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Hundreds of communication and finance unionists came together to set out the key challenges facing call center workers on day one of the CWA and UNI Global Union Global Call Center Conference.

CWA President Larry Cohen welcomed delegates to Orlando, Florida with warnings over the uncertain nature of call center work and issued a rallying call to raise standards.

“For all call centre workers, from finance or telecoms and from global north or global south, all work is precarious. 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.

“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.”

UNI Global Union Deputy General Secretary Christy Hoffman called for a new strategy that meant dignity at work for all call center staff.

"This is the first time we’ve held a Call Centre Conference that brings 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," Hoffman said.

Good jobs in call centers mean good pay, job security, limits on monitoring, employee control over pace of work, and fair and reasonable targets, says London School of Economics Associate Professor Virginia Doellgast who gave an overview of the global industry.

Fired T-Mobile worker Joshua Coleman received a standing ovation after telling the story of his fight for better union rights at the telecoms giant. Joshua was supported by thousands of workers from German affiliate Ver.di, who organise workers in T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom.

In the afternoon session the conference investigated how to raise standards in key call center countries. Reynaldo Oliveros delivered an overview of the industry in Philippines, now dubbed the call center capital of the world. The Philippines has 30% of the US call center market with 450,000 employees.

Cenise Monterio of the FENATTEL union of Brazil, talked of the union’s fight to improve health and safety in the sector through legislation.

SASBO's Eugene Ebersohn looked at working conditions for call center employees in South Africa. SASBO achieved collective bargaining rights at Barclays call centers - a feat that evades U.S. unions.

The CWA's Sandy Kmetyk rounded off day one with an inspiring report on bargaining for customer service workers at Verizon. CWA has won important protections for members in call centers.

"I'm encouraged by what we are doing here at this historic conference. Our employers have gone global, and so must we," Kmetyk said.