[rad-green] Why U.S. and Filipino Call Center Workers Are Working Together

*https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/12/why-us-and-filipino-call-center-workers-are-working-together
<https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/12/why-us-and-filipino-call-center-workers-are-working-together>Common
Dreams          December 12, 2019*





*Why U.S. and Filipino Call Center Workers Are Working TogetherThe only
winners in this global race-to-the-bottom are corporate executives and
wealthy investors.by Brenda Roberts, Sarah Prestoza*

[image: Sarah Prestoza and Brenda Roberts (4th and 5th individuals in the
picture from Left to Right) on a CWA delegation trip to the Philippines.
(Photo: Courtesy of CWA)]

*Sarah Prestoza and Brenda Roberts (4th and 5th individuals in the picture
from Left to Right) on a CWA delegation trip to the Philippines. (Photo:
Courtesy of CWA)*

It’s easy to see what happens to U.S. communities when companies ship jobs
overseas—working families struggle, local businesses close, and local
governments lack the resources to provide key services. The impact on
overseas workers can be just as harmful. Look at an industry that both of
us know well: the global call center industry, known as the Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in corporate jargon.

Corporations have contracted with multinational BPO operators to offshore
hundreds of thousands of call center jobs to countries such as the
Philippines in recent years, where a BPO workforce of 1.3 million
<https://doingbusinessinthephilippines.com/offshoring-outsourcing-it-bpo-industry-in-the-philippines/>largely
serves the U.S. market. There, companies take advantage of weak worker
protections to keep wages low, conditions sub-standard, and to prevent
workers from joining together to fight for change.

To change this model and in recognition that corporations are
transnational, unions and workers’ advocates must embrace a new global
model of organizing and strengthen worker solidarity across borders.

The only winners in this global race-to-the-bottom are corporate executives
and wealthy investors. To change this model and in recognition that
corporations are transnational, unions and workers’ advocates must embrace
a new global model of organizing and strengthen worker solidarity across
borders.

Both of us were proud to build this solidarity through a delegation of U.S.
call center workers from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) who
recently traveled
<https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/american-filipino-att-call-center-workers-meet-in-manila-demonstrate-global-solidarity>to
the Philippines. During the visit, U.S. CWA members from AT&T and Verizon
and Filipino members of the Unified Employees of Alorica (UEA) discussed
common concerns about job security and forced overtime. Alorica, whose
headquarters are in Irvine, CA, employs more than 40,000 Filipinos who
provide outsourced customer service for U.S. companies like AT&T and Citi.
The Filipino workers described a climate of hostility to unions that has
allowed Alorica to fire dozens of union supporters and bring trumped up
criminal charges against Sarah and other union officers, just for holding a
protest outside an Alorica office.

The hostility to workers’ rights in the Philippines extends outside the
workplace as well. The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has
engaged in ongoing retaliation against union organizers, most recently in
the unlawful early November raids and mass-arrests
<https://cwa-union.org/news/cwa-condemns-raid-and-arrest-of-union-organizer-and-cwa-ally-in-philippines>of
nearly 60 progressives and trade unionists in the Bacolod region by
military police. Witnesses to one of the raids report that police planted
two pistols and eight bullets as a pretext to arrest union organizer and
journalist  Anne Krueger. Anne and her husband Mike are longtime activists
for BPO workers’ rights, and they even hosted CWA members visiting the
country during the 2016 Verizon strike.

It’s the latest reminder of ongoing efforts to silence those seeking to
improve the lives and conditions of Filipino workers and a reminder of some
of the real consequences inherent in the corporate outsourcing model.
Multinational corporations operating in the massive BPO industry in the
Philippines and BPO operators such as Alorica should use their voices to
speak out against the climate of fear and retaliation targeting workers
that is on the rise in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, to rein in the harms of offshoring and outsourcing, global trade
policy should empower cross-border collective bargaining
<https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/Mauer%20Dan%20-%20Paper%20Cross-Border%20Collective%20Bargaining%20NDNC.pdf>
to
strengthen workers’ capabilities to negotiate jointly with multinational
employers, while policymakers should pass anti-offshoring
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3219/cosponsors?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22call+center%22%5D%7D&r=2&s=1>
legislation
in the U.S. and a “BPO workers bill of rights” in the Philippines.

But to make real and lasting change, we must fully recognize the shared
interests between working people in the U.S. and offshoring hub countries
such as the Philippines and reject the idea that for some of us to succeed,
others must fail.

From the perspective of Filipino workers, there is a belief in our common
interests and the need to support U.S. workers who are fighting for their
jobs, especially when we work for the same companies. Alorica workers are
standing with AT&T workers, just as U.S. union members have supported the
rights of Filipino workers to form a union and now stand with Anne Krueger,
her families, and others unlawfully arrested for trying to improve workers’
lives. The urgency for our solidarity building is real, as AT&T has
eliminated nearly 3,000 U.S. call center jobs in the past two years, while
relying on vendors like Alorica..

Employees on both sides of the offshoring equation are in the same fight
and have much in common—the same struggles, the same workplace concerns,
and even the same types of stories about memorable customer calls. It’s
time to reject efforts to pit workers against each other and to embrace and
build on our common interests.

*Brenda Roberts is Vice President of Communications Workers of America
District 7 and Chair of CWA’s Customer Service Program*

*Sarah Prestoza is the President of the Unified Employees of Alorica.*

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