Call Center Workers United: Continuing the Fight (2018-2019)

The following is a continuation of the previous long post about my call center experience.

I previously mentioned in a previous post that General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) sold the call center portion of the contract over to Maximus Federal, based out of Virginia in late 2018. The effective date of the turnover was in November 2018. About that time, I had interviewed for other positions elsewhere. In the meantime, I made a couple final efforts for the union movement before I accepted another job offer and my time came to an end in December 2018.

First, we can talk about the logo; one issue going in was regarding the fact GDIT Workers United failed in part by my view because of the name. GDIT was getting a lot of bad press in multiple new outlets throughout 2018 prior to turning it over to Maximus. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) had filed multiple lawsuits toward the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that year. So with the turnover to Maximus, I felt it was necessary to make it a more generic brand versus just one corporation. Because in the future, call centers from other companies may join in on or start their own union movement.

The second thing about the logo is I felt the first, while good, needed something to draw more toward it, hence holding a phone along with the fist. It also gave me the option to make the phone fist separate on its own to stand out. I chose a standard DIN font for its readability and simplicity compared to other fonts used by union labor movements out there.

My very last thing I did was to create a Facebook video here about the movement moving forward. You can view more on their progress over the years at callcenterworkersunited.org

In the meantime, I’d also like to post my view on labor union movements: I think they are important to helping develop the middle class and to break people out of poverty situations. The movement has increased pay rates to $15 per hour from under $11 per hour. They’ve gotten better health benefits from previous times and are working toward forming a union at a stronger rate than when I was there.

Maybe someday, they won’t have to hear a comment like I did at my last job, that “I should be thankful for what I have.” People always want more and I want to see a workforce where everyone has an opportunity to aim higher and achieve the goals they set for themselves.