Buchner (far left) holds the Mountain Xpress with a cover story about the union attempt at Sitel in Asheville.
Fight Back! News shares an interview with one of the Sitel call center workers trying to form a union in Asheville.
A major local employer, Sitel has over 500 employees. A note sent to Ashvegas last year and posted to our blog describes conditions at the Asheville location:
Locally, the wage is $8.00 an hour or slightly less than the average Wal Mart greeter earns. I have seen single mothers go all day without food since they are forced to make the choice netween bus fare and lunch. We, the employees, recently began a food collective whereby we donate 50 cents each (or more if possible) towards the stocking of a food pantry for our less fortunate fellow workers. Very many persons with physical limitations or disabilities work in Asheville, yet every morning I watch them jostle and compete for the too few handicapped parking spaces as they are then forced to walk several hundred feet, uphill to work. I could go on.
We are attempting to form a union. On November 17th, 57 people signed a petition protesting that over 150 women are being forced to use a facility with only ONE toillet. it has been this way many months. Many of these women have mobility issues and cannot walk 200 feet to the other restroom. This creates an unsanitary and dehumanizing condition. The company or rather the site director, sent an e-mail saying it was “temporary.
Mountain Xpress covered the new union discussion last week in an article that represented five months of work by reporter David Forbes. The article included an Editor’s Note stating that, at press time, Sitel had not responded to Forbes’ attempts to get their side of the story, “including dozens of phone calls to different divisions of the company.”
Some Sitel employees say the straw that broke the camel’s back was when the company closed the women’s bathroom for repairs in May of last year, leaving only a co-ed restroom with eight stalls for all the workers. That didn’t sit will with employee Ken Ashworth; his disabled wife, who also works at the call center, was having trouble getting to the new facilities.
Employees say they’re penalized if they’re away from their desks for any significant amount of time. “They micromanage us like you wouldn’t believe,” says Ashworth. “Everything’s based on your metrics. It endangers that if you’re standing in line behind six or seven people. It’s humiliating.”
By November, the women’s room was still closed and the situation had become intolerable, numerous workers say. Several employees said 57 of them had signed a petition requesting better bathroom conditions. After several weeks of silence, they report, management instructed them to bring any future complaints to them privately.
Soon afterward, Ashworth, who’d never considered himself pro-union, contacted Local 238 through the website http://callcenterunion.org.
Excerpt from Fight Back’s interview with Sitel employee Sarah Buchner:
Fight Back!: What sparked the struggle to unionize in Asheville?
Buchner: Things started in July of 2011 with a management memo announcing the switching around of the men and women’s bathrooms, to construct more men’s. The restrooms are on each end of a very long building with cubicles to seat hundreds of workers between them. On the left side, women were reduced from eight stalls down to one stall and two urinals. This situation dragged on for months, and many women, some with disabilities, were losing their 15-minute breaks because of the long distance to use the other bathroom. They got upset enough to start a petition. One worker contacted the IBEW union Local 238 and they filed an unfair labor practice against SITEL. Management then threatened to fire employees for standing up to them and voicing legitimate concerns.
SITEL immediately hired a union-busting law firm from South Carolina, Ogletree Deakins. Management began holding small anti-union meetings with all employees, giving them an unsigned memo. Part of it reads, “There is nothing that a union could deliver that can’t be obtained by open and frank discussion between the Company and our employees. We have a real open door policy that works. My door and all management doors are always open.” Still people begged management to fix the bathroom situation and were ignored, until May of 2012. Almost a year! So we learned the only way for workers to achieve dignity and respect is to organize and take a seat at the table with one voice. SITEL knows this, and is doing everything in its power to spread misinformation and fear.
Read the full interview here.
10 Comments
Day by day I sit and watch and say nothing. Well I have to say something now. It is time that employees stand up to you Union guys. Before you came here things were much better. We don’t want nor do we need the Union. My name is on the petition you talk about. I signed it because I wanted to help the ones who wanted the restrooms changed back. Ken, it may have been your idea but everyone who signed it had the intentions that it would be taken to management not used as advertisement for the Union to say how bad it is here at Sitel. Those of us who have worked here for many years know that when we have issues we are able to take them to management and they listen. We may not always be happy with the response but they listen. How do you think the restrooms got changed in the first place? It was because a male employee complained there were not enough urinals for the male employees. Management was only trying to comply with that employees concerns. What I am trying to say is we don’t need you to be our voice. We are our own voice and we can be heard without a union. You also talk about Sitel only telling one side of the story and pushing towards the anti-union sites and how wrong that is, but you sit back and do the opposite. There is always two sides to every story. I don’t remember which one but one of the news stories referred to Sitel as a windowless building and on the cover of the article was a close up of the building were you could only see the entrance. Now we all know that is not the truth. There are many widows though out the building. I sit near one and am able to watch the weather outside. It makes my day to look up and see the wind blowing in the trees. The building is an old Goody’s building the windows are not necessarily eye level but they are there and are pretty good sized windows. Please go away and leave us alone. All you are doing is causing frustration with everyone. You make is sound like you have tons of support but we all know there are only a few pushing for the Union. Look over the forums and your facebook page. There are very few on the page and forums that support the Union that are Sitel employees. Most are from the IBEW and other unions showing support for their fellow Union members. I know you think you are fighting for the employees but we don’t want you too. We want to go back to the way it used to be. The atmosphere has changed so much. JUST GO AWAY!
Thanks for the invite Ken , but I would not waste my PTO or my time for this matter .
I am well aware who,what and when this started.
This will be my last posting , it appears that we ,the ones that do not want to have anything to do w/the Union are the ignorant people …It is so sad that this crap is dividing our co-workers instead pulling together …Nice Job
No one said you are ignorant because you dont want the union.
but your comment about Sitel “:not having a choice” but to close down because the clients will pull out because of the Union, is well, not grounded in anythng remotely approaching rational thought.
The biggest client at our site has 1100 Union workers on their payroll……they do many of the same tasks we do.
Go figure.
Quote: The handful of initial pro union employees were demonized. In forced anti union meetings, people who did sign were so guilt laden they actually broke down crying and many of them apologized for signing it.
FACT : THE PETITION WAS ONLY FOR THE BATHROOM ISSUE NOT MENT FOR ANYTHING ELSE …OF CA– — USE THEY WERE UPSET THAT THE SO CALLED PRO UNION MIS– — USED / AB– — USED AND MISLEAD A PERFECT LEGIT REQUEST ….GET YOUR DARN FACTS STRAIGHT…PLEASE APPOACH THE PERSON WHO STARTED THE PETITION IF YOU HAVE THE GUTS ….SHE IS NOT WHINING CRYING DID NOT APOLOGIZED AND SO DID NOT A LOT OF OTHERS FAR AS I AM AWARE OF NONE IS SORRY HOWEVER THEY P.O. THAT THEY BEEN BETRAYED BY SOME OF OUR CO-WORKERS …I DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU GET THE CRAP FROM …BRING IT ON
Sunnie21:
You seem very angry and in need of someone to blame. I accept. The petition was my idea, though I did not sign it or help write the wording. It was a spur of the moment thing with little more than 2-3 minutes of dicussion.
Two female employees (before anyone clocked in) talked to others, and the petition was passed around until I think 56 or 57 people signed it and then, a copy was turned into a coach.
How am I doing so far Sunnie21? Anything sinister and misleading yet? I AM the one who contacted the IBEW but only AFTER the petition was signed. Mpore than one person has told me that supposedly I was “hired” by the Union to come in an organize Sitel. I’m sure some still choose to believe that lol.
Nobody mislead anybody about the petiton. The short statment on it said it was about being humiliated for having to use a restroom for women, with urinals in it.
The original of the petition was kept at one employee’s desk for sveral days. Whne it became obvious that people who had signed the peition were being questioned about it, I felt really bad becuase it was MY idea. I don’t care what you believe. I aked for a copy of the petition. Me Kenneth Ashworth. No one else.
I took it home with me and I called the Union organizer and informed him people were being questioned. You DO know this happened right? You also know this is illegal right? I took the list of those innocent people who did absolutely NOTHING wrong, and I sis that in case anyone was terminated or discplined I got a solid 100% PROMISE from the Union they would astep in and protect those people. I don not regert it one bit.
Nothing I did, the people who signed the petition did, or anyone else did was wrong. What Sitel did Sunnie 21, was lie to you and others by saying I personally and intentionally deceived people. Sitel gives me too much credit, I am not that quick. not only that Sunnie21, but Sitel did this with the sole purpose of causing discredit to me and anyone else who supported the Union. the only thing si Sunnie21, Sitel did not use my name I am using my own name now.
People were amde to feel ashamed, they were told they were stupid because the got tricked. NOT ONE name on that petition was ever contacted by anyone in the Union, not one. So how could this be some scheme to get people to sign up for a Union by trickery?
I put my name on this Sunny21….You said “bring it” and it has just been brought. The only involved party here who did anything underhanded, deceptive or wrong is Sitel and their bottom feeding attorneys and you know what Sunnie21?
I, me, Kenneth Ashworth am going to FEDERAL court and swear under oath ok? Why don;t you use some of your PTO and come watch?
One more time. If no on who signed the petition was even contacted by the Union, how was this some scheme to trick people into signing up for a Union?
No one did anything worng. No one.
Kenneth Ashworth
that they would sooner close up this location of the business than have a union shop says it all …
That enough of us both inside and outside of Sitel don’t close this location down because of the lies to stop a union may be the better stament
Has anybody taken in consieration that Sitel may not have a choice to close down if it comes to it , bcs clients pull out bcs of the Union stuff and relocate?
What started as an innocent, beautiful gesture of 57 employees banding together naively in an attempt to petition “management” over restroom conditions, has morphed into some of the worst willful infliction of emotional duress ever. Sitel, this billion dollar megalith reacted swiftly and with a heavy hand.
The people who signed the petition were naive about anything pertaining to unions, their rights under NLRA or how to even from a union. Shortly before the original article which began a nation wide avalanche appeared here on Ash Vegas, Sitel selectively and illegally began “interrogating” some signers both in an effort to dissuade any union activity and to ferret out the “ring leaders’.
Some of this interrogation was conducted behind closed doors in the presence of attorneys, visiting Directors of Human Resources from Nashville TN. Those who have been courageous enough to relay their stories (all employees who signed were not interrogated), did so with great trepidation because they had bee told to not “let anything spoken in this room leave this room.” They were asked to sign a waiver granting their “permission” to be questioned under the guise that Sitel had gotten “complaints” of employees being harassed over their union stance and all of this was just a routine sort of thing. At the end of the session the employees were also asked to sign a statement that they had not been harassed or threatened in any manner over signing the petition.
So chilling was this on those who eventually came forward that they only did so months later when they believed it “safe”. Intimidating an employee into signing a non harassment statement IS harassment, plain and simple. But this is the arrogance of Sitel, the privilege of absolute control. Employees questioned were not randomly picked, they were hand selected based on their perceived loyalty or their status as “easy marks.”
Either way the message was loud and clear: make any trouble or join in any of this union talk and you’ll be possibly punished. there could not be anything MORE illegal and nefarious than this, or could their be?
Sitel and its bottom feeding law firm stoked the rumor that those who instigated the petition did so fraudlenlty in order to
“trick: the signers into joining or supporting the union. Nothing could be further from the truth truth is a configuration sadly missing from the entire equation. Sitel lead employees to believe that signing the petition obligated them to join a union. As late as 90 days ago the NLRB filed office was fielding calls from Sitel employees frantically demanding their names be stricken for the petition because they did not want to join a union.
The handful of initial pro union employees were demonized. In forced anti union meetings, people who did sign were so guilt laden they actually broke down crying and many of them apologized for signing it.
This campaign of fear,lies, and terror set employee against employee as the ultimate goal of division among the ranks was accomplished by Sitel. Long time employees were lead to believe they would lose their jobs through site closure if a union was voted in. This hysteria is still prevalent among many who work there, but the truth is finally coming out.
The overall result? Pure evil. M. Scott Peck author of “The Road Less Traveled” has stated that the worst from of evil is that which masks itself as good. Sitel fomented the role of itself as benign parent looking out for the best interests of it of its child like workforce. It was and it is despicable. It is also fact.