Central London Communication Workers' Union has produced a document in response to the issue of jobs in the telecoms industry being "offshored", with the aim of promoting a debate in the CWU and broader workers' movement. Below a CWU member discusses the issue raised by the document. For the document itself, or more information, email secretary@cwucentrallondon.org.uk
Remote sourcing and the threat to jobs it contains is one of the most important issues that the CWU faces in the telecoms industry. Profit hungry multinationals, like BT and others in other industries, are threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs in the UK.
The CWU Telecoms and Financial Services executive will soon be discussing a possible deal on the remote-sourcing of BT Retail's Customer Contact Centres. We understand that the proposed deal contains an agreement on offshoring that will reduce the number of BT jobs in the UK and pay rates for those which remain. BT Retails is the part of BT where union organisation is severely weakened because of the widespread use of lower paid and relatively ununionised agency staff. This deal sets a dangerous precedent for other parts of BT where remote-sourcing is an issue.
We cannot give in to pressure from our bosses to reduce the price of labour, justified by reference to globalisation. This approach points the union in entirely the wrong direction. It is neither possible nor desirable to balance pay reductions against protecting jobs. All this will do is aid management in pushing down pay rates. If we agree reduced rates in BT, CWU members in other firms will suffer as a result. This means sacrificing the lives of the next generation of telecom workers.
It is also notable that the union is considering agreeing to a pay cut in one of the few sections of BT in which the majority of workers are women. So much for fighting for equal pay!
The fact that under these proposals some agency workers will be converted into permanent stuff masks the fact the proportion of offshored jobs will actually rise as overall staffing levels fall. A campaign of organisation to defend and unionise agency staff and win more permanent jobs is the way forward, not collaboration with management's job-cutting.
We can fight the dangers of offshoring with being Luddites or nationalists. Our alternative should have three main elements. Firstly, a clear rejection of any reduction of pay rates or worsening of conditions in exchange for the protection of jobs; and the organisation of agency and other precarious staff to fight for better pay and conditions. Secondly, the backing up of industrial resistance with political campaigning.
And thirdly, the building links between telecoms workers in Britain and those in India and other countries to which jobs are being offshored. The issue is not British workers' jobs, but a management offensive that affects British workers and workers in the countries to which jobs are being moved.
