It was early February 2024, when workers, mostly from Tunisia and other countries, mostly from Africa, decided to shout “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” and to fight against the low wages and precarious conditions in call centres. Against the fear of redundancies, and overcoming the barrier of language and isolation imposed by remote working, a series of mass strikes in the largest call centres in the country followed, leading to the establishment of new company unions at Webhelp and Teleperformance. Those who participated in this movement, either as workers – an organic part of this struggle – or as activists in solidarity, saw what it is like for the class to stand up on its feet, to organise and overcome national divisions, to fight capital and achieve victories.
HISTORY
It all started in January with a Facebook post in a Tunisian community group, where a Telepeformance worker expressed dissatisfaction with delays in wage increases and called for mobilisations to put pressure on the bosses. A long discussion ensued within this group around the galley conditions at Teleperformance and resulted in a collection of signatures of resistance and demands for better conditions. Around 500 signatures were collected. An assembly was then organised and announced with the sectoral union, the Workers Union of Telecommunications and Computers in Attica Region (SETIP). The attendance at the assembly was very impressive. Most and in majority were Tunisian male and female workers. Everyone started to make proposals and talk about the wages and then about the overall working conditions in Teleperformance and other call centers. Then the union emailed the management of Teleperformance with the demands decided in the assembly and invited them to a meeting. Teleperformance bosses agreed to meet with the workers and after listening to the demands they requested time in order to consider them. But time passed and no answer was given. So begins the first round of the workers’ response. On February 8, 2024, the SETIP calls for a 24-hour strike in the country’s largest call centers. At Webhelp, TTEC, Foundever, Teleperformance. The demands were for the introduction of open-ended contracts, substantial increases in wages and the abolition of the “special purpose” visa through the immediate granting of work visas. The latter is of key importance for many migrant workers, as the renewal of their visa, and therefore their ‘legal’ stay in the country, depends on whether or not they continue to work in the given call centre.
THE SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STRUGGLE
Here we want to note some interesting elements that this particular struggle in call centres highlights, focusing more on Teleperformance. We refer more to this workplace because most of the workers who went on strike came from this company. It was there that in a sense the biggest confrontation between the workers and the bosses took place. We should note here that in the other multinational technical support-customer service companies (Webhelp, TTEC & FoundEver) the employees face the same problems and are asked to work in similar working conditions.
1. The Size of Teleperformance Greece
It is a giant company, which offers technical support services to a number of other companies from all over the world that outsource projects to it. Teleperformance is part of a multinational group with French interests and subsidiaries in 80 countries, employing 330,000 people worldwide. Teleperformance Greece’s turnover recorded a 9.63% increase reaching €453.23 million in 2023 from €413.38 million in 2022. This is presented by the company as a business success story, a modern and progressive workplace that contributes greatly to the growth trajectory of the domestic economy. It is currently the 4th largest employer in the country, employing more than 13,000 people in Athens, Thessaloniki and Chania. In this kind of working environment and in other large call centres, this important class struggle was carried out. This upset in fact the bosses of the call centres. We will argue that it was not only the capitalists of this sector who lost their sleep. The employers know that this flame of mobilisation can spread to other workplaces at any moment.
2. Working Conditions in Teleperformance
The company’s executives present at every opportunity an artificial image, that of the best workplace. So let’s look at the best workplace of Teleperformance. Switching between different contracts and intermediaries is a way for Teleperformance to escape the legislation that obliges the conversion of contracts to open-ended after some renewals in the same company. Working rhythms are extremely intensified under the pressure of continuous consecutive calls. You work on demanding performance indicators resulting in managers often downsizing (vindictive movement of employees to other projects) and even lay-offs. Wages are low and unable to cover basic needs at a time when food/commodity/rent accuracy is bringing exploited people to their knees. The mask of the ‘best workplace’ has fallen after thousands of call center workers, through their months-long struggle, revealed the true face of Teleperformance.”
3. The Class Constitution of the Mobilisations
Most of the workers who participated in the struggle were migrants, mainly from Tunisia and other French-speaking African countries. The “special purpose” visa regime hangs over them like a sword of Damocles, as their stay in the country depends on the renewal of their contract. They all know that in the private sector it is difficult to expose oneself and to confront the bosses. In this case we see the most vulnerable group of workers standing up and fighting with dignity.
4. Remote Work and Worker Organization.
Teleworking is dominant in Teleperformance, with the majority of employees working remotely from home. This means that most teleworkers have never met face-to-face with other colleagues. The big gamble for the labour movement after the lockdowns and the mass introduction of teleworking was how can the battle be fought remotely? The teleworkers found ways to overcome isolation, using social media to communicate, organise and co-ordinate their actions, proving that new technologies can become tools of organisation and solidarity even in telework conditions.
THE ROLE OF PAME & THE AUTONOMOUS STANCE WITHIN THE SETEP
The struggle in the call centres brought about the establishment of two company unions, Teleperformance (SETEP) and Webhelp (WUW). From the very beginning, the trade unionists of PAME sought to make the struggle sectoral in character. For example, the second strike on 19/2 was also attended by the business union at Cosmote E-value, which employs exclusively local workers. The aim was to unify the demands of workers in all call centres with the ultimate goal of signing a collective labour agreement. The PAME set as its first priority the union’s participation in the central political arena and the general short-lived strikes of the GSEE / working centres. This strategy did not come from within the class but from outside it and diverted discussion and organisation away from the everyday problems of migrant workers, who constituted the majority of the strikers at Teleperformance, leading to limited participation in the last strike actions.
Issues such as the creation of an extended network of employees within the company (without wishing to underestimate the need for coordination with employees from other companies), the establishment of committees in all foreign language departments, and solidarity through regular communication with lawyers on immigration law, were not seriously brought to the table. Moreover, the constitution of the SETEP, proposed by the trade unionists of the PAME, is a constitution that reflects the controlled and hierarchical character of trade unionism promoted by the party mechanisms. Unions with few assemblies and plenty of delegation. In short, what we want to say, and we are not saying it from an abstract ideological point of view, is that the logic of bureaucratic party unionism is killing the workers’ self-organization and collective intelligence, which were the driving forces of the struggle. Within SETEP, there is an autonomous movement of workers, both local and migrant, who are fighting to make the union a vibrant community of struggle through direct-democracy processes . They have succeeded in imposing a single ballot for the Board of Directors, preventing the union from becoming factionalized, and they demand frequent general assemblies so that they are the highest decision-making body. All this will encourage the participation of members in the assemblies and their workers’ needs/wishes will be at the centre of the union’s action. The SETEP should be a grassroots union and this seems to be what the main participants in the struggle want.
