Disconnected

Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age

Debbie J. Goldman

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English

University of Illinois Press
02 September 2024

Communication studies; Sociology: work & labour; Labour economics; Industrial relations & safety; Communications engineering & telecommunications

Series: Working Class in American History

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.

By: Debbie J. Goldman
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9780252088155
ISBN 10: 0252088158
Series: Working Class in American History
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 02 September 2024
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Before the Breakup Becoming a Workforce of Resistance Organizing to Block the Low Road Path False Promises? Job Redesign through Union-Management Partnerships Fighting for Job Security Striking for Stress Relief Epilogue Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

Debbie J. Goldman is the former Research Director and Telecommunications Policy Director with the Communications Workers of America.

Reviews for Disconnected: Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age

“Disconnected is one of the most insightful accounts of corporate power, work, and unionism that I have read in years. Goldman’s research is meticulous, her judgments astute, and her prose crystal clear. She tells a story not of triumph but of resourcefulness and grit in an era of relentless corporate deregulation and technological change.”--Gary Gerstle, author of The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era