New report chronicles job loss impacts of privatization of MTS, acquisition by Bell
WINNIPEG, TREATY ONE , June 20, 2023 /CNW/ - A new report published today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) documents the economic impacts of the Manitoba Telecom Service (MTS) privatization and subsequent acquisition by Bell.
For Whom the Bell Tolls: the Privatization of Manitoba Telecom Services and its Impacts, authored by Doug Smith, chronicles how MTS was once an engine of the Manitoba economy, delivering affordable rates across the province and offering good jobs to generations of Manitobans. Since privatization and subsequent purchase by Bell, there has been significant job loss, poor rural and northern phone service, and high rates.
A crown corporation for 90 years, MTS was privatized in 1997. When the Filmon government privatized MTS, it promised the company's headquarters would remain in Manitoba and that Manitobans constitute a majority of the company's board of directors. Manitobans were told that the privatization was being managed in a way that would deliver a "Manitoba preference." However, by 1998, one year after privatization, Manitobans owned less than 20 percent of MTS stock, 1,350 employees had been laid off, and phone rates had risen 37 percent. The privatization of MTS set the stage for its acquisition by telecom giant Bell.
Manitobans, like all Canadians, continue to pay some of the highest prices in the industrial world for telecommunications services as service declines. Economically, Manitoba has been a loser: jobs have been shipped out of the province to non-unionized subcontractors or even out of the country. Bell has also switched from local firms for various services, such as insurance, benefits, and legal services, to its preferred and usually Central Canadian suppliers. Last week, Bell media announced 1,300 job cuts.
One province over in Saskatchewan, a small provincially owned Crown corporation has been able to do all the things that the privatizers said MTS could not do.
When MTS was purchased by Bell in 2016, they promised to make Winnipeg the Western Canadian Headquarters. Not only has this promise not been realized but the workforce is shrinking in Manitoba. From 2015 to today, well over 800 positions have been eliminated.
"We are struggling to maintain good jobs in this province and worried about the lack of opportunities and prospects for the next generation of workers. Bell needs to revisit their promise to make Winnipeg the western headquarters," stated TEAM Local 161 President Dave Eyjolfson, whose union represents more than 560 Bell MTS professionals.
"Governments need to place more requirements on telecommunication companies to invest locally," said report author Doug Smith. "In the absence of this, nationalization of the sector in the face of its growing monopolization is a logical policy alternative."
For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Privatization of Manitoba Telecom Services and its Impacts by Doug Smith is available at www.policyalternatives.ca/manitoba. The report was funded by TEAM Local 161. CCPA MB retains final editorial oversight.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba is a charitable, independent research institute.
Doug Smith is a Winnipeg writer, researcher and author of numerous books and reports.
TEAM is Local 161 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE). TEAM represents over 560 working Manitobans employed by Bell MTS across a variety of fields of work, including IT, Network Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Business Administration and Finance.
SOURCE TEAM, IFPTE Local 160
Media contact: Molly McCracken, [email protected], 204-803-0047
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