It's Time to Move Protecting Call Center Jobs Off the Back Burner

CWA-backed legislation that puts pressure on corporations to stop sending call center jobs overseas continues to gain momentum. The Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio published an editorial calling for lawmakers to support CWA-backed legislation at the state and federal level to protect call center jobs, saying, "The time is right to move these worthy initiatives off the legislative back burner and into the home stretch toward bipartisan passage."

Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown is a cosponsor of the United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act, which would make U.S. companies that offshore their call center jobs ineligible for certain taxpayer funded grants and loans. The bill would give U.S. consumers a right to know where they are calling and to be transferred to a U.S.-based location, and create a public list of companies that offshore call center jobs.

Ohio lawmakers are working on a similar state bill. State Senator Joe Schiavoni, along with State Reps. John Boccieri and Michele Lepore-Hagan have introduced legislation that would deny state aid or grants to call centers that export their jobs out of Ohio.

This legislation is especially important in light of the recently passed Republican corporate tax cut bill which gives companies even more incentives to send jobs overseas.