U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle reintroduced the U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act this week to ensure taxpayer dollars do not support companies that offshore customer service jobs. The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), and Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), also gives consumers a voice in deciding where their calls are handled.

If passed, the legislation would provide incentives to locate call centers in the United States and create a list of companies that have shipped customer service jobs overseas, which would make them ineligible for some federal grants and loans. Similar legislation has been passed in state legislatures in recent years in Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, and Nevada.

###

Congress Moves to Save GE-Savant Jobs

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to a defense appropriations bill that could affect dozens of IUE-CWA Local 84704 workers laid off in March at a GE-Savant plant in Bucyrus, Ohio. The amendment, which requires the Department of Defense to buy only LED bulbs made or assembled in the United States, is a victory for workers and their allies after months of mobilizing to bring jobs back from China.

In an article that ran in the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, IUE-CWA Local 84704 President Will Evans said he appreciated the effort by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) to save jobs with the amendment. Ryan is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “We are asking for bipartisan support of this initiative in order to protect and promote U.S. jobs right here in Ohio,” said Evans.

###

Local Journalism Sustainability Act

A bipartisan bill that provides a path to financial stability for struggling local newspapers, digital-only publications, and local television and radio stations through a series of tax credits, has been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate.

“The Local Journalism Sustainability Act would provide a much-needed boost to save local news jobs,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. “Half of America’s journalism jobs have been wiped out in the past decade and the losses have accelerated during the pandemic. The erosion of local news puts our democracy at threat of extinction. We enthusiastically support this plan to save local news.”

Learn more at newsguild.org/newsguild-applauds-local-journalism-sustainability-act.

###

Philippine Human Rights

Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and 10 other senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressing their concerns about the human rights situation in the Philippines and urging the U.S. government to stand with human rights defenders and labor activists. The letter specifically cites attacks on trade unionists and labor organizations. A recently published report illustrated the targeting and violence faced by call center workers who are members of the BIEN workers’ organization in the Philippines.

CWA strongly supports Senator Markey's effort as well as legislation like the Philippines Human Rights Act, which would protect working people by blocking U.S. funding for the Philippines police and military—including equipment and training—until human rights conditions improve.

CWA members prevailed in a pair of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions this month.

At NBC News, Digital Employees who are members of The NewsGuild of New York, TNG-CWA Local 31003, won raises and back pay after the NLRB found that NBCUniversal acted improperly last year when it rolled back increases it had already granted. The Board ordered the company not only to restore wage increases, but also to award workers back pay.

“The [NLRB] decision is a win for Guild-represented workers who will have their wages restored," said Susan DeCarava, President of TNG-CWA Local 31003. “It is also a strong reminder to NBC management that it must bargain with the union over wages and other terms and conditions.”

In another case, management at the Idaho Statesman attempted to make page views and other digital metrics a mandatory part of employee reviews. The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37082, reached a settlement with the McClatchy Company, which owns the newspaper, after the NLRB General Counsel found merit in the union’s charge that the company had violated federal labor law by unilaterally changing the criteria for performance reviews.

The win for the Idaho journalists comes after months of internal protests that McClatchy ignored. In an official announcement, the Idaho NewsGuild said the ruling means that “Idaho Statesman journalists no longer have to fear losing their job for missing an arbitrary quota they had no role in setting. It means they don’t have to cede their news judgement to please Facebook’s and Google’s algorithms.”

TNG-CWA Members at NBC News celebrate their successful effort to win raises and back pay.

On July 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that T-Mobile broke the law in 2015 when management of the Wichita, Kan., call center reprimanded a customer service representative after she sent a message through her work email account inviting coworkers to join the campaign to organize their union, T-Mobile Workers United (TU-CWA Local 6457).

Management responded by sending an email message to all workers at the call center claiming the worker’s email violated company policy because it was not business-related. However, T-Mobile had allowed workers to send non-business email messages in the past. An Administrative Law Judge concluded the company had discriminated against the worker and issued a decision against the company for unfair labor practices. The company appealed the decision to the National Labor Relations Board, setting in motion the filing of the subsequent appeals that culminated with the Circuit Court’s decision in favor of CWA last week.

Workers at T-Mobile have been organizing since 2009 despite T-Mobile’s refusal to recognize their union and the company’s ongoing anti-union campaign of intimidation and discrimination.

Last week, CWA members in Kentucky endorsed Charles Booker for U.S. Senate. Booker is running for the seat currently held by Senator Rand Paul.

“Booker’s opponent, Rand Paul, has consistently voted against organized labor and introduced new legislation that is in direct conflict with the rights of the workers of Kentucky,” said Kindre Batliner, President of IUE-CWA Local 83761. “Paul has done nothing but use union busting methods to maintain the status quo and perpetuate the wage and health disparities that currently exist in our state. He is bad for workers and bad for the state of Kentucky.”

"Charles Booker has walked with CWA during informational pickets and during the AT&T work stoppage in 2019,” said CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt. “He has proven his dedication to CWA and the labor movement in Kentucky. He is always available when his support is needed and never fails to answer our calls. We are proud to endorse Mr. Booker in his Senate campaign."

CWA members from 15 locals across the state of Kentucky held a rally in Louisville last week to endorse Charles Booker for U.S. Senate.