The union claims around 400 Calgary-based call centre jobs have been moved to Telus Digital agents in El Salvador over the past year.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
One of Canada’s largest private-sector unions is accusing WestJet of moving hundreds of Calgary-based call centre jobs to El Salvador, as part of a larger business plan to increase offshoring in partnership with Telus Digital.
Unifor, which represents thousands of WestJet employees in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto, claims that approximately 400 Calgary-based call centre jobs have been moved to Telus Digital agents in El Salvador since the tech company partnered with WestJet in October, 2024, on an outsourcing project.
“These positions were once filled by Canadian workers. Telus Digital continues hiring and training new classes of agents in El Salvador, while internal WestJet teams see their hours cut and positions frozen,” said the union in a statement issued Thursday afternoon.
In a statement, WestJet acknowledged it uses a “trusted third-party partner” to “maintain operational resiliency and reduce wait times during peak travel periods.” The airline said there is no impact to contact centre employees.
Telus Digital did not respond to requests for comment
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There are roughly 800 Calgary-based WestJet employees that work as call centre agents, handling customer service queries that are mostly about reservations, using rewards points and changing or cancelling flights.
But there used to be hundreds more workers, said Lynsey Keon, a sales and service agent for WestJet in Calgary.
“Last October, they told us that they would temporarily partner with Telus Digital to augment staffing during the busy travel season. We knew that there were now agents in El Salvador. But we then noticed they stopped hiring here – and this is a job with a high turnover rate,” Ms. Keon told The Globe and Mail. She has worked for WestJet since 2022.
In September, according to the union’s statement, WestJet offered “voluntary separation offers” to call centre staff. During townhalls, company leaders confirmed that outsourcing to El Salvador was part of a contract with Telus Digital. Approximately 200 chat support jobs – real humans handling live customer service chats – were previously performed out of India, but have since been relocated to El Salvador, according to the union.
“The newly transferred work could have been based in Calgary to support local employment and strengthen Alberta’s economy,” the union said. The union’s claim of 400 jobs being shifted to El Salvador is based on vacated positions in Calgary not being refilled, rather than layoffs.
The average wage of a call centre worker in Calgary is $18 an hour, while workers in El Salvador get paid US$600 a month, according to the union.
The majority of WestJet’s call centre operations are run out of Calgary. Call centre employees are allowed to work fully remotely, as long as they are within 100 kilometres of the airline’s head office.
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Since the start of this year, Unifor has been organizing a union drive among the 800 WestJet contact centre workers in Calgary, in an attempt to unionize the group. Support for the union among workers has grown in recent months because of a fear of losing jobs to outsourcing, according to Ms. Keon.
But Unifor is still a few steps away from unionizing the group. WestJet employees are federally regulated. In order to form a union, they will need more than 50 per cent of employees to sign union certification cards in favour of joining the union. If they get a majority, they can apply for certification with the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
Unifor has had significant success unionizing WestJet employees in recent years. Between 2021 and 2023, approximately 1,800 WestJet airport staff voted to unionize in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. They are represented by Unifor local 531, the same local that is now running a drive to unionize the Calgary call centre employees.
Unifor is linking WestJet’s drive to outsource jobs to El Salvador to a potential initial public offering that has been floated by the airline’s majority owner, Onex Corporation ONEX-T. The private equity group, which took WestJet private in 2019, has publicly said that it is considering an IPO in the next two years.
“These workers are being squeezed by outsourcing, pressure to cut hours or move to part-time and constant monitoring programs that are being used to discipline and shrink the work force while Onex lines up its IPO,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s Western regional director.
Some airlines, such as Air Canada, use artificial intelligence technology to assist customers with calls, a development that could substantially shrink the head count of live call centre agents. According to Unifor, WestJet does not use AI in customer service roles presently.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the unionization process required for WestJet employees.