Number of Co-Sponsors on ?US Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act? Grows to 69

Momentum Continues To Grow Behind Legislation That Protects American Consumers & Strengthens American Jobs — State Legislatures Now Jumping On Board

WASHINGTON, DC — Bi-partisan support on Capitol Hill for legislation that bans federal grants or guaranteed loans to American companies that move call center jobs from the U.S. overseas grew to over five dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced today.

Over 40 members of both parties signed on to the bill in the last four weeks alone, and more are expected when Congress reconvenes.

"Republicans and Democrats alike understand this bill is a dose of bi-partisan common sense at a time when such measures are in short supply in Washington," said CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins, who began his career in a Maryland-based Verizon call center.

Introduced just before the New Year by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Rep. Dave McKinley (R-WV), the bill would also ensure that U.S. consumers are told the location of the call center to which they are speaking and would provide the consumer the right to transfer their call to a U.S. customer service agent, if preferred. Additionally, the legislation would create a 'bad actors' list of U.S companies that make a practice of sending U.S. jobs overseas.

State level bills containing similar provisions have been introduced in legislatures in Florida, Arizona and Maryland respectively, Collins said, and lawmakers in more states are considering the same at this time.

"Lawmakers of all stripes from around the country agree that there should be consequences for shipping good American jobs overseas while so many here at home are looking for work," Collins said. "They get the idea that only companies that create American jobs should get American taxpayer dollars."

CWA represents 700,000 workers nationally, including more than 150,000 customer service professionals.

For Immediate Release: March 1, 2012

Contact: Chuck Porcari or Liz Schilling at 202-434-1168
or cporcari@cwa-union.org or eschilling@cwa-union.org