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CWA Steward Joins Forces with Young Unionists Worldwide
CWA's struggles are global struggles, Local 1298 Steward Kathryn Montalbano learned when she met with 250 young union activists in Berlin for the first World Youth Conference of Union Network International.
Montalbano spent two days in October representing CWA at the conference, sharing her own experience as a service representative at SBC's customer call center in New London, Conn., and picking up a global view of the outsourcing and offshoring challenge faced by union members around the world.
"Outsourcing is a problem faced by union members throughout most of Europe," Montalbano said.
On the other hand, she said, "in some parts of India and the Asia-Pacific area, outsourcing is generating much-needed jobs, but they are not typically union jobs and they don't come with benefits."
One union member from the Philippines told her, "if you get a call center job here, it's very difficult, because they try to make you sound and act like an American, the hours are difficult and it's only for six months. After that, they let you go."
Montalbano, 30, gave a report on protection against outsourcing and secret electronic monitoring of service reps that CWA has won from her company through collective bargaining.
SBC, in the last round of bargaining, agreed to stop offshoring customer service work and to bring all tech support jobs outsourced to other countries back to the United States by 2007. CWA earlier won improvements in working conditions, such as an agreement to reduce stress by letting customer service representatives who maintain certain productivity levels know ahead of time of days when they will be subject to electronic monitoring, Montalbano said.
The conference, made up entirely of unionists under age 35, passed a resolution to create youth networks within UNI sectors, to disseminate information on unemployment rates and trade union membership around the world, to make union achievements known and to encourage affiliates to be proactive instead of just talking about globalization.
"Young people are much more globally aware," said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, who is president of the UNI Telecom Sector. "They are in many ways much more international than their parents' generation. CWA and the labor movement needs to tap into that spirit and consciousness to build worker solidarity between countries and develop more global responses to the attacks on workers rights."
The delegates also resolved to organize within their own unions and in society to help stamp out HIV/AIDS and child labor.
For her part, Montalbano is ready to talk to young members at home about the global nature of the outsourcing problem and wants to work on the issue with other UNI delegates from throughout the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
"There is so much that as Americans we can become sheltered from, and it's important to strengthen our numbers by coming together and really becoming aware of some of the global problems," Montalbano said.
Part of her own education at the conference came from riding around the city on a tour bus packed with young people from around the world and getting to know something of their cultures.
"It was amazing that the hotel I was staying in and the headquarters of Ver.di, Germany's largest union, 14 years ago would have been separated by the Berlin Wall," she said.
Montalbano spent two days in October representing CWA at the conference, sharing her own experience as a service representative at SBC's customer call center in New London, Conn., and picking up a global view of the outsourcing and offshoring challenge faced by union members around the world.
"Outsourcing is a problem faced by union members throughout most of Europe," Montalbano said.
On the other hand, she said, "in some parts of India and the Asia-Pacific area, outsourcing is generating much-needed jobs, but they are not typically union jobs and they don't come with benefits."
One union member from the Philippines told her, "if you get a call center job here, it's very difficult, because they try to make you sound and act like an American, the hours are difficult and it's only for six months. After that, they let you go."
Montalbano, 30, gave a report on protection against outsourcing and secret electronic monitoring of service reps that CWA has won from her company through collective bargaining.
SBC, in the last round of bargaining, agreed to stop offshoring customer service work and to bring all tech support jobs outsourced to other countries back to the United States by 2007. CWA earlier won improvements in working conditions, such as an agreement to reduce stress by letting customer service representatives who maintain certain productivity levels know ahead of time of days when they will be subject to electronic monitoring, Montalbano said.
The conference, made up entirely of unionists under age 35, passed a resolution to create youth networks within UNI sectors, to disseminate information on unemployment rates and trade union membership around the world, to make union achievements known and to encourage affiliates to be proactive instead of just talking about globalization.
"Young people are much more globally aware," said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen, who is president of the UNI Telecom Sector. "They are in many ways much more international than their parents' generation. CWA and the labor movement needs to tap into that spirit and consciousness to build worker solidarity between countries and develop more global responses to the attacks on workers rights."
The delegates also resolved to organize within their own unions and in society to help stamp out HIV/AIDS and child labor.
For her part, Montalbano is ready to talk to young members at home about the global nature of the outsourcing problem and wants to work on the issue with other UNI delegates from throughout the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
"There is so much that as Americans we can become sheltered from, and it's important to strengthen our numbers by coming together and really becoming aware of some of the global problems," Montalbano said.
Part of her own education at the conference came from riding around the city on a tour bus packed with young people from around the world and getting to know something of their cultures.
"It was amazing that the hotel I was staying in and the headquarters of Ver.di, Germany's largest union, 14 years ago would have been separated by the Berlin Wall," she said.