
Rogers technicians in Abbotsford go on strike, union calls pay disparity with other colleagues ‘shameful’
ABBOTSFORD — The United Steelworkers union (USW) Local 1944 says 25 technicians working at Rogers in Abbotsford walked off the job as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday morning after negotiations broke down between them and the telecom giant.
In a news release, USW says the technicians have stopped working after negotiations did not deliver what they consider to be a “fair contract that ensures equal pay” and did not bring an end to, in their words, to the employer’s “divide-and-conquer” approach to bargaining.
USW contends that despite rendering services identical to what their Vancouver and Surrey colleagues provide, they are paid nine per cent less, an injustice the union argues is “unjust” and “indefensible.”
“Rogers is sending a clear message: it does not value the people who keep its services running in smaller communities like Abbotsford,” said Michael Phillips, president of USW Local 1944. “Our members do critical work every day to support Rogers customers, yet the company believes these workers deserve less simply because of their postal code. The last time I checked, the service that customers buy in Abbotsford costs the same as in Vancouver, so why are the workers paid less? That’s not just disrespectful, it’s shameful.”