Canada’s largest unions form alliance to protect telecom jobs

Three of Canada’s largest unions are joining forces to create a new organization — the Canadian Telecommunications Workers Alliance — that will advocate against the outsourcing of jobs in Canada’s telecom sector. On Wednesday, leaders from Unifor, the United Steelworkers (USW), and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) will hold a press conference on Parliament Hill to launch the alliance and outline a campaign to, among other things, “protect Canadians’ privacy and sovereignty.” “Canadian telecommunications corporations are increasingly using overseas call centres or labour,” reads the coalition’s website. “The sector receives public financial support, but our jobs are leaving the country.” “Our tax dollars shouldn’t subsidize job cuts here at home.” The alliance is calling on the federal government to ban the industry’s use of offshoring, prioritize data sovereignty, and work to “strengthen” the telecommunications sector. Collectively, the three unions represent 1.35 million Canadian workers, including tens of thousands of people in the telecoms industry. More specifically, Unifor represents approximately 24,000 telco workers, mostly consisting of BCE Inc. and Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. (SaskTel) employees, while CUPE counts more than 5,000 members in the telecoms space, spread across companies such as Rogers Communications Inc., Cogeco Inc., and Telus Corp. Meanwhile, the USW absorbed the Telecommunications Workers Union (and its approximately 12,000 Canadian workers) following a vote of the membership in 2014. The union still represents 3,800 telecom workers from Rogers, Telus, Ericsson AB, and other companies. In a statement, Michael Phillips, president of USW Local 1944, told The Wire Report that the new alliance will “constitute a common front of all three Unions for joint lobbying efforts and joint public outreach.” Interim NDP Leader Don Davies is also slated to speak at the event. An NDP source, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak about the press conference, said New Democrats have had growing concerns about a loss of jobs in the Canadian telecoms sector. “This is a story of an important industry that delivers a vital part of our infrastructure needs in the country,” said the source. “But it’s being offshored and there’s jobs moving out of the country.” “So, we’ll be talking about the need to build out our domestic industry, specifically talking about the ‘made in Canada’ approach.” The offshoring of telecoms jobs entered the national spotlight last year, when the Swedish firm Ericsson laid off more than 100 Canadian workers in November, prompting allegations of union busting from the local USW outfit, and drawing criticism from the federal Conservatives and NDP. Despite the pushback, the company moved the positions, most of which belonged to network operations technicians, to India. Bell, Telus, Rogers, and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron have all faced similar accusations of offshoring jobs to cut costs. With files from Paul Park dlegree@thewirereport.ca

Canada’s largest unions form alliance to protect telecom jobs

Telecom |
By Davis Legree
|February 10, 2026

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Canada’s largest unions form alliance to protect telecom jobs

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