For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Privatization of Manitoba Telecom

Finally, the government’s handling of the sale of MTS to Bell seems to have set the pattern for telecommunications mergers of the future, since the Rogers takeover of Shaw appears to have closely followed the Bell MTS script. [...] As a result, the Manitoba government conducted an inquiry into the future of telephone operations in the province.27 Two options to be considered were having the provincial government take “over the present system in the province or build a new one to be owned and operated by the government.”28 This proposal was in line with the views of the Canadian Municipal League, which wished to see the feder. [...] Wellington West’s involvement in the sale of MTS shares led to an investigation by the Manitoba Securities Commission, which concluded some of the firm’s “actions were contrary to the public interest.” The firm was required to pay the Commission $10,000 plus $7,000 in costs.70 Following the defeat of his government in 1999, Gary Filmon would go on to serve on the board of the privatized MTS, where. [...] S.-based craft unions and the CLC’s increasingly nationalist leadership) in 1981, the Communications Workers of Canada (CWC) won the right to represent the operators.94 The following year it won the right to represent the clerical workers and operators.95 Following a series of mergers, the CWC became part of the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) and then part of Unifor in 2013 In 1970. [...] The retirees and the unions were concerned about the fate of the surplus, estimated to be $42-million at the time of the transfer, and employee involve- ment in the management of the pension plan.