Companies located in New Jersey who ship call center jobs might find a few less incentives to do so today. Yesterday, New Jersey's full State Assembly passed what's called the “Save New Jersey Call Center Jobs Act (A- 2651)”. The legislation, sponsored by Assembly members Connie Wagner and Timothy Eustace, was passed by a vote of 56 to 23. The bill will require public disclosure by companies like Verizon that ship New Jersey call center jobs overseas, and bar such companies from receiving tax breaks and subsidies from the State of New Jersey.
The bill has the full support of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which says it represented 3,000 New Jersey call center workers a few years ago, but that number is down to 725.
“New Jersey has a right to know when profitable companies like Verizon send middle class jobs overseas and then come begging for a taxpayer handout,” said Seth Hahn, New Jersey Political and Legislative Director of the CWA. “Speaker Oliver and the Assembly voted today for simple common sense. Taxpayer money should not go to companies like Verizon that destroy jobs in New Jersey instead of creating them.”
Verizon has made $33.4 billion in profits over the past three years and paid its CEO a total of $54 million in compensation in 2009 and 2010, said the CWA in a press release. Verizon has received $113 million from New Jersey in subsidies since 1998, with the promise of creating jobs. At the same time, the company has cut the number of New Jersey call center jobs in half over the past decade, recently announcing a plan to lay off 336 more union workers in north Jersey, and has sent thousands of DSL call center jobs to countries like India.
“Our members simply can’t understand why a company making billions of dollars in profit and doing this much business in New Jersey says they can’t afford to hire workers in America and they need to send the call center work overseas,” said Beth Cornwall, president of CWA Local 1022, in testimony before the State Assembly. “If companies like Verizon won’t invest in New Jersey, New Jersey needs to stop investing in Verizon.”
The CWA, which has thrown its full support behind pending federal legislation that is similar to the New Jersey bill, recently published a report highlighting the data security risks of outsourcing sensitive customer information offshore.