Sitel issues memo to employees in response to Mountain Xpress story

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The Asheville location of Sitel, a call center operator with 600 employees, issued a memo this week in response to a Mountain Xpress story published Wednesday that detailed efforts by Sitel employees to unionize. Xpress was following a story Ashvegas first reported on in December 2011 regarding employee complaints about working conditions at Sitel.

In its memo, Sitel says it has worked to address an issue regarding the number of women’s restrooms on site. It says management aims to reward workers and create a fun working environment.

The memo takes issue with reporter David Forbes’ assertion that Sitel management didn’t responded to dozens of his phone calls. And it also re-states the company line regarding a union: “We feel very strongly that a union is not needed at Sitel.”

Read the entire Sitel memo here.

Story here about Fight Back! News interview w/ Asheville Sitel worker.

23 Comments

breaking news February 7, 2013 - 9:35 am

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Smytty February 7, 2013 - 10:16 am

Wrong thread? I think?

Kitty August 31, 2012 - 12:45 am

What’s going on at Sitel is just not right. Yes they let go of c.t because of the sexual affairs being had. But I’ve learned tonight that theirs more upper management doing the same thing then in return offer better positions to these agens and more money.

Media Watcher August 12, 2012 - 6:51 pm

This post is for the owner of the blog. Can the person being defamed in this comment sue you, the owner of the site, for allowing his name to appear in the derogatory comment?

Jennifer Saylor August 12, 2012 - 11:01 pm

Media, yes, the person could sue. But would they win, if they sued this blog for libel?

The most relevant information I can find on this matter is from the EFF, which states that blog owners are not liable for information posted by other content providers, like commenters:
https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/230

So even if a commenters’ complaints are actually libel and not fact (it’s only libel if the allegations are not true), it doesn’t look like a suit against this blog would be successful.

Media Watcher August 13, 2012 - 9:02 am

Thanks to Jennifer Saylor for thoughtful reply. I hope you’re right!

Predator August 12, 2012 - 2:44 pm

Kitty, the suprising part is how managent avoided terminating him before now. He made no secret about sexual harssing females and abusing people under him.

People did not have the confidence in Sitel mangement enough that they thought Sitel wqould really do anything

Sunnie21 August 7, 2012 - 8:52 am

OMG! Let’s see over the time that I been working here I had my lunches stolen least once every few month ….Contributed still least $5.00 a month to the pantry…Oh, and I got groceries stolen out of the fridge that I put there to take home to fix dinner for MY family. So ,are you saying being poor is an excuse to steal and have no respect for your co-workers property who are in the same boat ???
To Another Drone’s comment:
I hate kool aid and I do not need a Union who speaks up for me or for the most of us…The most of us are glad to have a job (still)
For the rest:
If you do not like whats going on at Sitel why did you start working here to begin with , just quit , apperantly you do not need the job , make space for someone who needs a job who would be happy to make 8.00 – 9.50 an hr , who needs benefits….Again if you unhappy just go …
Peace out

To Sunnie21 August 6, 2012 - 9:32 pm

Let me make sure I understand you.

1. Food pantry is because people steal other’s lunches, and you say this isn’t because of poor pay.

2. You want people to eat at work who cannot afford to buy lunch, but you do NOT want them to take food home “to feed their families’

3. You protest people who apparently need the use of the food pnatry because they ar poor, NOT putting money back into the food pantry.

Ok yeah. Got it. Hope you never get put in charge of the food pantry

Jonathan August 5, 2012 - 12:11 pm

I’m really proud of the workers at Sitel who are attempting to organize. I work as a child care provider, in a sector that would be really difficult to out source and where it would be hard to develop a business model where workers were very isolated from each other or their “customers.” But I often hear that our “new” economy is supposed to look more and more like Sitel: Very alienating and individual work environments, where service workers of one kind or another will be geographically separated from the companies and customers that rely on their services. Where the work of employees will have significant bearing on customers’ well being (at Sitel Asheville we’re talking about health and finance) but also will be intangible. And where our work will be poorly compensated and precarious.
It seems like by working together as people thrown together at a job site to have some kind of collective voice these folks at Sitel are making a significant move to push back against the alienation and atomitization that is not just part of Sitel’s business model, but which we are told is the future of work for all of us. Even though I work in a very different part of the service economy I hope and believe that building a union at Sitel could make the future of work look a little better for all of us and for the customers, clients, children, etc we serve.

shawn August 5, 2012 - 9:50 am

NC is a right to work state. Good luck with the Union. You won’t get very far. Your best option is to find another job….start a company, compete with them.

Sunnie21 August 6, 2012 - 1:19 pm

You guye just go ahead w/ this crap
and we all will be w/o a job …Hope you can live w/ this .

Another Drone August 6, 2012 - 9:24 pm

Sunnie21, once again, all you do is drink the Sitel kool aid. Can you not think for yourself?

Another Drone August 6, 2012 - 9:26 pm

Shawn: Do you think “right to work” means it is illegal to form a union? The only thing this means is that if a union is voted in at your workpace you dont have to pay dues. That is all it means

Please people for your own dignity…do al iitte reasearch befire you post something it isnt that hard

Sihell August 15, 2012 - 11:35 pm

Atleast now the people that really was misused for this whole thing by 2 very attention needing folks with their own issues have chosen to speak , if not for sitel many a family in ashevegas would go jobless, all hail sitel for coming to this area to provide much needed jobs for people that in a lot of cases would not have jobs at all or be shoving fast food out a window at a lower wage, living wage my rear, sitel give many that want to further themselves jobs while going to school and they clearly informed them of the wage they would be working for i love sitel and what it has done by choosing ashevegas as a site if dont like it then seek a better paying job elsewhere and good luck with that otherwise just do your job and stop slapping the hand that was gracious or stupid enough in some cases to give you a job to begin with , reply all you want i could care for less then you do about stirring things up when your fellow employees look at you like you are nuts, people of sitel stand up and see who they are that are keeping this going judge them as they have you they called you ignorant for putting up with your job is that what someone that cared for you would do. i say not they care for only themselves and using people such as conrad to try to seem as if they are the ones to goto, when in fact they are just using people to make themselves feel like they are something.

Dora Lancer August 4, 2012 - 7:05 pm

The letter says the reporter called two days before a news article hits but chose not to leave a message. The author of the letter says she would have called had she know what was up???? Reporter obviously indentifies himself and his paper. What message do you want lol?

I know for a fact that a photographer for Mountain Express was at the site taking picture outisde. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude that if ” a reporter calls” it is a matter of personal choice NOT to call back.

This letter is horse shit and does nothing at all to address the starvation wages Sitel pays. I can’t believe any Sitel employee would actually fall for this.

crock of crap August 4, 2012 - 6:48 pm

This memo was written by Sitel’s lawyers. It is not much differne than the last memo we got where Sitel played the victim of media and unscrupulous union thugs (lol).

What I find most telling in the memo is that Sitel basically ADMITS it took an organized effort and pressure from the media and the union BEFORE the bathroom was fixed.

mediawatcher, I dont follow your line of rationale that Jason Sanford interviewed anyone, I just see a copy of a letter. As a ,matter of fact, I recall Jason saying the same thing when ACT broke the original story that no one from Sitel wnated to comment.

Media Watcher August 4, 2012 - 5:49 pm

Jean Harmon was interviewed – by Jason Sandford? – for a Citizen-Times story published on August 2/3, 2011. Could that reporter – or Mr. Sandford, if it were he – comment on the ease or difficulty of getting in touch with Ms. Harmon for a quote? Should Mr. Forbes cite the names of the people at Sitel he tried to contact, the means (telephone, email, in person at the plant), and the dates?

Jake Quinn August 4, 2012 - 4:46 pm

I am shocked, SHOCKED to read that Sitel believes “very strongly that a union is not needed at Sitel.”

Clearly, a union is sorely needed at Sitel.

crock of crap August 4, 2012 - 6:49 pm

what do you expect them to say lol?

Sunnie21 August 6, 2012 - 1:49 pm

Just to make some stuff clear…the signatures collected WAS for the bathroom issue ONLY and nothing else , far as known only 3 people on this list are for the Union … this list was misused and abused and people got extremely upset when it turned out that the person who collected the signature gave it to the wrong people not to mention that the person herself was hurt and upset that she was misguided Appearantly this was just thing that was needed to start this BS ….To make it even more clear …least 80% if not more are against the Union ….We do not want them here ….We are glad we have a JOB
As far the section about the food pantry ….
Yes , we did not want take people food home to feed there families , this was not the purpose .
The purpose was to help people who forgot there lunches or short on cash so they can get something in there stomach. ALSO TO PREVENT LUNCHES TO GET STOLEN . BET NOBODY MENTION THIS ONE, STOLEN LUNCHES EVERY DAY DO NOT GIVE ME THE CRAP IF THEY WERE PAID BETTER THEY WOULD NOT STEEL….The sad part is the none of the people who contribute the money some of us 5.00-20.00 every month , took some for them self or rearly , but the once who filled there belly and steeling food from their co- workers never gave a dime …just complaining…So for you out there who are for the Union be ashamed of yourselfs
How about this , quit riding cars you can not afford, stop buying designer cloth , stop getting your nails done , a new hair do every other week or plaster your self w / 100.00 tatoos ..You whiners making me sick ….Why don’t you just quite ….Thanks to you guys the athmosphere here got worst ….Congratulation

Another Drone August 6, 2012 - 9:22 pm

Sunnie21. Just to clear things up, you were probably one of the many Sitel employees who thought that by signing the batroom petition you were joining a union and called the NLRB to ask that you name be taken off.

if you are, then you are guilty of being too ignorant to learn the truth instead of bellieving everythng said in the meetings

Thereis no way a bthroom petition can legally be sent to the NLRB as something people signed, and tghen be uysed to ceritfy a union election. try reading somethng once in awhile.

You prbably already know Sitel was questioning people about that petiton and this is illegal. The petition was given to the Union to protect the people who were on it who did nothing wrong. Not one person was EVER contatced by the Union to see if they wanted to help form a Union, so there goes your stupid theory……

Sitel (or their lawyers) lied and you were uneducated enough to fall for ti.

Sunnie21 August 7, 2012 - 8:07 am

Sunshine ….you are so wrong …I did not req to have my name removed , I was not questioned about the petition, I was not threatning or anything else ,
So do not assume anything about something you do not have clue about …
And do not be insulting about being uneducated …just look at your spelling
Turn your spellchecker on before you post LMAO

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