Call Center Legislation to Protect American Jobs Gains Momentum

A story in the Philadelphia Inquirer highlights CWA's recent report "Why Shipping Call Center Jobs Overseas Hurts Us Back Home." The CWA report examines how the trend of shipping call center jobs off-shore harms American workers, communities, and consumers, and highlights numerous examples of scams operating out of overseas call centers targeting Americans.

The Inquirer story and the new CWA report also draw attention to the "U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act," bipartisan legislation introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate earlier this month.

Introduced in the House (H.R.1300) by Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) and Rep. Dave McKinley (R-WV) and by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) in the Senate (S.515), with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) as original co-sponsors, the federal call center bill would require that U.S. callers be told the location of the call center to which they are speaking; would offer callers the opportunity to be connected to a U.S.-based center if preferred; and would make U.S. companies who off-shore their call center jobs from the U.S. ineligible for certain federal grants and taxpayer-funded loans.

A Texas version of the national consumer and call center worker protection legislation was filed last week, with the goal of a House hearing in early April.

CWA District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings said that in the past two legislative sessions, CWA activists and legislative-political boot camp leaders have been building awareness among lawmakers of how off-shoring threatens good paying call center jobs in the state.

"Rep. Alonzo, one of CWA's strongest allies in the Texas Legislature, has made HB 3797 a priority, and we will mobilize CWAers and allies across the state to lobby elected officials and get this bill through the legislative process," Cummings said.