Legislature should act to protect jobs in Ohio

The surge in employment at call centers in the Mahoning Valley over the past decade ranks among one of the few true growth industries of our region.

Expanding employment at large national companies such as VXI Global Solutions in downtown Youngstown, InfoCision in Austintown and Boardman, Alorica (formerly West Corp.) in Niles and AT&T in Boardman has bucked the trend of job contraction in most sectors of our region’s economy. In fact, total job-center employment here now stands at about 4,200, according to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber. That figure is on par with total employment at the sprawling General Motors Complex in Lordstown.

But given our region’s long and disappointing history of witnessing productive, decent-paying jobs outsourced to low-wage overseas markets, protecting this growth industry ought to be of paramount importance to public-policy makers.

A forward-focused state bill introduced this week by Ohio Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, and Lou Gentile of Steubenville, D-31st, offers just that layer of protection for call- center workers and struggling communities that rely on their tax revenue.

Senate Bill 344, The Consumer Protection Call Center Act of 2016, would require the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to compile a list of all employers that relocate a call center to a foreign country and to disqualify employers on that list from future state grants, loans and other benefits.

The legislation does not outlaw sending call-center jobs overseas, but it would make such moves more transparent, while providing workers with fair warning that their jobs are threatened, according to Frank Mathews, administrative director of the Communications Workers of America District 4, a primary advocate of SB 344.

“This will help Ohio call-center jobs by creating a disincentive for companies to move these jobs overseas,” said Schiavoni, minority party leader of the Ohio Senate.

PERILS OF OUTSOURCING

Schiavoni’s fears are not mere political rhetoric. They represent well- documented reality. Over the past decade, hundreds of thousands of U.S. call-center jobs have moved to foreign lands. Indeed, the Philippines and India today have become known as the call-center capitals of the world.

That flight also has been evident in Ohio. Despite the overall growth in the number of call centers in Ohio, the industry has lost about 14,000 jobs in the Buckeye State over the past decade.

But not all is gloom and doom for this customer-service sector of the economy. In the past couple of years, a new trend has emerged of returning call-center positions to the United States. Analysts attribute this insourcing to rising overseas labor costs, changes in technology and American customers demanding better service and more-clear communication with call-center operators.

For example, the General Motors Co. last year began importing call-center jobs away from a base in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a new customer-engagement center in Michigan.

That trend bodes well for the growth of the industry in the Valley and the state. Today, Ohio ranks in the Top 10 call-center employers in the nation with approximately 180,000 workers. Youngstown’s VXI Global in 20 Federal Place downtown ranks in the top 10 single-project jobs producers over the past decade in the state, according to a ranking from the Ohio Development Services Agency.

In addition, the future looks bright for additional growth. Ohio – like much of the Midwest – has a large reservoir of qualified and talented workers who, according to the National Association of Calling Centers, are also well-spoken communciators who have a clear and neutral speaking dialect. Anyone who has ever dealt with a customer-service representative mangling the English language can appreciate that clear asset.

Plus with jobs that pay on average $16 per hour – twice the state’s minimum wage – call-center jobs can continue to serve as a well-oiled economic-development engine. In return, the tax breaks and other incentives that state and local governments provide them easily can be defended.

Schiavoni’s legislation therefore represents an insurance policy to help lessen the risk of any companies of ill repute taking the money and running.