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Hundreds of call center and finance unionists from across the world hoped to ring the changes in their sectors as the Global Call Center Conference got underway in Orlando, Florida.

Florida Congressman Alan Grayson and fired T-Mobile worker Joshua Coleman are among the special guests this week at the Double Tree Hotel. UNI Deputy General Secretary Christy Hoffman and CWA President Larry Cohen opened proceedings.

President Larry Cohen said, "For all call centre workers, from finance or telecoms and from global north or global south, work is precarious. The difference between precarious and scary is not great. Whether it’s outsourced to another nation or outsourced across the street, every call center worker in every sector faces this precarious work. Scary work.

“It used to be that to raise profit you would grow your business, but in this country at Harvard Business School they learn that they don’t have to do this. Cut their pay, cut their pay - that’s what they really learn at Harvard Business School. There has not been a real wage increase for forty years.

“The work may be precarious, but we in this room are not scared. How do we stand up and fight together? How do we say to multinationals – you will not pit us against each other. We raise our standards together.”

Christy Hoffman added, "This is the first time we’ve held a Call Centre Conference bringing together different sectors. The workers in many cases share the same employers. If not, they often share the same problems. They are underpaid but skilled and well educated and their working conditions do not reflect that."

"We need a strategy that means respect for all of these workers, decent jobs and fair pay. "

Joshua Coleman, who is now the subject of a U.S. Government labor case against the T-Mobile, spoke as part of an international panel examining global labor partnerships.

The Global Call Center Conference, jointly hosted by UNI Global Union and its American affiliate CWA, also included speakers from as far afield as New Zealand, UK, Germany, Romania, Philippines, Brazil and South Africa.

The conference theme “Raising Standards Globally,” saw day one talks from London School of Economics Associate Professor Virginia Doellgast, as well as panels on organising and global partnerships.

The afternoon session identified key countries in which focus is needed as well a further session on bargaining and legislation.

But high on the agenda was the business model of U.S. telecoms giant T-Mobile and current legal cases against the company. In November last year, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Acting General Counsel Lafe E. Solomon announced that the U.S. government would prosecute T-Mobile US for violating U.S. labor law.

The government now intends to prove that T-Mobile US illegally fired worker Joshua Coleman and disciplined Ellen Brackeen, who both worked at a call center in Wichita, Kan., because of their union activity.

Call center workers make up around 3 per cent of the total United States workforce. The call center agent was labeled one of the ten most stressful jobs in the global economy. Most call center workers are well-educated, and almost a quarter of call centers primarily recruit workers with university degrees.

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