CWA Members are Working Hard to Protect Call Center Jobs

CWAers across the country are making progress on passing legislation to protect call center jobs from offshoring! Here are this week's updates on CWA members' hard work to pass state legislation: 

• A call center bill, HB94, has been introduced in the Alabama House State Government Committee. The House is in a special session for the next two weeks, so CWA members are working to make calls and collect signed postcards in support of the bill.
   
• A Georgia bill, SB231, was introduced in the Senate late last week. The first fight is in the Economic Development Committee. Georgia CWA members are making calls and getting postcards signed.
   
• Florida legislators have introduced bills in both the House (HB1149) and Senate (SB1474). The bills will be assigned to committees next week.
   
• The Arizona bill has bipartisan support in the House, but it's currently stalled in the Commerce and Rule & Regulatory Committees, both chaired by conservative Republicans. Call center workers are making calls and writing postcards, as well as canvassing retirees to make calls in support of the bill. So far they have collected more than 200 postcards!

Above: Members of Texas State Employees Union-CWA Local 6186 and CWA Local 6222 held a day of action last week where they made 149 calls encouraging legislators to pass CWA-backed legislation to protect Texas call center jobs, recently introduced in the Texas House's Business Industry Committee.

Below: Following AT&T's recent announcement that it is closing three long-standing call centers in Connecticut, the Connecticut General Assembly held a hearing today on a bill, SB990, which would protect these positions at big employers. Members of CWA Local 1298 rallied in the State Capitol and testified at the hearing about the devastation that AT&T's job cuts will create for working families and why a legislative fix is crucial.