Welcome everyone to the webinar kicking off CWA’s action for International Customer Service Month. This year we are doing things a little differently. This year, we are using the month to mobilize call center workers to defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Here is the plan: Call center jobs are trade-able. For most of us at CWA, bargaining for improved living standards and job security in a sector that can shift work overseas with the flip of a switch has been an enormous challenge. While technology and globalization may have created this challenge, deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership will exacerbate our struggle. This short presentation will show why. At the end, I hope you will join in the action to protect our jobs. �
The Trans-Pacific Partnership has been called the largest and most dangerous trade agreement you’ve never heard of. “Never heard of” because the talks have been held in secret, and even though the talks have been going on for about three years, not a word of the text of the agreement has been released. What we do know about the TPP has been leaked to the media. “Dangerous” because our particular concern is about jobs. Our jobs are already threatened by offshoring, we believe the TPP will only make worse. Why are the trade talks secret? Senator Elizabeth Warren told a group that she actually had supporters of the deal say to her that the talks have to be kept secret, “because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.” It is possible that legislation will be introduced in the lame duck session of Congress, after the elections, to “fast track” the TPP and other trade agreements. That is why we must begin now to tell our Members of Congress that the TPP is not good for our jobs and to demand that they say no to fast tracking the TPP. �
We all know that our jobs are already at risk. The Department of Labor has identified 160 service sector jobs that it considers trade-able – able to be offshored. There are 30 million workers in those 160 jobs – about a quarter of the entire U.S. service sector. DOL identified customer service representative as one of the most vulnerable jobs. Other firms have made projections: The Bureau of Labor Statistics has data that shows 200,000 U.S. call center jobs have already been lost between 2006 and 2012. Forrester Research projects that 3.4 million jobs would be offshored between 2003 and 2015. The Hackett Group estimates that over one million IT, HR, finance and purchasing jobs in large U.S. companies will be offshored between 2002 and 2016. The bottom line – our jobs are already trade-able. �
The TPP will make a bad situation worse. Rather than boosting our living standards or making our jobs more secure, the TPP includes a number of incentives for corporations to offshore jobs. One section of the TPP, about investment, expands corporate rights making it safer to invest offshore in low-wage countries. Another section of the TPP would prohibit countries from requiring that a foreign firm set up a domestic operation in order to provide services. So foreign firms could provide services without employing U.S. workers. Both these provisions are tailor-made to facilitate offshoring of call center work. �
policy that a corporation argues would limit their “ expected future profits .” The TPP would Allow foreign corporations to sue governments over nearly any law or These cases are called investor-state dispute cases because investors, meaning corporations, are allowed to bring the states – meaning the governments that are signatories to the trade pact – to court. Cases are heard not in domestic courts but in private international tribunals composed of three private lawyers from the signatory countries. The domestic court systems are completely by-passed. Big corporations such as Exxon Mobil and Dow Chemical have launched more than 450 cases against 89 governments through similar provisions in other trade pacts. There are $12 billion in pending ISDS claims relating to environmental, public health, and transportation policies. For example: -- A French company, Veolia, has challenged Egypt’s minimum wage increase. 4
-- A U.S. Company, Philip Morris, has challenged Australia’s cigarette packaging law requiring warning labels. For call center workers, it would mean the end of the Call Center Bill introduced by Tim Bishop. That bill would allow consumers to request a U.S. based customer service agent instead of one working out of a foreign call center. You can imagine the suits that bill would attract from foreign call center companies. �
Here is legislative process as we currently understand it. Negotiation with TPP participating countries are ongoing. There are still some serious hang-ups among the countries – most recently between Japan and the U.S. Japan wants to retain protections for its agriculture sector and the U.S. wants into their markets. Next, we will see some request for Fast Track authority. Trade deals have to be legislated under special rules because the deals are made among the trading partners. The Fast Track legislation sets out the special rules. Basically, it will set a time line for debate and consideration, establish that Congress will have no authority to change or amend the agreement, and require a yes or no, up or down vote. That could happen as early as November in the lame duck session, but perhaps in the early days of the new Congress, in January. The vote on Fast Track is critical. It will grease the skids for passage of the TPP and other trade deals. The vote on the actual trade deal will depend on the terms of the fast track legislation. �
All in all, the Trans-Pacific partnership is not good for workers or consumers. It is good for Wall Street but bad for Main Street. It gives foreign corporations the power to challenge our democratically enacted policies. It will open the door to further offshoring of call center jobs. Call Center workers need to fight back. �
The action is simple. A no-brainer. Sign a Post Card or make a call to your Representative. Let him or her know they should stop the TPP and vote against ‘Fast Track’. It is about saving our jobs. -- Distribute cards, collect signed cards. �
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