In Germany, T-Mobile's parent company is a union employer. In the United States,
this is the kind of treatment call center workers are subjected to:
Their customer-handling time was not only reduced by a third, but, at the same time, the sales targets for cell phones and phone contracts were increased enormously.
Whoever is not able to reach these high expectations is faced with disciplinary measured, harassment, and threatened with termination or other professional consequences, workers explain in the interviews. If all that is not bad enough, workers are even being publicly shamed. For example, call center employees in Chattanooga had to wear a dunce cap for hours to demonstrate their alleged failure when they were not able to meet their numbers.
A 41 year old employee, who suffered under this measure several times, reports that the dunce cap was moved from desk to desk until it ended up at her desk. Never in her life, she says, did she feel so belittled and ridiculed.
A fair day's wage
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- State and local government
- Florida Gov. Rick Scott is really leading the privatization charge. Thanks to privatization of prison health care, nearly 2,000 state workers are losing their jobs right before Thanksgiving:
The Department of Corrections signed a $230 million contract with Corizon Healthcare of Nashville to provide all health care in central and north Florida prisons and is negotiating contract terms with Wexford Health Sources of Pittsburgh to take over health care in nine South Florida prisons for $48 million a year.
In the dismissal letters, prison officials emphasize that dismissed workers will get first consideration for new jobs at one of the two for-profit vendors, though with fewer benefits. The workers also expect to pay more out of their pockets for their own health insurance.
Many make less than $35,000 a year, have not had a raise in six years and live in economically distressed areas home to many state prisons, including Bradford, Dixie, Levy, Suwannee and Union counties.