CWA Releases New Video Illustrating Call Centers' Workers Support of 'Onshoring'

The Communications Workers of America, the largest communications and media labor union in the U.S. representing about 550,000 members in both the private and public sectors, has not made it a secret that one of its top priorities is to reduce the number of American call center jobs shipped offshore by American companies.

Last month, the CWA (News - Alert) released a video that it said offers an essential reminder that the offshoring of U.S. jobs is all-too-real and personal for hundreds of thousands of American workers. Entitled “Why Wouldn’t You,” the CWA’s video featured call center workers from across the country sharing their stories about the impact of losing their jobs and its effect on their lives and families.

The CWA has released a new video, this time touting the benefits of “on-shoring,” or using U.S.-based agents in a variety of business models to offer superior customer service. The video features the personal stories of workers whose call center and customer service jobs have been in-sourced back to the U.S. from overseas locations.

“The important take-away from this new in-sourcing video is that we can do something about the shipping of call center jobs overseas,” said Ron Collins, CWA chief of staff. “Bringing jobs back to our shores strengthens American communities, prioritizes American workers, and can bolster companies’ bottom lines.”

Proponents of “onshoring” or “reshoring,” as it sometimes called in the case of jobs returned to the U.S., believe that companies can provide their customers with better customer care at prices similar to what they are finding in foreign locations. Today’s cloud-based contact center solutions allow for more flexibility in domestic contact centers, enabling models like home-based agents, which are cheaper for a company to hire than premise-based agents.

The CWA also strongly supports legislation sponsored in the House by Reps. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Dave McKinley (R-WVA), and in the Senate by Senators Robert Casey (D-PA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), that would make companies that off-shore call center jobs ineligible for taxpayer-funded grants and loans, as well as offer U.S. consumers the opportunity to be connected to a U.S. based center.

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