Lawmakers call on Michigan House to move on offshoring protections for call center workers

Filed 1h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Jeff Hitchcock from Seattle, WA, USA · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Michigan state Reps. James DeSana and Amos O'Neal rallied with Communications Workers of America members Thursday to push House leadership toward a vote on bills requiring companies with large call center workforces to notify the state before moving jobs overseas, and to allow the state to recoup incentive money from firms that do. The bills would give the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity advance warning and clawback power.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed earlier versions, calling them duplicative of the federal WARN Act, which requires 60 days' notice before mass layoffs. CWA's Charles Daniels countered that the WARN Act dates to 1988 and hasn't stopped a dozen CWA call centers from closing since. The bills currently sit in the House Economic Competitiveness Committee awaiting a hearing.

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✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A law from 1988 is doing the job of protecting today's call center workers, and it's about as effective as using a screen door on a submarine. If the old law worked, there'd be fewer union members standing on the Capitol steps every couple of years asking for the same fix. Ten years is a long time to wait on a committee hearing, and it's not like the jobs are waiting around for Lansing to catch up.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Krampus Workshop · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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