CWAers Take Action For Call Center Jobs

CWA President Larry Cohen joins participants at CWA’s customer service professionals conference in phone banking for U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill.

CWAers from across the country gathered this week for the 2012 Customer Service Conference in St. Louis — just one of the many events coinciding with Call Center Action Month worldwide.

The conference featured panel discussions about contractual language, offshoring and organizing. The 150 participants talked about the industry's challenges and the political environment.

Speakers included CWA President Larry Cohen, District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings, Piedmont Airlines ramp agent and CWA leader Abdur Bilal and Missouri State Rep. Karla May.

"There are more than 5 million customer service workers in the United States, employing more than 4 percent of the American workforce," said Chief of Staff Ron Collins. "The more CWA can grow and organize this key sector, the better we can reduce workplace stress, negotiate better working conditions for our members and, most importantly, challenge offshoring. Too many companies have shipped jobs overseas to low-wage countries, devastating the domestic call center industry. But bringing these good jobs back home will help jumpstart our economy — building stronger communities, quality jobs and enhanced security for consumers' personal information. That's why we're telling Congress to pass the U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act."

During the conference, attendees participated in three different actions. Some leafleted an AT&T worksite. Others did an action at Wells Fargo, which is expanding its call center operation in the Philippines after laying off hundreds of American workers. And a number of activists, including Cohen and T-Mobile workers, made phone calls in support of Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is running for re-election against Rep. Todd Akin. (Compare McCaskill and Akin's records at www.cwavotes.org.)

CWA, in partnership with UNI Global Union, kicked off October with two new reports, "Why Shipping Call Center Jobs Overseas Hurts Us Back Home" and "Making the Right Call — Redesigning Call Centres from the Bottom Up." CWA has launched a campaign to build public support for the call center bills introduced by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Sen. Robert Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.). Locals across the country have also planned demonstrations, such as pre- and post-shift parking lot rallies and lunchtime workshops on issues of importance to call center workers.

Follow all of the actions and updates at www.callcentreaction.org and twitter.com/uniglobalunion.