“We are stronger together than when we are apart.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA– Three years ago, 30,000 call center workers in the US went on strike to demand a better work contract. During the strike, they sent four unionists to the Philippines, to convince Filipino call center employees not to be used as a tool in breaking the American workers’ strike. They have noted that some of the jobs they do in the US were being directed to call centers in the Philippines.
A result of the strikers’ delegation to Manila: they were shocked to be taken in and “manhandled” by the police who brought them to their station for questioning. The American call center unionists have, since then, started to learn more about the jobs and union situation in the Philippines. In this country where strikes are routinely being demolished with violence and the strikers wounded and jailed in the process, leaders of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) now thought their delegates had been treated with relative leniency in 2016. They were held “only briefly” in the police station.
Another takeaway from their delegation is that they learned about BIEN (BPO industry Employees Network). Based in the Philippines, it is the only network campaigning for union rights and job security of BPO employees. The strike of a CWA union in Verizon ended after 45 days with an improved work contract. They won job security for all members of the union. Amid the trend where the company no longer replaces the retiring unionists, the strikers got them to promise to hire at least 300 more call center workers.
Still, the trend remains, “people who have worked hard for decades are being pushed out,” as Brenda Roberts, union member in the US for 40 years, told Bulatlat.
Fighting to save jobs, benefits
Last week, some union leaders including Roberts from CWA met to discuss with BIEN the communication workers’ plight. They hoped to work out strategies for unionizing and mobilizing the communication workers.
Whether in the US or in the Philippines, they noticed a similar trend: jobs and benefits are continuously being eroded.
Thousands of call center and BPO jobs have left the US since the 90s, when BPOs began “booming” in the Philippines and in other countries such as India. Nowadays the American communication unions have shrunk to three times its size of two decades before. The CWA current membership is around 700,000.
“The culprit is not the workers but the corporations,” said Brenda Roberts of CWA.
In the Philippines, wages and benefits of communication workers including the BPOs and call centers are getting worse rather than improving as the government steadily supports moves to bring the BPOs outside of the National Capital Region. Outside of the NCR, wages are set lower by the National Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board.
The BPO companies in the Philippines have also been harsh to employees forming unions. In Alorica where employees succeeded in forming the first union in a call center here, the management fired the union president despite her long, fruitful job record in Alorica.
CWA held protests in the US in solidarity with the Filipino call center unionists. They wrote President Trump and the management of Alorica to respect the union building in the Philippines.
“Neoliberalism is impacting all workers no matter their race,” observed Nell Gaiser, assistant director of research in CWA.
“Thats why we are in solidarity,” added Brenda Roberts.
“We are stronger together than when we are apart.”
Countering big lies
In the US as in the Philippines, governments have been reducing the costs of doing business, including taxes, at the expense of the workers.
The Duterte government promoted its TRAIN (Tax Reforms for inclusion) saying certain employees (including call center workers) will pay less taxes. In the process, costs of goods and services have increased due to higher taxes imposed on it.
In the US, communication workers decry a similar case. Kendra Williams scored “one big lie” of President Trump and AT&T. Trump apparently got Congress to pass massive tax cuts favoring the corporations. AT&T has saved $4billion each year since December 2017, said Williams. But the telecoms company did not deliver on its promise in exchange for the tax cuts. The promise was there would be 7,000 new jobs per $1billion tax cut. On the contrary, AT&T even cut jobs, said Williams. Now the CWA wants Congress to investigate.
“We’re trying to hold them accountable.”
The union in AT&T is about to bargain with management for a new contract by October this year.
Both CWA and BIEN agree there is “a very hostile political environment” facing workers today. But one way to keep strong, they say, is of course to mobilize and continue forming as well as strengthening unions. Unlike the CWA which has long been an established union in the US, Philippine BPO workers are still struggling to register and utilize unions for seeking improvements in job conditions.
A number of big BPOs including Alorica, Teleperformance, AT&T and others more operating in the Philippines perform jobs that the CWA unions also do. The main reason for the global outsourcing is the cheaper wages in other countries, which the unionists hope to counter.
This is why according to the US-based CWA, they are working in solidarity with their counterparts in the Philippines. As unionists, they say, they don’t look at other unionists or workers as rivals. “We want to maintain the same level of wages and benefits being received in the US with other workers,” said Roberts.
They hope that close coordination with Filipino BPO and call center employees could generate better strategies and actions.
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