Partners: Missouri Jobs with Justice, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment
CWA is building a movement in one of St. Louis’s hottest sectors: the financial services industry.
CWA Locals 6300, 6350 and 6355; Missouri Jobs with Justice; and Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, a nonprofit social justice organization, have banded together to reach out to finance workers in the St. Louis area. The effort is targeting Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Pulaski Bank and Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. Activists from the different groups have leafleted and circulated petitions to support keeping good service sector jobs in the U.S., and to stop the offshoring of call center jobs.
“We plan to be active two days a week. It’s not a one and done situation. Building a movement takes time – consistent effort and consistent determination,” said CWA Local 6300 Vice President Jeff Spraul.
The financial services industry in St. Louis is booming. Employment grew 85 percent between January 2007 and September 2012, according to Moody’s Analytics. In fact, St. Louis beat out Washington, DC, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth and Bridgeport, Conn., as the metropolitan area that
added the most financial sector jobs.
The response from financial workers to the coalition’s outreach was overwhelming. After hearing about the call center bill – legislation that stops companies that ship jobs overseas from receiving taxpayer handouts and gives consumers the right to transfer to a U.S.-based operator – bank workers shared their own stories about St. Louis jobs moving offshore. They signed hundreds of petitions and asked activists to keep them informed about the “Press One for America” bill through email and phone calls.
“We got nothing but positive reactions,” Spraul said.
At Citibank, workers came outside on their breaks specifically to ask questions. Coincidentally, the company had announced that week that it intended on outsourcing 100 call center jobs in the complex.
“We actually had workers coming out and looking for us!” said Spraul.