CWA District 4’s Mathews on call center jobs, broadband and healthcare

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Frank Mathews

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Frank Mathews, Administrative Director for District 4 of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss a setback in Michigan's Call Center Jobs Retention Act, the push for fiber-first broadband expansion and concerns over potential healthcare benefit taxation.

Mathews expressed disappointment over Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's veto of the Call Center Jobs Retention Act, which was supposed to protect call center jobs from offshoring. The bill, eight years in the making, would have penalized companies moving jobs overseas by disqualifying them from government loans and tax incentives. Whitmer cited existing laws as sufficient, but Mathews argued these have not prevented job loss in the industry. The CWA plans to refocus efforts on emphasizing penalties on tax incentives and government grants for offshoring, aiming to garner bipartisan support.

On broadband expansion, Mathews highlighted the CWA's advocacy for a fiber-first approach in utilizing the $65 billion allocated by the Biden administration's Infrastructure and Jobs Act. He warned against prioritizing unreliable satellite services, emphasizing fiber's superiority in speed, reliability and long-term viability. Mathews discussed Ohio's adoption of a fiber-first policy and anticipated the start of broadband grant awards by July, bringing fiber optic infrastructure to underserved areas.

Mathews also raised concerns about potentially reintroducing the so-called "Cadillac tax" on high-quality healthcare plans. He argued that labeling union healthcare plans as "Cadillac" misrepresents the sacrifices workers have made to maintain quality coverage. The CWA is proactively engaging with U.S. Congress members, seeking pledges against taxing healthcare benefits, to protect working families from bearing the cost of potential tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals.

For more insights on these critical labor issues, listen to the full episode above with Mathews.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

CWA District 4’s Mathews on call center jobs, broadband and healthcare

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