(30.05.01) Many call center workers get ear problems
Here is a report on ear problems at the Telstra call centers (Australian telecommunications company).
Besides stress symptoms (like headaches and backpain) due to high call numbers, varying shift schedules and management pressure, ear and eye problems like spots before ones eyes and tinnitus are common amongst call center workers. Staring at a monitor for hours, bad phone-connections, high noise levels etc. create these.
So much about the nice and clean jobs in the so-called New Economy...
(29.05.01) Reports on strikes and other conflicts in call centers
The next hotlines-editon on conflicts and struggles in call centers will be out soon. We are collecting reports on experiences in struggles and want to present them to you.
In case you have such reports (on strikes, organising attempts...) and you want to publish them, please, send them to us!
Here are infos on the strike at British Telecom end of 1999
(16.05.01) Fully independent call center workers!
The work contracts in Telecom Italia's call centers are organised in a way that we also see in other countries: the parent company Telecom Italia still has workers with permanent contracts. The new workers usually get limited contracts. As in the subsidiary Telecom Italia Mobile more and more temporary workers are hired. The management tries to lower the working conditions even more (minimum number of calls, less breaks...).
For the workers of the subsidiary Atesia it looks even worse. They are engaged as self-employed and have to rent their chairs and computers. The basic wage was abolished and the workers get paid per call. So the workers also take the "business risk": in case there are few or no calls they do get hardly any or no money.
There is a similar developement in call centers here: the basic wage gets cut and the payment is shifted to bonus or commission (see ISI or the polling institute Emnid...). For us that means that we do not know what is left at the end of the month and whether we have enough for a living. There is a kind of pyramid of exploitation. We, the workers, are divided through the splitting of companies and through different work contracts (permanently employed, with limited contracts, through temporary agencies, "self-employed").
Here is a report on Atesia.
For those who speak German, there is also a report on TIM (german). And you can find information on Emnid on the website of the callcenteroffensive (german) from Berlin.
(14.05.01) ISI is a damned great place!
A leaflet and a call center-report where temporarily not available on this site because the company ISI Marketing has got an injunction from a court (Landgericht Bochum) against the provider www.free.de. With this injunction www.free.de is threatened with a fine of 500.000 DM or six months in jail unless it stops to "1. call the company a 'xxxxxxxxxx' or 2. the offered jobs 'xxxxxxxxx'"
www.free.de has nothing to do with the formulation of those texts but the threatened fine made it necessary to take the texts off the site.
Now we have the great pleasure to present the leaflet (in English) and the report (sorry, so far only in German) without those terms. Just get your own picture of that company and those jobs:
- leaflet on ISI
- report on ISI (german)
(04.05.01) Here we are now...
Some texts had to be blocked or xxxxx-ed immediately. More on that shortly.
(24.04.01) New leaflet, this time on ISI Marketing
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leaflet on isi
(23.04.01) Strike against the relocation of a call center from Spain to Marocco
Here is a letter on a strike of call center-workers of Atento in Spain (with some comments from us).
(07.04.01) New layout
We have polished up the site a bit. Was getting rather confusing recently.
You can find an explanation on how the site is structured and working in the menu under it goes like this.
We are working on another leaflet. Coming out soon. Stay tuned!
(20.03.01) Work in call centers in India and Australia
Here is a letter from a call center-worker from New South Wales/Australia. Some of the same issues we already know: different contracts, casual work, the attempts of the management to lower wages and make conditions even worse... Stay in contact and best wishes down there!
Friends sent us an article on call centers in Dehli/India. Some companies have "outsourced" their call centers from the US or Britain to India. Still, these call centers serve english-speaking customers in Europe and North America. The wages are far lower (in the article they talk about 35-40 percent less). At the same time many indian workers apply for the job and in this one, only highly skilled ones get hired. They need to work night shifts, learn accents and watch stupid soaps on british or american TV, so they can pretend to be "locals"...
(13.03.01) Report on D2 in Ratingen
At D2 in Ratingen/Germany data-inputters are supposed to analyze for instance written cancellations of mobile contracts and type the information into a database. Call center workers then call back the customers...
This report on D2 shows that one conflict demands our collective answer: the attempts to divide and play us workers off against each other along the lines of qualification and different work contracts (for instance skilled/unskilled, permanently employed/temp workers...).
(10.03.01) 3rd hotlines-leaflet on the sense of work is out!
It's done! The distribution of the third hotlines-leaflet on the sense of work started this week. As usual you can get a complete text-file under download.
You find the german edition under neuigkeiten Date: 10.03.01) and the german textfile under runterladen.
And you can read it right here:
- leaflet on the sense of work
- always-at-your-service-bank-story
- secretary-duel
Distribute it further! Send us critique, reports, etc. And have fun reading it!
(09.03.01) hotlines-leaflet on the situation and conflicts in call centers in Brighton/England
This week people from Brighton started giving out a leaflet in- and outside of call centers. After it was distributed at AMEX the management immediately reacted with a written statement to the workers indicating that everyone who has a problem should come and tell them. Obviously they understand that there are a lot of problems and workers are looking for a way to improve their situation.
Well, don't go to the managers on your own and tell them anything!
They depend on the information workers give them on the problems and conflicts. Whatever you tell them will be used against you and the other call center workers: they use the information to intensify the work, they will fire those who they point out as "troublemakers", etc.
This is a struggle, on our living and working conditions, on exploitation and on the constraint to work in order to survive.
Our best weapon is getting together with other workers we trust, discussing our interests and finding our own ways to put pressure on the management. This can be done by work-to-rule, producing breaks in the work process, starting discussions during working hours, distributing leaflets, striking etc.
Our strength lies in these forms of self-organising and the ability to quickly react to management meassures. The management should not know who is getting together and how.
Whenever you think it's appropriate find ways to make sure they know something is going on and what your immediate demands are. They will react...
Here is the leaflet and the reports on the situation in a range of call centers in and around Brighton:
- leaflet on call centers
- report on amex
- report on ntl
- report on seeboard
- report on british telecom
You can also download the leaflet and reports together as one textfile under download
(07.03.01) Prisoners as call center workers - call center workers as prisoners
This article was sent to us (thanx!): Call center in prison, Kingston/Ontario.Canada. It shows how in Canada and the US prisoners are exploited as call center workers. The union quoted in the article sees that just as "competition" for the "outside"-workers. We see it as another form of exploitation in a different type of work camp and the workers/prisoners deserve our support and solidarity.
(30.01.01) For those who can speak German or Italian
From now on we will only list contributions in English on this page. Articles in Italian and German will only be listed in "zona industriale" or "hotlines (German)". On the top of the page you can click on all italian and all german in order to get a quick overview.
Ciao!
(29.01.01) Zona Industriale on Call Centers
Here is the translation of an article on call centers written by the collective that does Zona Industriale in Bologna/Italy.
(24.01.01) More stuff in Italian
1) Considerazioni preliminari sull'agire di classe a inizio millennio
2) Zona Industriale n.3: Editoriale
(22.01.01) News on the "zona industriale"-site
Maybe you have noticed already: we reorganised the "zona industriale"-site. Unfortunately most of the stuff is only availbale in Italian. We have translated some articles into German but not into English. If somebody is can help us with these translation, please, let us know!
For the Italian-speakers: Today we added two articles of Precari Nati.
1) La concertazione sindicale: una forma neo-cooperativa del sindicalismo
2) Azienda e Territorio
(14.01.01) Still leafletting!
We have not translated much recently because we are busy with handing out the second hotlines-leaflet. Currently we are working on a report on what is happening outside and inside the call centers during and after giving out leaflets. We will publish it here soon. Stay tuned...
(18.12.00) Second hotlines-leaflet being distributed
It is out now: the second hotlines-leaflet. Again, we have put the stuff on certain call centers under reports. Download a text-version of it all under download.
(13.12.00) Article on the situation in a call center in the USA
Some friends send us this article on the Pacific Bell Internet call center in San Francisco which describes the work conditions, controlling measures etc. Thanks a lot!
(07.12.00) Leaflet on the situation in a factory
So far we have only published stuff on the conflicts in call centers. That will stay the main focus. But we want to point out the connection between the situation there and in other sectors. Lousy conditions, extension of the working hours and intesification of work can also be found in other offices, in factories, hospitals and on construction sites. We can learn from the conflicts and forms of struggle there. Here is a first example: Leaflet on the Parker-Pen-Feactory in Newhaven/England
(28.11.00) Translation on Hewlett Packard
Here it is, the english translation of the report on the Hewlett Packard call center in Amsterdam
(27.11.00) Report on Hewlett Packard/Amsterdam and first answers on contributions to the discussion
Again a few things only in German. Currently we do not manage to translate things into English in time. But we will translate some stuff later (Promise!). This time we have a report on the Hewlett Packard call center in Amsterdam and first answers to contributions to the discussion : To the letter on Medion/Muelheim (Nov.19th) and To the statement from Quelle/Essen (Nov.19th)
(19.11.00) Discussion
We started a page for discussion in German. Obviously we can open a similar page in English as well. So feel free to send us your comments and critique.
We won't be able to translate all contributions, so get somebody who can help you with translation. Or send us a letter indicating which contributions you are especially interested in!
(06.11.00) Leaflet on Quelle/Essen and report on Medion/Muelheim
We have given out a hotlines-special edition on standard phrases at Quelle/Essen. That has created some confusion there. A teamleader said, we would propose a wildcat strike (What a reckless thought!).
And as promised: Here is the english translation of the 2nd report on Medion/Muelheim.
(23.10.00) How quickly it goes. News from Medion/Muelheim
We had just handed out the leaflet on the extension of the working hours in call centers at Medion/Muelheim - when the union hbv [Gewerkschaft Handel, Banken, Versicherungen - commerce, banking, insurance] asked for the start of works council [= Betriebsrat] elections. Just a coincidence? Well, we had to quickly hand out a hotlines-special edition on works council elections at Medion/Muelheim and point out the buffer zone role of works councils between workers and management. More news on that shortly.
Next are the translations of the leaflet of italian friends who have also made a leaflet on call centers (we haven't finished the translation yet).
(21.10.00) Sorry, the website took longer than expected.
We want to explain shortly why we do all this and how you can use the website:
We work in call centers and elsewhere. With this website we want to support the discussion amongst workers - independent from unions and political parties.
To begin with, we want a situation where we do not have to put up with everything and where we can stand up together against work stress and the constraint to work. The only way to reach that is by self-organising.
Self-organising means first of all: to find ways together with other workers to react against management measures and to push through the own interests. Our strength lies in the fact that we can quickly agree with other workers on - for instance - refusing overtime, ignore boss's orders or to reduce the call-rythm. Without the mediation or control of representing bodies (german: Betriebsrat = works council) or unions and without the boss expecting it.
Call centers are also places of exploitation, like factories, hospitals or construction sites. We are called "call center agents" but are part of the proletariat of the allegedly "new economy".
Many of us (you!) have experienced conflicts on overtime, extra shifts, low wages or just the ordinary madness of work. On this website we want to exchange these experiences with you. We want to create a space for discussions on means and ways to resist and find a perspective beyond wage slavery.
To this effect we have first of all documented the hotlines-leaflet on the extension of working hours in call centers. You can read it here or download it and look at it in quiet at home.
But maybe you are at the moment more interested in reports from particular call centers?!
More leaflets will be published here in the next weeks and months. In addition to that: reports, comments, information. You can find all the news here on this page ("new stuff") or under all.
You can take part in the discussion by sending us emails or letters on your situation (in call centers, factories...), critique, comments, infos. Under write to us! you find an explanation how to do that. Please, tell us whether you want to publish your reports or comments here on this website.
We will update this about every week.
Stay tuned.
proles
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