Posts tagged call center
Long Island Healthcare Employee Charges Union Officials With Illicit Attempt to Prevent Workers from Voting Union Out
November 15, 2024 // Brief: 1199SEIU officials engaged in backchannel communications with federal labor board to block vote; same union is facing ouster effort by NJ workers as well
Ranking Member Cassidy Slams Biden-Harris Admin Forcing Unionization on Medicare Call Center Employees, Threatening 650 Louisiana Jobs
September 20, 2024 // U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, slammed the Biden-Harris administration for forcing call-center employees to unionize even if they do not want to join a union. These efforts threaten the closure of 12 call centers employing 10,000 employees nationwide, including 650 workers in Bogalusa, LA. Since 2013, Maximus has run 1-800-MEDICARE and the Affordable Care Act call centers on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2022, Maximus was awarded a new nine-year contract. Despite some of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the federal government, the Biden-Harris administration ended their contract with Maximus two years into their agreement and is rebidding the contract with new requirements including a “labor harmony agreement.”
UAW, Blue Cross leaders reach tentative ‘verbal agreement’ that could end 77-day strike
November 29, 2023 // Phone calls between BCBSM CEO Daniel Loepp and UAW President Shawn Fain over the past several weeks produced a "verbal agreement" between the two leaders towards the establishment of a collective bargaining agreement, Blue Cross said late Tuesday. The tentative agreement includes "significant general wage increases," a $6,500 ratification bonus for Blue Cross Blue Shield employees and a $5,000 ratification bonus for employees of BCBSM's Blue Care Network HMO, according to the UAW." Over the years, we have lost so much work. They've taken our work and given it to outside contractors," Gates said in mid-September when the BCBSM employees went on strike. "At one point we were over 4,000, 5,000 people (in the union) across the state. Now we have 1,300 people. So we're tired of bleeding. We're tired of them taking our work.
Why Wells Fargo is the only big bank where workers are trying to unionize
September 18, 2023 // Bank workers first started organizing informally over concerns about sales pressure back in 2015 — before the fake account scandal broke to the public. Workers reached out to the Committee for Better Banks, an organizing group, which put them in touch with CWA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and members of Congress, Weiner said.
Frontier, CWA strike new labor union contract
September 6, 2023 // A CWA rep told Fierce the agreement covers both customer service representatives – including call center workers in Ashburn – and broadband technicians. Frontier and CWA continued to negotiate on a new union contract after the previous one expired August 19 at 11:59 p.m. In July, CWA members voted to give union leaders authority to call a strike if CWA and Frontier “failed to reach a fair settlement.” As part of the deal, Frontier is committing to creating additional jobs, which will consist of 25 full-time regular Outside Plant technicians and 10 full-time regular Engineering Assistants, said the CWA rep.
Unions: Pandemic, job openings favor worker gains
February 27, 2022 // Several members of the Black Hawk Labor Assembly AFL-CIO agree that the so-called “great resignation” of workers during the coronavirus shutdown has created greater opportunity for workplace gains for those still employed – if they choose to take advantage of the situation and unionize.
Labor lobbies up
February 15, 2022 // Nicole Brener-Schmitz, the former Teamsters lobbyist and NARAL political director, has registered to lobby for the Communications Workers of America on a range of issues that includes Democrats’ landmark labor overhaul, the PRO Act; the bipartisan infrastructure bill; congressional Democrats’ voting rights bills; the offshoring of call center jobs; union rights for state and local government workers; and paid leave. CWA also retains Emmer Consulting.