I get this call everyday...

Rebel Youth

David S. Gallant is a young worker who would rather be designing video games than working in a call centre.

Who can blame him? How many times are young people of our generation told we can grow up and be the dream we want to be -- only to find out we will be facing lower rates of pay than our parents, most often in jobs without unions, and a shredded public network of social programmes.

Instead of doing his dream in the creative arts, David found work at the Canada Revenue Agency.

Call centre work, as anyone who has worked there knows, is alienating and exploiting work.  And for literally hundreds of thousands of young people in Canada, especially in the East Coast, its how we pay our bills.

...Cue the audio book of the Communist Manifesto saying that "the modern working class developed — a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market."

David thought he found a way of pushing back, perhaps a bit in the style of the lone wolf, and made this video (above) to promote the game he titled... I Get This Call Every Day.

The tax man didn't seem to appreciate it. Now he's been fired from Revenue Canada.

"They terminated my employment as of Jan. 29," David told CBC news, who described the game as a scenario where users listen to calls from customers and are given options for how they can respond to the inquiries -- like "I'm not your buddy, sir" to rile up callers.

A statement the government issued stated that "The minister has asked the CRA to investigate urgently to ensure no confidential taxpayer information was compromised."

"I felt the need to express myself, and despite the fact that I could've lost my job for it, I still wanted to ensure that I got my art out there and I made it available to people," David also told CBC.

Maybe someone should make a meme: irony and sarcasm disqualify you from employment? Tell me more about your Robot Army of Wage Slaves...

At first glance it may seem like David is just mocking ordinary callers who dial into Revenue Canada, and of course he is. But really he is mocking the whole set-up of call centres.  He is mocking the powerlessness of call centre workers.  He is mocking the experience of being a cog in the wheel.

And frankly we all know that if David phoned his boss and asked for a pay raise or basic dignity at work, he would be, so to speak, 'hung up on.'

CBC also reports that "Gallant has received a slew of tweets of encouragement and says he almost doubled his daily rate of sales on Tuesday to about $500."

Is anyone surprised?

Solidarity with you, David Gallant, and all call centre workers. David should get his job back right away.

David should also have the right to contribute to society and do work that has genuine meaning. That would require a different social order than capitalism, however, where the bosses were out and the people run the show. But that's our socialist perspective, here at Rebel Youth. Maybe you agree.

More unemployed call center workers, says report

After adding more than 90,000 jobs across Canada from 1997 to 2007, the business support services sector (ie. call centers - RY) saw its employment decline by 28 per cent from 2007 to 2011. Nearly 33,000 jobs have disappeared since 2007. The losses have hit particularly hard in New Brunswick and Ontario. In New Brunswick, the industry lost more than 3,100 jobs between 2007 and 2011. Ontario’s sector took an even larger hit, shedding almost 26,000 jobs since 2007 or a 40 per cent decline. ...employment decline in the business support services sector on a percentage basis has been much steeper than in manufacturing. ... There will be far fewer jobs associated with customer interaction in the future... (because) people are increasingly using the Web and bypassing the need to talk directly to a customer service agent by the telephone.


Source: Globe and Mail, March 8, Why call centres no longer ring up big job gains

Corporate runaways can’t trump the greater good

Protesting: Workers at IQT Solutions were suddenly jobless and denied their final paycheques when the company abruptly closed its doors. More and more young workers are employed at call centers. Photo by the Toronto Star.

By Ken Lewenza

Reprinted from the Toronto Star

The abrupt closure of three IQT call-centre operations in Oshawa, Trois-Rivières and Laval has left 1,200 workers reeling, and government agencies scratching their heads. How can a company (in this case a multi-million dollar, multi-national telecommunications contractor) simply pack up and leave, literally overnight? How can they walk away from legal obligations, washing their hands of back pay and severance? Seriously, how?

Weeks have gone by but no one, as of yet, has any real answers to these questions.

Governments appear incapable of even tracking down basic information about the company, who’s in charge and whether or not they’re actually bankrupt.

There’s an assumption among Canadians that there must be rules and regulations holding corporations to account. But this latest fiasco is a rude awakening.

Indeed, we’ve seen this storyline many times before. In 2009, 2,400 non-union auto parts workers at Progressive Moulded Products (PMP) in Toronto faced a similar ordeal — returning from vacation only to learn that their employer had fled town, taking their separation payments with them. CAW members have seen it first-hand, too, at companies like Collins & Aikman in Scarborough, Aradco and Aramco in Windsor, and others.

Each case prompted a public outcry and a spontaneous fight back. Workers demanded what was legally owed to them. But after fighting long and hard, they inevitably end up with less than they are owed.

So IQT is not the first company to successfully exploit this effective loophole in the regulations that govern business. And it won’t be the last — unless we tighten up the rules.

In this era of deregulation, it seems private companies are enabled to padlock their doors, pack their bags and take their business elsewhere. The same week as the IQT closures in Canada, the company announced 900 new jobs in Nashville, Tennessee — taking advantage of millions in lucrative public incentives to relocate. Those plans were scrapped when municipal leaders in Nashville caught wind of the company’s disregard for workers and their communities. Yet Canadian officials seem toothless when it comes to tracking down the company and enforcing its legal obligations.

To its credit, Ontario’s labour ministry is in the midst of an investigation while providing retraining and job search assistance to workers through a newly-opened action centre. Quebec officials are urging displaced workers to lodge individual complaints with the labour board in the hopes of building a file on the company.

Meanwhile, Ottawa has been strangely silent about the case, telling workers only that they can file for EI. IQT workers don’t yet qualify for federal Wage Earner Protection Program funds since there’s not been an official bankruptcy filed. So far, no one in the Harper government cares to comment.

For years, governments have been watering down corporate regulations, all in the name of fighting “red tape.” Restrictions on corporations that would protect the greater good, we’ve been told, are job-killers. Establishing criteria to govern corporate behaviour is considered a barrier to investment.

But this whole approach puts reckless multinational corporations like IQT in the driver’s seat, and leaves vulnerable workers in the dust.

It’s time we stopped this trend, which is justified by an underlying faith that the private sector is always efficient. Governments need the tools to hold corporate deadbeats to account, to discourage imitators and adequately remedy situations like the tragedy at IQT. Efficient, effective regulatory tools wouldn’t disadvantage good corporate citizens, but would offer some protection for workers’ rights.

A public discussion on the need for better worker protection regulations is both necessary and overdue. We need an open and honest dialogue among stakeholders, to get some new ideas on the table.

Here are some proposals to throw into the mix:

 • Establish clear protocols for public notice and justification of lay-offs.

 • Enhance protections that prioritize monies owed to workers in cases of bankruptcy and bankruptcy protection proceedings.

 • Strong workplace closure legislation, with special provisions to account for non-industrial, non-capital intensive workplaces like call centres and retail shops (where there’s little capital equipment that can be seized and sold to pay outstanding debts).

 • Strengthen legal reprisals for executives (or other representatives) of runaway corporations.

 • Increase the funds covered by the wage protection system and extend its reach to closures that are not formal bankruptcies.

It is both immoral and economically counterproductive to allow deadbeat corporations like IQT to commit these wrongs with impunity. As a society, we must take a hard line with employers who think they’re beyond the greater good.

Ken Lewenza is president of CAW-Canada.