You have to be a bit older than most to remember the days when Bell stock was the mainstay of widows and orphans. It was reliable. It was like working for Bell. People used to say with pride that they worked for Bell. It was always an honourable job and a job for life.
Not any more. Times have changed. Prime Minister Harper’s friends at Bell discard employees like used tissues. Stephen Harper and the executives at Bell Canada seemed to be joined at the hip. They even throw people out of work simultaneously. The other day it was reported that while Bell was dismissing hundreds of employees from its Mississauga call centre, Stephen Harper’s henchmen were firing hundreds of security people from Pearson Airport which also happens to be in Mississauga. We should send an appropriate condolence card to Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion.
Mind you, there is no such need to send such a condolence card to Stephen Harper or Bell chief George Cope. Nobody they know would be working at such a low pay type of job. They do not know nor do they care about the hardships those people face in today’s job market. People at that pay level are the last hired and the first fired and they go through life with one discouragement after the other.
It was just a few people who know how to read the political tea leaves who were deeply worried when broadcasters (specifically CTV) and the cable and satellite distribution companies got into a fight over what was believed to be an argument for the distributors to pay for the local broadcast content they were distributing. It became clear later that the argument was a smokescreen for the satellite distributor Bell to take over CTV and cable/satellite distributor Shaw to take over Global. The only piece that is missing in English Canada is for Bell to take over Rogers. Just be patient.
Nobody paid much attention to the new arrangement until recently Bell and its new friend Rogers bought the Teacher’s share of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE). There is nothing that Bell cannot buy today if the company executives just put their minds to it. And gather around sports fans, you can now get all your instant sports information on your Bell or Rogers telephones and ipads.
It is all about control. While the deal with MLSE Chairman Larry Tanenbaum might seem odd—they gave him a gift of stock worth about $80 million—they are certainly not treating him like an employee. For $80 million it is a little easier to understand if you consider it as an encouragement to break off negotiations with other broadcasters. It is hard to turn down $80 million. The people George Cope and Stephen Harper fired could really live high off the hog if they had a share of that kind of money.
Someone asked the other day, where this acquisition spree of Bell is going to end? It’s a good question. We suggested that we will have to wait to hear whom Mr. Harper chooses as the new CRTC chair before we can guess where it is heading. Bell is supposed to be regulated by the CRTC.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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