TRENTON – New Jersey unions say the state Senate should move legislation they say would deter large companies from shipping call center jobs overseas.
Bob Master, a spokesman for New Jersey AFL-CIO, testified before a Senate committee today, urging lawmakers to support a bill he says would let American consumers know what companies are moving jobs, specifically call center positions, overseas.
Master took exception with companies he says have received millions of dollars of subsidies in recent years, but have added to the state’s unemployment by shipping work out of the country, he said.
“The idea behind this bill is very simple,” he said. “If companies like Verizon choose to send our work overseas, that’s their business. … But, the question is, should we be subsidizing those activities?”
“These middle-class jobs are being sent overseas (and are being) subsidized by (taxpayers),” said Master, who represents a union with 65,000 members in the state, including about 2,500 call center workers in New Jersey.
The Senate Economic Growth Committee heard testimony Thursday on A2651/S1920, which mandates 120 days notice be given to the state before a company moves a call center operation or at least 30 percent of its operating volume to a foreign country.
Master said the bill would ultimately make consumers more aware of which companies are sending jobs overseas.
The committee put the bill on its agenda as a discussion item.
“I think the issue here is whether the public policies of this state … should subsidize the export of good middle-class jobs overseas,” said Sen. Robert Gordon, (D-38), the bill’s sponsor in the Senate. “I argue that it should not.”
Opponents to the legislation said that since it’s not a federal mandate, the rule would put New Jersey at a disadvantage and make the state less attractive for new business.
The New Jersey Business and Industry Association and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce are opposed to the legislation.
The hearing coincides with a public relations campaign launched by organized labor in support of the bills. The Assembly version cleared the lower chamber 56-23 largely along party lines in March.
The coalition – which includes other labor unions as well as the Black Ministers Council, the Jewish Labor Committee, National Organization for Women New Jersey, and other groups, set up a website – notaxbreaksnj.org – to publicize its campaign.