Scotland No 1 – Speaks to Call Centre Workers
October 7 2015
Call centre action month highlighted the difficulties call centre workers endure. It gave us as a union an opportunity to speak to members and non-members about these difficulties and highlight the campaigns we have running like the one for decent pay.
A lot of call centre workers are on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and struggle to make ends meet. Some people don’t know what a union is and are maybe scared to join one if they are in a non-recognised call centre. That’s what I found out at the last recruitment day anyway.
Armed with this information I thought we needed to think outside the box and explain to people why it’s important to be part of the union as well as the benefits.
The plan was to hold a stall in the shared canteen area where all employees from the different contracts have access to and highlight the work we are doing on the back of call centre action month.
As the canteen is a fast moving area and not everyone can stop to chat I made up a pack which included a welcome pack, Direct debit form, Call centre action month leaflet and contact details for the onsite union officers to give out to potential members.
We also had a desk with NHS booklets on stress, anxiety, depression and bereavement etc for people to take away with them; we also had a desk with CWU Scotland No1 branded goodies.
The day was very successful and we raised our profile hugely as well as signed up many members on the day and the following days after.
As a section we are going to follow this day up with another recruitment day and possibly have someone from debt management alongside us as it was an issue we identified our colleagues were struggling with.
