I have written a couple of diaries about the attempts to unionize a Sitel call center in Asheville, North Carolina. Over the weekend I received word that Sitel’s anti-union activities have chilled attempts to organize.
Management at the Asheville location has allegedly spread lie after lie about union organization, including telling employees that signing a petition for more accessible bathrooms equals joining a union. Some employees that signed the bathroom petition have apologized for signing it in Sitel’s anti-union meetings. In one case an employee was so upset that she sent a registered letter to the National Labor Relations Board asking that her name be stricken from the union roles—she would not believe other employees who had told her that signing a petition did not and could not equate to union membership.
Sitel held a site wide meeting last week in which they announced that they would be moving 70 jobs to another site:
[T]he company announced it was "sending 70 jobs to another site" ostensibly, because we are "at capacity.” This may in fact be true or the plan may have been in the works awhile, but the dead silence following the announcement leads one to conclude the timing of the release of this information was calculated to throw further terror into those who are worried about losing their jobs when the union comes in. When people have so very little, the threat of losing even what they DO have is profound. Sitel has declared psychologial warfare on its employees.
Some things have improved at this particular Sitel site since the push to unionize began. All the clocks now keep the same time, all of the computers in the relaxation room work and there are now enough handicapped parking spaces for all those that need them.
Friday was "Broke Friday": that Friday that comes between our regular two week paydays. We had a little diversion when several of us called out the sum total of money we had to subsist on for yet another week: The average came out to around $30.00.
The food truck; "Eddie's Hot Dogs", never comes on Broke Friday. He knows no one has any cash. Food is a luxury to some of us and I watch people go hungry, sipping cold water slowly or smoking more than usual to curb their appetities. Others bum enough change from enough people to make a run to the vending machine for a pack of crackers. The lucky ones who work at it all morning, can accumulate the necessary $2.50 to buy something from the vending machine we call "The Wheel of Death" due to its assortment of cold cheese sandwiches and other fare which. though we cannot prove it, seem to remain in their slots until gone...however long that may be, and there is never a fresh date on any of the packages.
People struggling to scrape $2.50 together for a vending machine sandwich while Sitel
grosses in the neighborhood of $1.3 billion a year, with around 55,000 employees. Which means that, if I did the math right, Sitel grossed, on average, $24,000 per employee given an average wage of $16,500 per year.
Keep in mind that Sitel does not manufacture a product. People are the commodity and the cheaper that commodity can be obtained, the greater the profit. Sitel netted, on average (not taking into account how much management makes), $7500 per employee last year or a gross return of $412.5 million in profit. Employees make $8.00 an hour and management won’t spend the cash to fix a bathroom. People are treated like cattle being fattened up for slaughter—they are nothing more than a number on a spreadsheet to Sitel.
Talk of a union seems awkward now, even a bit painful, the light has gone from the eyes of those who once held a faint spark that maybe, just maybe, they might get a say in their own financial future. Still some wink and smile as if to say "we sure did give them a hell of a run.', then stub their cigarette at the half way mark, drop it in a shirt pocket and hit the phones.
The initial ranks of union organizers at Sitel in Asheville have dwindled substantially; many through the promise of promotion while others just cannot take the constant pressure and fear of being unemployed. The remaining organizers are not done yet—currently they are working with the local Occupy movement to do a flier campaign. There are also a large number of young people at Sitel and organizers hope that a third party who has credibility might be able to better get the word out.
I have said it before and I will say it again—Unions need to do a better job of educating people about who they are and what they do. We have allowed the right to frame unions for too long and that is exactly why Sitel’s tactics are working. Fear and intimidation will work every time when people do not know their rights.