Outsourcing and off-shoring of work from companies like Telstra is opposed by many in the community because they understand that it usually leads to poorer working conditions and means fewer Australian jobs.

What is not so well understood is the role outsourcing and off-shoring play in weakening unions in their fight for decent conditions.

Take the role that it has played in the current Telstra EA campaign, for instance. Not only have union numbers been reduced because of the thousands of jobs that have been sent out of the company but the newly created contractors and sub-contractors are available as an alternative workforce when Telstra workers are on strike.

In the case of Indian company WIPRO, to which Telstra has off-shored certain NGO functions, its employees in Australia for training were on hand to perform the work of CEPU NGO members when they were on strike.

Of course, cost-cutting is also a major reason for off-shoring to countries like India and the Philippines. A look at the minimum hourly rates in these countries shows why.

It must be pointed out that many companies in these countries don’t comply with the minimum legal rate and pay even less without much fear of prosecution.

What is it that stops Telstra management paying these rates in Australia?

The union, the law and the fact that the union can and will, enforce the law and continue to fight for decent wages and conditions. In those third world countries above, unionism is weak and corruption is widespread.

CEPU members are currently taking the fight up to Telstra for a decent wage increase. But to get around union wages and union conditions they will do almost anything if they are allowed to as their off-shoring and outsourcing demonstrates.

France Telecom CEO, Didier Lombard, has at last resigned after months of pressure arising from the company’s spate of suicides last year.

Thirty four France Telecom employees have killed themselves since January 2008, many leaving messages explicitly blaming work pressures.

Since being privatised, France Telecom has been subjected to a wide-ranging restructure involving changes to job duties, forced relocations for workers and intensification of performance requirements.

Employees accused management of introducing the measures as much to force resignations as to improve company performance.

Under existing conditions of employment, France Telecom employees cannot be made involuntarily redundant.

Last year public anger at the suicides forced the resignation of France Telecom's number two, Louis-Pierre Wenes, today stepped down. Nicknamed the "cost-killer", Wenes was the mastermind behind the restructuring and modernisation drive which aimed to cut costs by €1.7b (AUS$2.7 b) by the end of 2011.

Now Didier Lombard has been replaced as well. France Telecom’s new CEO will be Stephane Ricard.  Lombard will stay on as Chairman.

Verizon, the second largest telecoms company in the US, has announced that it will cut 13,000 jobs from its fixed line business during 2010.

The cuts come on top of the company’s slashing  another 13,000 wirelines jobs and 17,000 jobs from its wireless business in 2009.

Behind the cuts lie ongoing problems in the Verizon wireline business, problems that reflect both the current economic downturn and longer-term industry trends.

Verizon as a whole remains a profitable organisation, reporting profits of US$10.4b over the last year. However, the company reported a net loss of US$653m for the last quarter of 2009 and wireline revenues fell 3.9 % during the same period.

Of particular concern was the slower than expected take-up of Verizon’s Fibre to the Premises product, FiOS which offers triple play services (voice, internet, TV) over a 100 Mb/s GPON network such as is to be built here by NBN Co.

Verizon added 153,000 subscribers to its FiOS TV and Internet services, a number some 83% below market forecasts. Penetration rates for the FiOS

Meanwhile Verizon Wireless, which the company co-owns with U.K.-based Vodafone Group Plc, added 2.2 million new customers, 1.2 million of them retail, beating its own goal.

Verizon’s FiOS problems reflect in large part the depressed state of the US economy with its high ongoing rates of unemployment  (officially 10% but in fact much higher). But they also are in line with industry trends worldwide, including in Australia.

As the latest Telstra results show, wireless services are continuing to grow rapidly, with the figures showing that people are willing to pay a premium for mobility even in hard economic times. This trend will continue to poses a major challenge to the wireline business, especially as telcos undertake costly new fibre deployment.

Improved economic conditions meant there was no reason why low-paid workers should be disadvantaged compared to those with greater bargaining power, he said. Lawrence said a "modest predictable increase" in minimum wages would not fuel inflation and support low-paid workers purchasing power in the economy.

An increase in the minimum wage is important for workers who do not have wages set by an enterprise agreement. For many CEPU members working in licensed or franchised post offices and in smaller telecommunications companies pay increases are achieved through the minimum wage review. Fair Work Australia's minimum wage panel will conduct the review between March and June.