cannot express the amount of gratitude I feel for you gentlemen.

The support the union provides us as employees is invaluable so please know that if there is a time when you gentlemen need help, I would be more than happy to voluntarily assist.

Best Regards,

Waseem Salem

Bell Technical Solutions

August 15, 2015 by Sam Snyders

Unifor Bites Back!

When an employee was wrongfully dismissed, it took the combined pressure of NDP MP Andrew Cash, Unifor Local 1996-O President Sam Snyders and some tough questions from a Toronto Star reporter to correct the injustice.

As an applicant to the Canadian Immigration & Citizenship Visa Extension Process, the Bell Technical Solutions worker had provided all required documentation and was awaiting review. While this process can take over a 100 days, a worker can continue to legally work with what is known as an implied status of eligibility, during that time.

Yet the company, BTS, terminated the worker alleging that he didn’t meet requirements to legally work in Canada, which was patently false. Although the union provided numerous routes to confirm the worker’s legal status with the Citizen and Immigration Canada, the company stated it was “not their job” to call and confirm but instead required written documentation – documentation that the CIC does not currently provide to mail-in applicants.

“When a worker follows the rules at every step of the way it is wrong and completely unfair that a government department would be unwilling to send a simple email confirming the facts,” – NDP Member of Parliament, Andrew Cash.

The Toronto Star began looking into the case after speaking with the worker, Unifor and Andrew Cash. BTS then changed their tune and promised to re-instate the worker with full back pay for the time he was unfairly dismissed.

The disappointing fact remains…it required action from Unifor, the media and a Member of Parliament to convince a national employer like Bell Canada to reverse their decision to unfairly dismiss a worker.

“For this worker justice prevailed, I worry for others who don’t have the strength of a union to help them,” – Unifor Local 1996-O President, Sam Snyders.

August 15, 2015 by Sam Snyders

“3 signs BTS workers have a lot of work coming down the pipe”

The CRTC says “Big Telco’s” Must Open Fiber-optic Networks to Upstarts

The CRTC released a decision last Wednesday that forces large Canadian telco’s to open access to their fibre-optic networks to competitors. Keep in mind that big telco’s are already required to do this with their copper-based networks. By following the same guidelines with fibre-optic networks, the CRTC believes it will level the playing field and foster competition.

Competitors will also no longer be forced to use an “aggregated” model of service. In other words, they will be able to tap into a single point of access of which there may be only one per province. As a result, smaller Internet service providers (ISPs) will actually pay more to have data shuffled back and forth based on distance.

A stipulation to the ruling is that competitors must agree to a “disaggregated” model of service, wherein they are required to plug-in much closer to the final consumer at a regional point of access. The smaller companies would then have to arrange transport of data from that regional interface to their own offices, either by installing their own fibre-optic cable, or by leasing it from an existing company. This is designed to discourage smaller competitors from acting as mere resellers of existing bandwidth. Instead, they in theory would add to the available bandwidth. But it also should reduce the cost that competitors have to pay.

For the BTS worker

The evidence demonstrates that we are moving to a wireline world in which there is one pipe to the consumer. We are rapidly evolving to a world where everything is delivered to the consumer over one pipe or one wireless connection – broadcasting and telecom services co-inhabiting networks, both wired and wireless. The demand for this network or infrastructure will be a driving force demanding skilled workers now and in the future.

Internet bandwidth is evolving; from being dominated by primarily alphanumeric text-based services to one increasingly dominated by audio and visual programming. Canadian consumers spend more time online than any other nation. We are the most intensive consumers of online video in the world.

Globally, consumer Internet video traffic will be 80% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2019, up from 64% in 2014. The sum of all forms of video (TV, video on demand [VOD], Internet, and peer-to-peer [P2P]) will be in the range of 80-90% of global consumer traffic by 2019; and Internet video to TV will continue to grow at a rapid pace, increasing fourfold by 2019. Internet video to TV traffic will be 17% of consumer Internet video traffic by 2019.

It’s not surprising, then, that BCE Inc. recently highlighted plans to direct $1.4 billion towards fibre-optic builds in the city of Toronto; a first step in a $20 billion plan to upgrade its broadband fibre and wireless networks across Canada by the end of 2020.

This is a race to the consumer that will provide BTS technicians with a great deal of work both now and in the future! It will be BTS that Bell relies on to service and provide customers with what they need and want. It is all of YOU who will make this happen!!!!

In Solidarity,

Sam Snyders
President, Local 1996-O

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/big-internet-providers-must-open-fibre-networks-to-competitors-crtc/article25633317/

July 8, 2015 by Sam Snyders

serious health and safety hazard!

Recently I came across a serious health and safety hazard – defective ladder stops. The hazard was identified at our 416 Workplace Health and Safety Committee on Monday, July 6th. The company was advised that this was a serious issue and needed to be addressed immediately. Upon further inspection, 80 more examples of ladders were identified as defective between two work centres.

Please check for the following problem on your ladder before leaving for your work day:

The tab or retrofit on the ladders that secure the foot pad from swiveling all the way around the ladder. This tab once bent or pushed beyond the slide rails compromises the integrity of the foot stop. Please take the time to inspect your ladder thoroughly and ensure that the ladder tab stop has not been compromised. If you find a defect, immediately notify your Health and Safety Rep AND your manager. Do not be complacent and use your ladder.

Safety is your priority!

Sam Snyders
President, Local 1996-O
https://twitter.com/SammySnyders