With the rise of the gig economy, call center work has quickly risen as a cornerstone industry in cities across Ireland. In Cork, the local branch of the CYM recently started a campaign to highlight the stressful conditions that workers face everyday. The Facebook page, Scabtran, had gained around 700 followers in the first handful of days of its existence. This boomed to over 1000 overnight after Pat Ryan, Abtran CEO, sent an email to all staff advising them to stay away from the page and campaign calling them “unreasonable and aggressive”. Organizers and page admins posted a reply tearing the scab’s email apart, exposing the lies and capitalist propaganda that only served to divide and individualize the workers, attempting to dissuade them from joining the IWU by making reference to the “Employee Assistance programme and consultation initiatives including the Employee Forum”, programs that workers have reported to the Scabtran page as being less than useless and unable to enact any real change for the workers on the call center floor.
It has come to the attention of current and former employees, that Abtran is so woeful a place to work in that people literally leave on a daily basis. The CEO receives a daily leavers report day in, day out.
Worked to the bone, treated poorly by the management, provided effectively minimum wage and essentially used as tools to generate profit for Abtran and the companies Abtran sub-contracts out to, the place is devastating the lives of thousands of young people.
Everybody in Cork is aware of how much of a shit place it is to work and that is no exaggeration. We have decided to do something about this crisis. Those of us working in Abtran and who have formerly worked there are looking to the people of Cork for your help in reaching as many current and former Abtran employees.
We want your stories.
We want your experiences.
We want your thoughts.
We will begin publishing them (anonymously) but we will also provide you legal advice on your issues. We will ask you to consider your options, to think about, what can you REALLY do?
You can start by considering joining a union.
REACH OUT! WORKERS TOGETHER ARE INVINCIBLE!
