Montréal, March 30, 2009 – Videotron management is pleased to announce that its employees have approved, by a 95% yes vote, an agreement in principle between the employer and CUPE (FTQ) union representatives.
The five-year agreement renews the labour contracts of unionized employees in Montréal (including Sherbrooke) and Québec City until December 31, 2013, in Saguenay-Lac St-Jean until January 31, 2014, and in Gatineau until August 31, 2015.
Today's announcement covers all of Videotron's unionized employees across Québec, including those working at the Client Contact Centres in Ville de Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Gatineau, Québec City and Montréal, and the centre slated to open this summer in Joliette.
We are pleased to have reached an agreement to renew our collective agreements with our employees, said Robert Dépatie, President and Chief Executive Officer of Videotron. This settlement will help us continue our growth and carry out our business plan going forward. Increased operational flexibility will enable us to implement some major projects, such as building out our wireless network and modernizing our existing network, and to deliver the best possible customer experience. Renewal of our collective agreements is therefore a positive development for both the Company and its 2,822 employees. I am very proud of our people's work, and I want to stress that union representatives have shown a very open attitude in our joint endeavour.
Early renewal of our collective agreements with many of our employees shows it is possible to change work organization through negotiations based on mutual respect, to the satisfaction of both employees and management, said Pierre Karl Péladeau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Quebecor. I am very satisfied with this joint step forward, which will make it possible for Quebecor Media to press ahead with projects that entail major investments and job creation for Québec.
Videotron Ltd. (www.videotron.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, Internet access services, cable telephony and wireless telephone service. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its illico interactive television system and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services. As of December 31, 2008, Videotron was serving 1,715,616 cable television customers in Québec, including 927,322 illico Digital TV subscribers. Videotron is the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,063,847 subscribers to its cable modem service, as of December 31, 2008. On that date, Videotron had activated 63,402 lines on its wireless telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to 851,987 Québec households and organizations.
