News

As AT&T opened its new customer care center in Goldsboro, N.C., bringing 400 CWA-represented jobs to the region – work that previously had been outsourced – Barack Obama cited the move as the kind of corporate behavior that he will be rewarding as president.

Speaking elsewhere in the state, in Greensboro, on Sept. 27, Obama declared:  "I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas.  I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America – jobs just like the 400 union jobs that AT&T just created over in Goldsboro based on their pledge to return outsourced work to our shores."

CWA President Larry Cohen and District 3 Vice President Noah Savant were on hand along with Local 3606 leaders and members for the official opening of the Goldsboro center this week.  "It's exciting to see AT&T investing in bringing jobs home to our communities," said Cohen.  The Charlotte News & Observer wrote that the center represents a "step toward the American Dream:  a full-time job with a major corporation, potential promotions, a stable career."

The center results from AT&T's agreement with CWA to return to the United States some 5,000 tier one tech support jobs that had been sent overseas.  The company has opened other new centers around the country over the past two years.

Polls conducted in North Carolina this week indicate that Obama's message is resonating with working families in the state, which has been hard-hit by outsourcing.  He is now dead even with, or slightly ahead of, John McCain. Voters in the state have not supported a pro-worker, pro-union presidential candidate since 1976.  CWAers in the state also are working hard to elect Kay Hagan to the U.S. Senate.  A state senator, she is in a close race with incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole.