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Unionize?

HatesBlackberrys

Jun 15, 2011, 12:57 AM
First off, are there call center unions? Is it even heard of?


Secondly, why don't we do so at one of them?

Honestly, there are some really, REALLY bad call centers out there. Their demand from their employees is way too high and their pay is way to low for the kind of **** that we put up with.


Let's see some issues:

-Minimum wage (based on the state you're in)

-Impossibly demanding stats
(associated constant verbal harassment for said stats)

-On-the-fly overtime demands (no matter your personal life, family, or whatever else)

-Inconsistent changing of stats, policy, procedures, and general work order. (no really, some policy things they have you sign a blank sheet that says "I've read and agree X", yet they tell ...
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temporary

Jun 15, 2011, 2:02 AM
If I weren't typing on a phone, I would write an epic comment to the tune of Marionbad My Love in response to this laughably inane comment. People like you fascinate me, and I wish to understand your level of competency. Perhaps tomorrow I will allow you to defend the atrocious comment you just made, but until then, let me ask you one elementary question to (hopefully) catalyze rationality: are you forced to continue employment with your current company?
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HatesBlackberrys

Jun 16, 2011, 4:04 PM
In this economy, where unemployment is at or above 10% and there aren't many to any open job listings at all? Ya, I'm kind of forced to continue employment for income.

And, as a working class citizen, what is wrong with asking for more wages about the minimal standard set by a state?

We have quite a few people that have been working at our facility for more than 7 years, and yet quite a few months are still making minimum wage. Is that right? No, it's not.

As individuals, we don't have a leg to stand on and the job is considered "at will" (love that bulls*** term) were they can fire us at any time for without reason and we can leave at any time without reason. But, as a Union, we can together request...nay, demand better wag...
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hobble

Jun 16, 2011, 4:57 PM
Don't feed the trolls. Conservatives have class envy and feel that workers should have no rights.
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pickles

Jun 16, 2011, 10:07 PM
CORPORATIONS ARE PEOPLE TOO! THEY DESERVE TO KEEP ALL OF THE MONEY WE WORK TO GET THEM!!!1
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cellboothmgr

Jul 9, 2011, 11:19 PM
you can all quit and go somewhere else. if you dont want to work for minimum wage, dont have minimum skills. i bet you put forth 100% effort for your wage you agreed to make for the job you agreed to do. i bet you do everything you are asked to do with a smile on your face. life sucks, get over it
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pickles

Jul 9, 2011, 11:28 PM
so, what do you do for a living?
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cellboothmgr

Jul 10, 2011, 4:50 PM
im in the same industry as everyone else. im a salesman for an indirect dealer and have been for many years.
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olderthandirt

Jul 17, 2011, 7:58 PM
So your life sucks then 😳

Being in the industry has nothing to do with wages or anything else.
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Ned Schneebly

Jul 11, 2011, 8:38 AM
hobble said:
Conservatives have class envy.

Woah, you've got that one wrong, actually completely backwards.
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hobble

Jul 17, 2011, 7:37 PM
Why else would they protect the tax rights of those that can afford it? I think they secretly believe that some day they too will be that rich. Hence the rabid fervor to protect 2% of americas taxes from going back to normal.
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DarkStar

Jul 25, 2011, 8:02 PM
Yet liberals want me who work very hard for my money to tax me to poorness to support lazy people and octomom. Hmmm. Which is worse?
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olderthandirt

Jul 25, 2011, 10:12 PM
So if you work hard and make less than 250,000 or so a year is it the librals that want to tax you or the (job creators) that want to use your taxes for offset for stocks and pilferage of anything they can to keep our country from producing anything by moving it all overseas.

Seems like labels are easier to use than facts.
(job creators) yeah, overseas
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DarkStar

Jul 25, 2011, 10:55 PM
Yes its the liberals who want to tax people who make less than 250,000. But they use nicer terms like fees and minimum wage. Everytime minimum wage goes up then those making more than minimum wage goes up. You going to say that is not true. But every place of business that does pay their employees minimum wage raise prices to cover the pay raises. And those who make more than minimum wage then have to pay more for those products and services.

Here in California our wonderful governor, Jerry Brown, wants to keep the tax and fees high even though they are suppose to end this year. And he is a liberal.
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pickles

Jun 16, 2011, 4:14 PM
he only hates unions because that's what the media tells him
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Researcher

Jun 15, 2011, 3:22 PM
Norma Rea you're not!
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hobble

Jun 16, 2011, 4:55 PM
But say goodbye to your job if you talk about it. Welcome to america!
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Required

Jun 16, 2011, 9:22 PM
I've heard it before, can you seriously get fired for talking about unionizing? On what grounds?
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pickles

Jun 16, 2011, 10:06 PM
on what state you live in. If you're in a "right to work" state, they don't need any grounds to fire you on. Companies in states like this will fire you if you talk about unionizing because they don't want to pay you what you actually deserve
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HatesBlackberrys

Jun 17, 2011, 12:27 AM
Not really. Right to Work is where where an employee can have non-union employees working at a business because it's "open shop", yet they still somewhat benefit from the Union by collective bargaining done on behalf of all employees with the employers. It's so employees aren't forcible required to join a union when working for a specific company (but some unions see this as a free-rider system) Only 22 states have that law, in which Oregon isn't one of them.

What you're referring to is "At Will Employment". That's where the employer can discharge an employee without any cause/reasoning, or with good or bad cause. Of course discrimination is against the law and they cannot fire someone for that.

From what I've found, and I've got t...
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pickles

Jun 21, 2011, 11:51 PM
meh, semantics. you knew what i meant 😛
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Researcher

Jun 18, 2011, 3:14 PM
Why make the Union fat cats rich with our dues? What good will that do?
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HatesBlackberrys

Jun 18, 2011, 9:34 PM
The good outweighs the bad. Sure, they would get proportional dues, but honestly right now that money in which you're not making because of squeezed income is going directly to your fat cat boss instead.


Look at it like this, say a Union was to negotiate $2 above minimum wage (in OR, min wage is $8.50hr, so imagine $10.50 hourly).

Union dues are $50 a month. The $2 x 80-hours worked = $160 extra monthly. Without negotiation, 100% of that is going to the head honcho of the company. With negotiation, just over 2/3rds is going to the employee while 1/3rd is going to the Union.

And it's not just for wage negotiation, but job security in that it would no longer be "at will" with their terminations, but they'd have to have rightfu...
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CellStudent

Jun 19, 2011, 12:19 AM
My biggest problem with unions is that they discourage people from excelling at their work. If every tech support agent with three years experience gets the same union negotiated wage, where's the incentive go a boss to offer someone a larger salary becausebthey perform better?

Unions do a good job of protecting ineffective employees at the expense of the gifted ones.
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olderthandirt

Jun 25, 2011, 3:58 PM
That is not so. I have worked union jobs and in a skilled labour market. They required a higher training level and if the person did not make agreed upon goals they would support support retraining or they would agree to fire.

What I fould was that it prevented poor managers from abusing things by using guidelines that had been agreed upon.
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Researcher

Jun 22, 2011, 12:58 PM
Fat cat company boss


or


Fat cat union boss
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olderthandirt

Jun 25, 2011, 6:04 PM
never met a fat cat union boss. Only ones I knew worked hard and just like us
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Researcher

Jun 25, 2011, 7:11 PM
Sorry.....

The ones I see are the union heads. The have the big cars and the big salaries. They drive the big cars. All the while telling the rank and file "grunts" that they are being held down by "the man"!

Search the union bosses. They are the fat cats. You can not tell the difference with the company. They wear the same suits.
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christmaswhistler

Jul 12, 2011, 11:03 AM
well if you union the callcenter just takes its computer pays 1000.00 for rent, pays movers to move the computer to another city or/and moves the jobs to india or malaysia. either way you get no raise.
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olderthandirt

Jun 19, 2011, 5:02 PM
I thought call centers were a form of assisted suicide. They are a great motivation for doing anything else. And I mean anything.

Pulling into a gas station and realizing the attendent makes the same or better pay makes one go into a deep funk.
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llama

Jun 19, 2011, 5:28 PM
This isn't 1903...

Dude, go make something better of yourself...you got time to scratch that rant of yours, then you got time to look for a better opportunity...
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QueenMeenie

Jun 19, 2011, 8:29 PM
There is a Telecommunications union, I worked for them when I was with Qwest. We were not allowed to speak directly with Verizon reps because of it.
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olderthandirt

Jul 17, 2011, 7:58 PM
That is a bit lame to do.
That is when the union is being silly
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skoobertdoo

Jun 25, 2011, 2:18 PM
LOL @ 1903. That old HUH Llama?
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cellboothmgr

Jul 9, 2011, 11:26 PM
llama...exactly my thoughts. YOU DONT LIKE YOUR JOB, GET A DIFFERENT ONE
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Ned Schneebly

Jul 11, 2011, 8:42 AM
That llama has it going on!
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ATTDRONEV2.5

Jun 25, 2011, 2:45 PM
if we're from the south do we confederize? 🤣
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olderthandirt

Jun 25, 2011, 3:33 PM
😎
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Jesther

Jul 10, 2011, 2:19 PM
I work at the Portland ACS and suport this. I came from a unionized job to this one, and I am suprised of some of the practices this pace has, and the treatment of there employies.
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Pimptopian

Jul 10, 2011, 3:47 PM
I do too. It does not sound like the worst thing in the world. The job does suck for most but for some it WAS ok. I do well and made 38,000 last year. with the same hours worked the most I can make is 32,000. They changed goals and incentives. This is the only job I have ever in my life heard of where the longer you work the lower your pay gets. I understand they are cutting everywhere, but happy workers make better customer service and an overall more happy environment.
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olderthandirt

Jul 10, 2011, 6:37 PM
Having worked both union and non union I found that the union stabilized the work place when done right and improved relations between the workers and the owner.

This may not be the case for all places due to other issues but it worked well for us and our owner when managers did stupid stuff. Same for workers. Expectations were set and rules were there.

20 years 4 days in that field until left to move on to other things.
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Jesther

Jul 10, 2011, 8:30 PM
I was just told by a sup that ATO (Aproved Time Off) will now still give you a point, and count as absentism. This with the fact that if you miss 8% of your work time in a pay period you drop a pay teir, means that if you take an unpaid day off work no only do you lose money form the missed day of work but the decrease your pay for the 2 week payperiod. Now if you have the PTO (personal time off) to cover the whole day you dont get the point and it does not affect your pay.
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olderthandirt

Jul 10, 2011, 8:47 PM
Seems odd that if you get your time off approved there would be any points. It was approved so should not count.

Now if not approved then would make sense.

I would recheck as if given point for approved day off then is stupid. But one never knows.
There is a reason for employee churn
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Jesther

Jul 10, 2011, 9:14 PM
Below I have copied a portion of the new attendance policy here in Portland. Please note that it states in there that agents are to meet 92% of there hours. What I was told by a sup. was that this is both unaproved and aproved ATO, the only have you dont get penalised is if you use the PTO you have to take time off.

"Therefore agents are expected to meet their scheduled hours 92% of the time. If an agent has greater than 8% absenteeism over 2 pay periods, they will be subject to dropping a tier in ABC pay."
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Ned Schneebly

Jul 11, 2011, 8:41 AM
Jesther said:
the treatment of there employies.

Your statement and word choice is why that position is so low paying.
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Mossberg

Jul 11, 2011, 8:35 AM
The call center I work for isn't unionized. Though the demands on the employee might be greater, we make a lot more money than our unionized counterparts.

I hope you aren't in my call center. Talk like this would ruin it for everyone.
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Ned Schneebly

Jul 11, 2011, 8:36 AM
Do you actually work for the same company or is yoru call center an outsource?
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Mossberg

Jul 11, 2011, 8:39 AM
I work for one of "The Big Four."
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Ned Schneebly

Jul 11, 2011, 8:41 AM
OK. Must be at&t because they are the only unionized company. Consider yourself lucky, I guess.
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Mossberg

Jul 11, 2011, 8:44 AM
But there is another company out of the big 4 that has a union.
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Ned Schneebly

Jul 11, 2011, 8:49 AM
Ok. My bad.
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Mossberg

Jul 11, 2011, 8:50 AM
I am just paranoid. 👀
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olderthandirt

Jul 17, 2011, 8:02 PM
Not all places need to be unionized. What I found was a level playing field between us and our business owner. It was to our benefit to make things smooth as we got paid more.

What it took out of the equation was stupid, lazy people and that included any management that did stupid things.
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