Disconnected
eBook - ePub

Disconnected

Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age

  1. 264 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Disconnected

Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age

About this book

Call center employees once blended skill and emotional intelligence to solve customer problems while the workplace itself encouraged camaraderie and job satisfaction. Ten years after telecom industry deregulation, management had isolated the largely female workforce in cubicles, imposed quotas to sell products, and installed surveillance systems that tracked every call and keystroke.

Debbie J. Goldman explores how call center employees and their union fought for good, humane jobs in the face of degraded working conditions and lowered wages. As the workforce coalesced to resist the changes, it demanded the Communications Workers of America (CWA) fight for safe and secure good-paying jobs. But trends in technology, capitalism, and corporate governance--combined with the decline of unions--narrowed the negotiating options for workers. Goldman describes how the actions of workers, management, and policymakers shaped the social impact of the new digital technologies and gave new form to the telecommunications industry in a time of momentous change.

Perceptive and nuanced, Disconnected tells an overlooked story of service workers in a time of change.

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Yes, you can access Disconnected by Debbie J. Goldman in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Business General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Preface and Acknowledgments
  6. Abbreviations
  7. Introduction
  8. 1. Before the Breakup
  9. 2. Becoming a Workforce of Resistance
  10. 3. Organizing to Block the Low Road Path
  11. 4. False Promises? Job Redesign through Union-Management Partnerships
  12. 5. Fighting for Job Security
  13. 6. Striking for Stress Relief
  14. Epilogue
  15. Appendix
  16. Notes
  17. Bibliography
  18. Index