This is a topic I've wanted to really explore for a while but always lacked time to properly research. So I've decided to present a relatively unresearched and probably inaccurate opinionated rant instead, hurrah for laziness! Getting back to the main topic of ... The Telus Strike errr lockout. Although it is officially over it would be interesting to see if one can untangle the Gordian knot of events that led up to it (if you want to sound smart just throw in a few Greek references)

The employee discontent was brewing for a long time, most likely starting when Alberta Government Telephone (AGT) was privatized into the TELUS incarnation. As usual with privitazation there were massive layoffs and restructuring, it may have been necessary but certainly layoffs don't ever endear employees to the management. The newest Telus merger saw them joining forces with the privatized BCTel, well the next major event was the Telus merger with the mobile phone company Clearnet... one may recall that Clearnet ads were the one featuring animals (I think it was Geckos... or something) as well as the now recongizable white background - well for Canadians at least. Now Clearnet inspite of its creative and well received advertising was a company that never made any money... really, so of course during the merger Clearnet managers where given promotions to make use of their wonderful talent (is there a sarcastic emoticon?). Now armed with catchy commercials and 'superior' management... err, wait wait, have to back up to the merger with BCTel:

BCTel and Telus each had different unions, BCTel had the Telephone Workers Union (TWU) and Telus was represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Of course one company can't have two unions... otherwise there'd be massive carnage and fighting, think white collar gang turf war. Concluding that organized deathmatches were a bad idea, they turned to the wimp's way out and held a vote to decide on a union - so workers had to choose between TWU and IBEW. Unfortunately the vote was pretty much stacked to begin with as BCTel had the greater number of workers and thus TWU was pretty much guaranteed to win - which they did. Now TWU is pretty much a BC union, consisting mostly of BCTel employees, whereas the IBEW is an international union with a greater resources and experience. It should also be noted that BC itself is a fairly union friendly province, compared to Alberta... so TWU may not have been used to dealing with a harder line against them.

With the TWU in place, the workers needed a new contract... which ended up being negotiated for over four years. Was either side to blame? Who can really say, it basically comes down to a he said, she said type of argument. Personally both sides were responsible for making the whole strike last so long. The Telus management for adopting a hardline against their employees and the union that really screwed up. Telus's original deal before the lockout was rejected by the union, which led to the lockout. Then after months of picketing and increasing hostilities another deal was worked out which was basically the same as the original, but everyone was tired of the whole affair so it was endorsed. However when it was voted on many union members didn't vote or decided to cast protest 'no' votes... probably figured it would pass anyway. As with many optimistic ideas, it turned sour when the proposal was rejected, leaving workers enduring a lockout they didn't want and TWU scrambling. TWU organized another vote and creatively selected people for the mail out votes, ensuring it would pass.

So basically a really big noisy battle to get back to the place they originally started... add to that the Telus strikers who decided to resort to vandalism (those caught were of course fired) as if that somehow made Telus more willing to negotiate - I mean seriously terrorist tactics isn't just flying planes into buildings, using violence and destruction as a negotiation tool is terrorism plain and simple. This whole mess brought a lot of the worst in people, which to me is the real tragedy of the whole thing.