Date: 01 Jun 2000 00:00:00 +0000
To: pmargin-AT-xchange.anarki.net
Subject: Report on the current stage of the investigation of call centers


kolinko (collective in communist movement) June 2000

Report on the current stage of the investigation of call centers


Hello!
Some of you did get our "Proposal for an Investigation of Call Centers" in  
December 1999. About half a year later, we want to give you and others a  
report on what we have done and discussed since then and what will be our  
next steps.
We have put it in this order:

I. Starting point

II. What we have done so far
- Questions and answers
- Proposal for an investigation
- Working
- Interviews
- Theoretical discussion

III. What we have planned
- Website/brochure
- Worker's discussions/flyers
- Our tasks


I. The starting point

The class struggle in the second half of the 90s was far less than  
exciting, in our region, too: the Ruhrgebiet. Hardly any open conflicts,  
no movements, few signs of self-organizing of workers, where we could have  
got involved. In such a situation it is necessary to take a closer look  
and investigate in order to understand the developement of capitalism and  
class struggle and to find new revolutionary perspectives.
We have started the investigation of call centers because since 1998 we  
had noticed that in the Ruhrbebiet more and more people work there. Then  
workers at the Citibank's call centers in Bochum and Duisburg staged a  
strike. Furthermore, not only in Ruhrgebiet politicians and managers tried  
to present call centers as the perspective of work.
The investigation shall show what exactly is happening in the call  
centers, how important they are for the accumulation of capital and  
whether they can (and will) be a new center of worker's power and worker's  
struggles against capitalist exploitation.
We wanted to know what role different call centers play in certain chains  
of production and circulation and whether and why they are concentrated in  
certain regions; what kind of people work there; what meaning does the  
concentration of hundreds of workers in call centers have; and was the  
strike at Citibank a sign of a new militancy?


II. What we have done so far

1. Questions and answers
In order to understand the importance of call centers for the process of  
accumulation we made a list of questions which we think are crucial for  
the investigation. We searched for articles in archives, libraries and  
magazines and extracted information using the list of questions. You can  
find part of the results on our website (only in German).
We collected lots of information that we assigned to the questions.  
Nevertheless, in the meantime our questions have changed - in particular  
through our experiences at work in call centers and our theoretical  
discussions - so we have to go through the material once more and analyse  
it again.

2. Proposal for an investigation
We did not want to limit the investigation to our region and therefore -  
as mentionned before - have written a "Proposal for an Investigation of  
Call Centers". We wanted to allow comrades in other cities in Germany and  
elsewhere to participate in the investigation and, in this way, start a  
disussion on revolutionary strategy and our tasks. You can find the letter  
in several languages on the website.
So far we got reactions from people from Germany, England, USA, Canada and  
India. A group from Italy promised to send a critique. Some of these  
people and groups send us newspaper articles and information on the  
situation and struggles in call centers, for instance in Canada and Spain.  
Furthermore, we got together with a group in Berlin which currently  
concentrates on call centers and just organized a meeting of call center  
workers.
We got different reactions to the proposal itself. One critique was, that  
we throw around marxist terminology, and therefore just attract  
politically experienced groups and persons, but did not think about  
interested call center agents or just people who want to do something on  
call centers. We see this problem, too. This report is also an attempt to  
broaden the discussion. We will put it on the website in German and  
English (and we will send it to the addresses on the mailing-list).

3. Working
We wanted to find out, how the work is organized in call centers, what  
kind of people work there, what they think and how they behave, what  
conflicts exist and where struggles occur. Therefore, we started working  
in several call centers.
So far we have made experiences in six call centers - in banking, order- 
taking, technical support (all inbound, where the agents take the calls)  
and in the arrangement of appointments (outbound, where the agents makes  
calls). We have met many workers and now have lots of material. We will  
use that when we will start producing flyers in order to intervene in  
conflicts in call centers (see also below).

4. Interviews
We did not want to rely on our own experiences alone and made a  
questionnaire for the purpose of interviewing other workers. It is our aim  
to include comrades and other workers in the investigation, to discuss  
with them and to analyse the information and experiences. We have  
translated the questionnaire into several languages and put in on the  
website.
Until now we have not made enough interviews, respectively have not  
received enough (about 15 so far on call centers in Germany, the  
Netherlands and France). That means we have to concentrate on that. We  
want to make a first analysis by mid-June.
We got criticisms concerning the questionnaire as well. It is definitely  
too long to quickly interview a collegue. We thought that you will use it  
in a - for each instance - appropriate manner. We decided to make some  
interviews with special questions and emphasis on certain subjects (for  
instance with agents who took part in a strike, or agents who have been  
working in call centers for a long time and can tell us a lot about the  
changes of the machinery).
In order to be able to explain agents in a short manner why we make  
interviews, we have written a flyer that we will give to them from now on.  
Some of you might have got it already, the others can find it on the  
website (in German and English).
In case you have some time and know call center agents, discuss with them  
and send us the results!

5. Theoretical discussion
Using the questions on call centers we have started a theoretical  
discussion with the central focus on a better understanding of capitalism  
and the chances for revolutionary change. This is just an overview. We  
will provide you with more detailled versions on the single issues later:

a) Class composition
We need to understand what determines the forms and aims of worker's  
struggles. Neither the political enlightenment by a political party nor  
the accidental coming-together of brave workers is decisive here, but the  
material conditions under which the workers get together every day - how  
they work together and how they relate to the supervisors and the  
machinery. Furthermore, it is important what kind of commodities they  
produce, how significant their work is for the accumulation of capital and  
the social division of labour, and how they conceive all this themselves.
Call centers are involved in different sectors (banking, computer  
industry, etc.) and also have different functions (marketing, technical  
support, etc.). We want to find out whether the mode of production/kind of  
work on one hand and the conflicts and forms of self-organizing of call  
center agents on the other can be starting points of the development of a  
new worker's power. We see that as part of the discussion on the possible  
development of a new class movement in which call center workers are  
involved.

(Literature: Battagia, Roberto: Massenarbeiter und gesellschaftlicher  
Arbeiter - einige Anmerkungen ueber die "neue Klassenzusammensetzung".  
wildcat-zirkular Nr.36/37, April 1997, S.115-130 - originally published in  
Italian in: Primo Maggio Nr.14, Winter 1980/81, S.71-77; Interview with  
Toni Negri: "Vom Massenarbeiter zum gesellschaftlichen Arbeiter" (1979).  
German version published in: Thekla 5, Karlsruhe, 1984)

b) Productive cooperation
In order to increase productivity and to control the work process, capital  
is bringing together many workers in factories, offices, etc. At the same  
time it separates them within the work process by dividing the work into  
many single operations and by carrying it out in different firms,  
departments and teams. That way capital can present itself as the  
organiser of production, on whom the workers depend.
But the actual cooperation also means that workers can realize their collecitve power and have a chance to organize their struggle against exploitation along the lines of this cooperation.
The cooperation itself varies in different call centers. In some there is  
hardly any direct cooperation at all. The customers are dealt with  
individually or calls simply get transferred (for instance in banks). In  
others call centers several workers might deal with one call by  
communicating directly with each other (for instance in technical  
support).
The individualized way of working is reflected by the rather individual  
behaviour of many agents (having breaks, going on sick-pay, quitting the  
job...). At the same time it is obvious that hardly any call center would  
function without the mutual support of the agents in dealing with  
technical problems, missing skills and trainings on the side of the agents  
or problems with the organization of work.
(Literature: Marx, Karl: Das Kapital, Band I, MEW Bd.23, Berlin, 1974,  
u.a. Kapitel 11: "Die Kooperation", S.341-356)

c) Machinery and the organization of work
In capitalism machinery is on one hand a mean of production, used in order  
to produce commodities - usually in a much more productive way. On the  
other hand it is a mean of control because it makes it possible to  
dispossess the workers of their knowledge of production and to dictate the  
rhythm of work.
The machinery used in call centers shows this dual character as well. The  
old telephone switchboards, which answered the calls and transferred them  
to "skilled" workers, were transformed into call centers where "semi- 
skilled" workers perform case handling. This happens while the work  
processes in all offices are getting changed. Work gets devided into  
single operations and is intensified. Shift work is introduced and  
machinery brought in that makes tougher controls of the agents possible,  
separates them from the fellow workers and takes away their ability to  
control the rhythm of work.
(Literature: Noble, David F.: Maschinen gegen Menschen. Die Entwicklung  
numerisch gesteuerter Werkzeugmaschinen. In: Thekla 7, Karlsruhe, 1985. S.  
149-196; Noble, David F.: Forces of Production. A Social History of  
Industrial Automation. New York, 1984)

d) Information- and immaterial work
Capital tries to dispossess the workers of their knowledge of the process  
of production - whereever it thinks this is necessary and possible - in  
order to ensure control over work and to prevent the worker's usage of  
their knowledge for slow downs etc. Therefore, it divides the knowledge,  
the comprehensive understanding of the planning and making of the product,  
into single pieces of information. After that it can, for instance, store  
and process these pieces by using a machine. The workers then have no  
access to a comprehensive knowledge of the process of production anymore -  
which is certainly true for most call center agents - and just receive and  
send pieces of information or perform single operations. Through the  
control of the process of production using so-called "scientific methods"  
(in the development of machinery, taking apart the work process...),  
productivity could be increased immensely - which also gives us the chance  
to free ourselves from work, because we do not have to work our butts off  
in order to feed and clothe ourselves, etc. anymore. But these methods are  
used in such a way that the workers become an appendage of the machinery  
and have to work more - instead of less.
Writers like Negri and Lazzarato refer to the "scientific methods" and the  
increase in productivity and see communism already realized here. They put  
their focus on a small group of creative workers (in the media, designers,  
programmers) - who have a certain control over their work process - as the  
new subject/figure on which they build their political perspective. That  
has hardly anything to do with the reality of longer working hours,  
further dispossession of knowledge and the intensification of work (not  
only in call centers and other offices).
(Literature on immaterial work: Lazzarato, Maurizio: Immaterielle Arbeit.  
Gesellschaftliche Taetigkeit unter den Bedingungen des Postfordismus. In:  
Atzert, Thomas (Hrsg.): Umherschweifende Produzenten. Immaterielle Arbeit  
und Subversion. Berlin, 1998, S. 39-52; Lazzarato, Maurizio: Verwertung  
und Kommunikation. Der Zyklus immaterieller Produktion. In: Atzert, Thomas  
(Hrsg.): Umherschweifende Produzenten. Immaterielle Arbeit und Subversion.  
Berlin, 1998. S. 53-65)

e) Circulation and productive/unproductive labour
The capitalist process of accumulation takes place in two phases,  
production, where values are created, and circulation, where values are  
realized through the sale of the commodities. Most call centers are  
involved in the phase of circulation (banks and other financial services,  
ordering service, etc.), some in the phase of production (for instance in  
transport).
In this context we also discussed the differentiation of productive (value- 
creating) and unproductive (not value-creating) labour. This  
differentiation rather concerns capital because on the level of society/a  
whole economy only productive, value-creating labour increases the whole  
amount of surplus value and profits - and therefore can also be a way out  
of crisis. Unproductive labour on the other hand, which creates no value,  
reduces the whole amount of surplus value.
We need to break up the term "service sector" and find out in detail which  
sectors create immaterial values and that way increase the amount of  
surplus value (for instance technical support, hotel/restaurants) and  
which sectors do not create any values at all (banks, sales). Then we can  
see whether there is actually a tendency towards an expansion of the  
unproductive sectors - which one might think, taken the call center boom.  
That still leaves us with the question what this expansion actually means.
Last but not least it is important what significance the worker's  
struggles have and can have in these sectors.
(Literature on circulation: Marx, Karl: Grundrisse der Kritik der  
politischen Oekonomie, MEW 42, Berlin, 1983, u.a. "Umlauf des Geldes", S.  
117-132; "Kreislauf des Kapitals", S. 421-454). ... on productive and  
unproductive labour: Behrens, Friedrich: Produktive Arbeit und technische  
Intelligenz. without place and year of publishing.; Savran, Sungun; Tonak,  
E. Ahmet: Productive and Unproductive Labour: An Attempt at Clarification  
and Classification. Capital & Class #68, Summer 1999; Goldner, Loren;  
"Productive and unproductive labour" in the script "The Unmaking of the  
American Working class" which can be found on the website of Collective  
Action Notes: www.geocities.com/capitolhill/lobby/2379)


III. What we have planned for the upcoming weeks

1. Website/brochure

We have not decided yet what we exactly want to do with the results of the  
discussion.
On one hand it is our task to understand the situation in call centers as  
well as possible. We need to know, how important they are for the class  
struggle. Using our understanding of this we want to add to a discussion  
on the perspectives of class struggle in general. Therefore, we created  
the website where we present our results. Furthermore, we will publish  
something in printed format, as a brochure or a range of articles. That  
too can only be (provisional) results and reports based on the stage of  
our discussions at the time we publish them. We have realized that we  
cannot hurry through all important discussions within a few months.  
Nevertheless, we do not want to get lost in theoretical discussions  
either.

2. Worker's discussions/flyers

We want to intervene in the worker's dicussions and make flyers to some of  
the important issues and distribute them to the workers. These flyers will  
focus on the conflicts in call centers.

Here is an (incomplete) list of conflicts and discussions in call centers,  
that we have come across so far:

a) Working hours
This is a topic whereever you have got shift work. Some people prefer  
working on weekends, in the evenings or at night, others see how their  
social contacts fade away, how they get problems with sleeping or are  
tired all the time. Problems arise as well when agents have other jobs,  
have to take care of children oder simply with partners who they hardly  
see anymore. Some call centers schedule special shifts on top of that and  
agents have to work 50 or 60 hours a week. In other call centers workers  
do not get any contracts and get called just when they are needed, do not  
get paid holidays, shall work double shifts, etc. Many react with staying  
home sick or just leave the job after some time.

b) Salary
The levels of salaries in call centers are quite different but even with about 20 DM an hour - pretty much for that job - the agents cannot afford much. Especially tough is the situation where part of the wage depends on performance. Some call centers e
ven pay a group bonus. They want that agents put pressure on each other in order to get that group bonus. Other call centers do not pay supplements for nights, Sundays or bank holidays. Many call centers have no regulations on that.
The agents get upset about the salary, and some even ask the boss for more. After all, most agents still prefer trying to get a better job (some in other call centers). In Ruhrgebiet there are many new call centers which are looking for people. Sometime
s it even works out with getting a higher salary - at least for those who have experience as agents. Some call centers even pay a bonus of up to 1000 DM to those agents who arrange the hiring of a new agent.

c) Work-content
All agents have one experience in common: the bad treatment of customers.  
The work is organized in a way that again and again calls end up in never  
ending call queues and people are confronted with "We cannot do that!"- or  
"We are not allowed to do this!"-explanations. The teamleaders go on  
everybodies nerves with service-orientation and the obligation of being  
friendly but at the same time they press for short call handling and often  
reject trainings. Those agents who still want to deal with the callers in  
a decent way realize that this does not work. Furthermore, most agents do  
not care about the product itself - the orders, the technical devices, the  
bank-tranfers, etc. This also leads to discussions on the sense of the job  
and the organisation of work.


d) Control
The duration of calls, of post-call work, the number of calls taken and a  
lot more is recorded by the netservers, analyzed by the teamleaders and  
used against the agents. Often the teamleaders would run around the rows  
of seats to check whether the agents are working hard enough. The agents  
are creative in organizing breaks and letting the statistic look good, but  
there are limits to this.

e) Working conditions
Concerning the number of calls, the technical environment, the  
organisation of the workplaces, etc. we have come across different setups.  
There are call centers where agents can hardly talk to collegues because  
the phone is ringing constantly and calls get sent straight through to the  
headset. There are noisy and narrow phone booths, schedules, that do not  
allow taking breaks with collegues, daily changing sitting orders, so that  
agents sit together with different collegues every day, etc. We have  
experienced the burn-out syndrom after hundreds of calls a day, and the  
deadly boredom, because no soul is calling or because the calls are so  
monotonous that the shift is agonizing. The agents react in different  
ways: some ignore the schedules whenever possible and have breaks with  
collegues they know; others let the phone ring or put down the phone "by  
accident"; and again they go on sick-pay or just leave the job when it  
gets too bad.

3. Our tasks

When writing flyers we need to address these conflicts, reactions and  
discussions. Agents often take all this as individual experiences. We have  
to emphasize the common aspects of these experiences, the possibilities  
for collective actions and forms of organizing. Here we can underline the  
basic contradictions like the contraint to work and the exploitation under  
capitalism. We want to help making the conflicts more open so that they  
take on - away from the individual "tricks and escapes" - more collective  
forms.

Part of that is also a critique of the role of unions and groups like the  
"Citi Critics" which was formed after the strike at the Citibank. They  
address the conditions in call centers just as a base for their reformist  
initiatives. They try to control and integrate the developing conflicts  
and therefore function in favor of the lasting existence of exploitation.

In our flyers we have to put light on the possible realization of  
communism, taken the development of capitalism as well as the daily  
conflicts in the sphere of exploitation and the class struggle.
We do not want any moaning about how bad the situation is in call centers.  
We want to give hints how we can get out of the situation and start  
attacking!


Send us your critique, opinions, thoughts!
Start your own investigations and send out reports!


kolinko-AT-koma.free.de
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/kolinko/




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