The union elections at Ohio's University's Call Center were pulled, but that is not stopping student workers from trying to unionizing.
Despite a setback, students workers at Ohio University's call center are continuing their efforts to unionize.
A union election for the university's "Bobcat Phonathon" call center, managed by the company Wilson-Bennett Technology, was pulled despite being originally scheduled for Nov. 15, Ryan Powers, a call center worker and a junior studying philosophy, said.
“(Call center workers) deserve to be paid a fair wage," Powers, who started working at the call center over the summer, said. "We raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the university and ... Ohio University pays the call center more than half a million dollars. We think it’s only fair that we get a fair share of that pie.”
About 60 student workers work at the call center and filed for a union election after more than 90 percent of its employees signed union cards, Powers said. However, the union election was pulled last week because the call center hired "union busters" from the firm International Labor Relations, which created a hostile environment, Powers said.
“Ohio University and Wilson-Bennett created an unfair environment to have an election in," Powers said. "It was impossible to have a fair election within a work environment that was so hostile. It created an atmosphere of intimidation and fear."
The Columbus-based union AFSCME Ohio Council 8 partnered with the call center employees and filed the petition to unionize, Will Klatt, an OU alumnus and organizer for AFSCME, said.
“There was a union busting firm that came in and some other activities that we just felt put students in a position where they were under pressure not to come together, and until we resolve those issues we’re not going to go forward with an election,” Klatt said.
Collin Geddis, a call center worker and a senior studying psychology and sociology, said he and Powers, along with union organizers, decided to pull the election "temporarily."
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“If we file for election and it didn’t go through, we would have to wait an entire year, so we’re withdrawing so we can still build this year,” Geddis, who started working at the call center in September, said.
Geddis said the call center took away employees' 15-minute breaks, which upset workers.
“(Breaks) would be nice because it's like a dial tone in your ear for three hours. Just to be able to step away from that would be very nice," Geddis, who started working at the call center in September, said. "The break was a lot of people's big thing and wages and more of a conversation in our job too."
Going forward, the call center is still looking to unionize. Klatt said in the future, there could be another election.
“We’re going to try again and approach it a little bit differently and understand what they will do and hopefully create more of an environment where we can foster dialogues and not just have them bring in union busters,” Geddis said.
Megan Duncan, national director at Wilson-Bennett Technology, declined to comment.
“The fact that the call center workers came so close to actually forming a union should be a sign of hope for other student workers across campus and should show that it is actually physically possible to form a union and get paid a fair wage,” Powers said.
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