Valley gets good news about call center jobs

Five months after MCI announced that it was closing its Niles call center and after the startling revelation that the giant multinational corporation had sent some of its Mahoning Valley employees to Manila, Philippines, to train workers at a new call center there, the region has reason to celebrate.
On Tuesday, West Corp. of Omaha, Neb., announced that it plans to hire 880 full-time workers for a call center that will be located in the former MCI facility at 5185 Youngstown-Warren Road. West Corp., which will sublease the 82,000-square-foot building, has begun recruitment for 80 staff and management positions.
The company plans to hire 800 customer service representatives by the end of the year. It began advertising for the management jobs in Wednesday's Vindicator and will be running ads for the customer service positions starting Sunday.
And while the customer service reps will be paid $8 an hour, they will receive health, life and dental insurance coverage, paid time off and 100 percent tuition reimbursement and will be able to participate in a 401(k) retirement program. The employees will be able to earn $1 more an hour by meeting attendance and performance standards, and will have advancement opportunities.
What is significant about West Corp.'s decision to create the 880 jobs in the Valley is that Ohio beat out Colorado and Oklahoma. That certainly bodes well for the state's job-creation effort, and is additional proof of Gov. Bob Taft's commitment to assist the Valley in its economic revitalization effort.
We have no doubt that the 75 percent five-year tax credit from the state for the company's West Teleservices division played a major role in the decision-making, just as we know that the economic incentive package developed by the state for General Motors Corp. sealed the deal for the world's leading automaker to select its Lordstown assembly plant to produce the new compact model, the Chevrolet Cobalt.
Competition
Ohio had been in competition with other states, including Michigan, for the new GM product, and Taft, picking up where his predecessor, George V. Voinovich, left off, pulled out all the stops to convince the company that the Lordstown plant was the logical and proper choice.
Likewise, the state worked closely with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber in developing the inventive package for the new call center. Now, the city of Niles and Trumbull County governments are being asked to approve a 75 percent 10-year real estate tax and personal property tax abatement. There should be no hesitation in fulfilling West Corp.'s request.
After all, the Valley still has not found a replacement for MCI, which left more than 700 residents in the lurch when it decided to not only pull up stakes here, but go on to create jobs overseas.
Despite what President Bush's treasury secretary, John Snow, might contend, there is nothing positive about outsourcing American jobs. The communities that lose to slave-labor countries are hardpressed to attest to anything positive arising from the job losses.
The Mahoning Valley has had to contend with good-wage manufacturing jobs moving to Mexico and with the downsizing of other industries. Outsourcing is bad economic and trade policy, yet the Bush administration refuses to do anything to reverse the trend.
While the state tax credit and the other incentives from Niles and Trumbull County require West Corp. to remain in the Valley for a relatively long period of time, there is no guarantee that it won't follow in MCI's footsteps. That is why national policy is needed that would reward American companies that stay in the United States and employ American workers.
For now, however, the Valley should applaud the announcement of 880 jobs being created.