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N.C. Call Center Workers Challenge Global Corporation for Dignity on the Job

January 6, 2012

On Thanksgiving, as thousands of citizens in the Occupy movement gathered in cities across the U.S. to turn public attention to the deep chasm between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, a group of workers at a call center in North Carolina operated by a highly-profitable global corporation summoned the courage to launch their own struggle for dignity and fairness.

It started with a petition, signed by 57 employees, mostly women, asking managers at Sitel’s 600-worker call center near Asheville to address a shortage of toilets in the former retail facility that left workers facing discipline for exceeding their allowable break times.  

One month later, call center workers asked for assistance from the IBEW.  Suddenly, their working conditions and the company’s swift retaliation to an organizing campaign that was barely off the ground were local and national news.

The IBEW has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board contending that Sitel, which operates call centers in several states and 27 countries, was threatening the jobs of employees engaged in concerted action protected by law.

Workers in the center, where the hourly pay scale—between $8 and $9 per hour—is low, even for the right-to-work South, also express concerns about inconsistent company policies and rampant favoritism.

Ken Ashworth had only worked at Sitel for a month when he first heard his co-workers complaining about bathroom conditions and suggested they petition management. After the petition was circulated, he found an IBEW Membership Development Department Web site, developed by Region 5 Organizing Coordinator Bob Brock and Lead Organizer Willy Kniffen, for workers interested in organizing call centers. Ashworth requested help and was soon put in contact with Region 2 Organizing Coordinator John Murphy, who notified Asheville Local 238 Business Manager Dusty Rhodes of the situation at Sitel. Says Ashworth:

I had 30 years of experience as a manager in the trucking industry. I wasn’t anti-union, but I was on the other side of the fence. I was pro company.  I never, ever thought I would be organizing a union. But when you see a situation where you work for someone who has 100 percent absolute control, organizing is the only thing you can do.

Ashworth says the company’s handbook is “intimidating and demeaning,” informing workers that they are employed “at will,” that Sitel is a “union-free” company and “desires to stay that way.” The handbook contains a media clause that all workers sign and has been used to discipline workers who discuss company affairs on Facebook. 

Sitel has already employed a major law firm to stay union-free in Asheville. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak and Stewart, P.C., employs more than 600 attorneys in 40 offices located in 23 states. The firm’s lobbying arm actively opposes any reforms to U.S. labor law that would remove obstacles to workers gaining a voice on the job.

 Local 238, a small local of 150 members concentrated mostly in electrical construction, is continuing organizing efforts, undeterred by the powerful forces gathering at Sitel. Organizer Josh Rhodes says:

The people at Sitel who petitioned and are organizing are very courageous.  They are openly showing their support by putting the IBEW insignia on their key cards. This is big for a right-to-work state with the lowest union density in the nation.

More courage will be necessary, says Ashworth, as management holds captive audience meetings where the company tells workers, “If a union comes in, we can no longer be competitive.”

In most union campaigns, efforts start quietly, going public only after several months. But, after a local local TV station arrived at Sitel’s facility, the company relaxed its media policy and some workers who oppose a union at the facility were interviewed. Ashworth decided to strike back using his own name on a local newspaper blog. He was aware of a recent NLRB decision that upheld the right of workers to speak openly about their conditions at work. “I came forward to test their policy,” he says.  Ashworth adds:

My hope is that when workers see others speaking up, they will feel less intimidated. Our numbers are growing daily, but we know this is going to be an uphill, protracted battle. Once we break the barrier and get the truth out there, people will start to come around to the need for a union. I believe what we are doing is right. Whoever latched on to this industry and initiated an IBEW Web site to help us, deserves a lot of credit. The IBEW has dedicated organizers. I’ve never felt more supported in a work environment before. I truly have a new appreciation for the term brotherhood.

Organizers say many workers in North Carolina harbor severe misconceptions about unions. But Sitel’s global reach is opening eyes to the need for a more balanced relationship with their employer. Word has it that one of the company’s call centers in Morocco was successfully organized with an inspirational woman worker at the helm. “The facility didn’t shut down,” says Ashworth.  “In fact, the company advertises that its workers have access to arbitration.

Sitel reports that, due to the downturn in the American economy, labor costs in the U.S. are becoming more competitive with those at third world call centers. North Carolina workers may question the need for a union, says John Murphy. But, then they hear about a call center in the Philippines that employs thousands of workers who are paid only a few hundred dollars a month, even while Sitel bills clients in U.S. dollars. Opportunities for dialogue open up.

Asked why the brief struggle at Sitel has garnered so much media attention, Ashworth says:

This appeals to a general audience because it’s not about a big corporation taking on a big union, but about a small group of people and how much abuse they should take for $8 an hour.  If we were in a real good economy, this story might not have that much appeal. But with our current economic troubles, it’s dramatic.