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CWA Leads NJ to Look at 'Right-to-Know' Bill
CWA is strongly backing legislation expected to be introduced this month in the New Jersey State Assembly that would give people the right to know where - as in which countries - people are answering the phone at service centers for businesses and government agencies.
By making companies come clean with their customers, the Consumer's Right-to-Know bill aims to protect both jobs and the privacy of Americans' financial, medical and other personal data.
Scores of businesses, from telecom companies to banks to car rental firms, as well as various state agencies, are contracting call center jobs to India and other countries where wages are a fraction of what they'd have to pay in the United States.
Corporations, aware that consumers want local service and a sense of security about their private information, are giving the call-takers American names and teaching them to chat about baseball and American TV shows.
New Jersey will join Hawaii as the only two states to date to introduce legislation to require call-takers to tell customers where they are based and the name of their employer, along with other information. CWA has taken a lead in raising the issue across the country, and North Carolina, Arizona and Missouri lawmakers are now showing interest.
A small but important victory was won recently in New Jersey when the private company in charge of benefit cards for the state's welfare and food stamp recipients agreed to move its call center back from India, to Camden.
"When people who receive welfare and food stamps would call up with questions about their benefit cards, they might have been talking to 'Mary' or 'Bill' or 'Jan,"' said Don Rice, CWA's legislative-political coordinator in New Jersey. "They didn't know they were talking to someone in India."
Not only do American workers lose jobs when companies outsource, Rice said foreign companies gain access to Social Security numbers and endless amounts of personal data about callers.
In addition to the right-to-know bill, legislation is pending in New Jersey that would require workers employed by state contracts, such as the benefits office, to be U.S. citizens or legal aliens.
Having the benefits call center in Camden will cost $410,000 a month, about $74,000 more than running it in India. But the New Jersey Star-Ledger said in an editorial that it's well worth it.
"The benefits to Camden outweigh the costs. Bringing the work back to the Garden State provides a dozen new entry-level jobs for the residents the phone line serves, the very people who need them most as they strive for self-sufficiency," said the Star-Ledger.
By making companies come clean with their customers, the Consumer's Right-to-Know bill aims to protect both jobs and the privacy of Americans' financial, medical and other personal data.
Scores of businesses, from telecom companies to banks to car rental firms, as well as various state agencies, are contracting call center jobs to India and other countries where wages are a fraction of what they'd have to pay in the United States.
Corporations, aware that consumers want local service and a sense of security about their private information, are giving the call-takers American names and teaching them to chat about baseball and American TV shows.
New Jersey will join Hawaii as the only two states to date to introduce legislation to require call-takers to tell customers where they are based and the name of their employer, along with other information. CWA has taken a lead in raising the issue across the country, and North Carolina, Arizona and Missouri lawmakers are now showing interest.
A small but important victory was won recently in New Jersey when the private company in charge of benefit cards for the state's welfare and food stamp recipients agreed to move its call center back from India, to Camden.
"When people who receive welfare and food stamps would call up with questions about their benefit cards, they might have been talking to 'Mary' or 'Bill' or 'Jan,"' said Don Rice, CWA's legislative-political coordinator in New Jersey. "They didn't know they were talking to someone in India."
Not only do American workers lose jobs when companies outsource, Rice said foreign companies gain access to Social Security numbers and endless amounts of personal data about callers.
In addition to the right-to-know bill, legislation is pending in New Jersey that would require workers employed by state contracts, such as the benefits office, to be U.S. citizens or legal aliens.
Having the benefits call center in Camden will cost $410,000 a month, about $74,000 more than running it in India. But the New Jersey Star-Ledger said in an editorial that it's well worth it.
"The benefits to Camden outweigh the costs. Bringing the work back to the Garden State provides a dozen new entry-level jobs for the residents the phone line serves, the very people who need them most as they strive for self-sufficiency," said the Star-Ledger.