Offshoring Security

CWA has released a report entitled "Offshoring Security – How Overseas Call Centers Threaten U.S. Jobs, Consumer Privacy and Data Security."

The document outlines how U.S. corporations – many of whom receive millions in taxpayer subsidies – hurt the economy here at home and put consumer personal information at risk by sending call center jobs overseas in the name of lowering labor and other business costs.

The report specifically calls out the "too big to fail" banks that received taxpayer bailouts during the recent financial crises who have summarily sent tens of thousands of call center jobs overseas. The worst offenders include Capitol One, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup.

The report also cites the example of T-Mobile US, which closed seven U.S. call centers last year, putting 3,300 employees out of work and moving operations to Honduras and the Philippines, all after accepting $61 million in state and local subsidies. Even though CWA won Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits for those workers after documenting their work had, in fact, been offshored, the company to this day denies the fact.

"What really ticks me off is that, instead of helping us get these benefits to re-start our lives, T-Mobile told the world they were not offshoring jobs. They told members of Congress and they told investors that the job losses resulted only from lower call volumes," said Jamone Ross, who worked at a T-Mobile call center in Frisco, Texas, that closed in June, 2012. "The Call Center and Worker Protection Act will require companies to be more honest."

Read CWA's report here.