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Late last Friday, the union's Divisional Executive gave the green light to consult members about the timing and staging of protected and prolonged industrial action.



CEPU National President Ed Husic said that despite the best efforts of the CEPU, CPSU and APESMA to genuinely reach a collective agreement with Telstra, the company has consistently rejected requests to negotiate.



“Even though Telstra workers want to negotiate a collective union agreement, Telstra wants to squeeze everything it can out of John Howard’s unpopular WorkChoices laws.



“Telstra management believes they can ignore the outcome of the last election, a string of failed ballots for non-union agreements and public opinion polling telling Telstra that they should talk to unions about a new agreement.



"Our members have been patient and wanted to bargain in good faith - but they have mortgages and rising living costs to deal with.



"They want a union agreement with a decent payrise tied to it - and they have told us they're prepared to take industrial action to secure this," Mr Husic said.



Member and delegate briefings have been held in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.

Future meetings will be held in the coming weeks to kick off the planning for industrial action in SA and WA.