Groundbreaking Contract Approved; Features Big Raises, Job Security for Call Center Workers
The unyielding Local 100 members at the Access-A-Ride Call Center overwhelmingly ratified a groundbreaking contract with big percentage raises and much-needed job security. The final vote count from Wednesday’s balloting was 378 to 10 in favor of adoption. The ratification capped a two-year campaign for fairness and respect against Global Contact Services. GCS, an MTA carpetbagger contractor from South Carolina, operates the Call Center in Maspeth, Queens.
“GCS no longer can run roughshod over GCS workers,” TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen said. “We’ve not only secured vastly improved wages for our sisters and brothers but also a mechanism to defend their right to be treated fairly and with respect.”
Recently hired Call Center workers will see their pay rise from $9 an hour to $15 an hour – up 70% - with periodic increases between ratification and December 2018. More experienced workers now making $11 an hour will see their pay rise to $15.40 – up 40% - with this agreement. The contract also empowers workers to challenge disciplinary actions. Union officers can take cases to an independent arbitrator when a worker is being mistreated.
Local 100’s coordinated, multi-front campaign to nail down a contract began in 2014. It included putting a public spotlight on GCS’s brazen mistreatment of workers. The union convinced major media outlets to report on the paltry pay, bug-infested working conditions and out-of-control firings at the Call Center. Workers kept up the heat by repeatedly going to MTA headquarters to tell board members face-to-face about their plight.
“Our members at the Call Center were relentless in their pursuit for fairness,” Frank McCann, Local 100’s senior director of organizing, said. “This is their victory.”