Photo via Communications Workers of America Union
Riverview call center workers, employed by Maximus, at a rally in protest of mass layoffs, insufficient pay in May 2023
Workers from a nearby Maximus call center in Tampa, like Steven McLeary, will also join the picket line in solidarity on June 5.
McLeary, a 24-year-old customer service rep, fields calls from people with questions about Medicare and the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace. He’s grateful for his job.
Through his work with Maximus, which contracts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, McLeary actually gets his federally-mandated breaks (he’s worked four jobs—this is the first where his employer’s actually abided by that requirement).
Making a few dollars above Florida’s minimum wage of $11, at Maximus’ standard $17 per hour, he’s just barely able to afford rent each month in a region of Florida that’s experienced a surge in its cost of living.
But, McLeary says, it’s not enough to make ends meet for many of his coworkers—fellow call center reps—who struggle just to afford the basic costs of living in or near Tampa.
“There are people who work more than one job just to get by,” McLeary told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “Which isn’t right.”
A number of people at Maximus call centers in Tampa and Riverview also just lost their jobs, as part of a mass layoff of 700 employees nationwide. That’s the second major layoff this year.
“They claimed the call volumes were too low,” said McLeary, of Maximus, which has a $6.6 billion contract with the HHS and reported $4.63 billion in revenue last fiscal year.
One of the local workers recently laid off is Sheila Mills, who worked as a quality monitor. “It’s very stressful having to wonder how I’m going to take care of my children, put food on the table, and not to mention pay bills,” Mills said in a statement.
Laid-off employees will get two weeks’ severance for every year they’ve worked there, per McLeary.
“But it doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Two weeks’ worth of pay is not enough for people to live on till they get another job.”
So, for the first time in his life, he and his fellow co-workers earlier this year began organizing with Call Center Workers United, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America labor union.“It feels like my ability to continue to be a great employee and to provide adequate care as a mother was taken away from me.”
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Monday’s workers strike at the Riverview call center is an escalation meant to further uplift their demands for respect and dignity in the workplace.
According to Suzanne Snurpus, an organizer with the CWA, workers plan to deliver a strike notice to Maximus early Monday morning at the Riverview call center, then spend the day out on the picket line, with workers from both Tampa Bay area call centers, as well as community allies, present.
Maximus workers in Tampa, Riverview, and across the country are calling on their employer to pay customer service reps a minimum $25 per hour (a baseline they say is competitive for the work they do) and address other workplace issues.
For instance, longer bathroom breaks, protection against abusive callers, and allowing workers to exercise their lawful right to organize and form a union.
A lot of people are scared to organize, or to join the strike on Monday, said McLeary. “Because they think that if they do, that they're going to get retaliated against,” he said.
The CWA recently filed unfair labor practice charges against Maximus over allegations of firing pro-union workers across multiple call centers, and for making implied promises of benefits to employees to interfere with union activity.
Both complaints, if verified, constitute violations of the National Labor Relations Act.
Mills, the worker who was laid off, said Maximus was inflexible as she struggled to care for a child with chronic illness.
“Things changed for me at Maximus when my child became sick and I needed more flexibility in my schedule to care for him. I felt that my supervisor treated me harshly after I requested leave to look after my son, putting me in an impossible position,” she said. “It feels like my ability to continue to be a great employee and to provide adequate care as a mother was taken away from me.”
The Call Center Workers United organizing campaign first kicked off in earnest in 2018 in other parts of the country, according to Labor Notes, after hotline workers came forward with allegations of wage theft, totalling $100 million, against contractor General Dynamics, which was acquired by Maximus in November 2018.
Maximus, first founded in 1975, employs over 39,000 workers who collectively answer more than 7 million calls per month.
They operate the largest federally-contracted call centers in the country under contracts with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), operated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Maximus relies on its customer service reps, who serve as the backbone of their call center operations, helping people navigate their healthcare plans.
They get little to no downtime between calls on their shifts, which typically last eight hours.
And at the Tampa and Riverview locations, workers get just two six-minute bathroom breaks per shift. Going over time could lead to a “conversation” with a supervisor, said Snurpus.
Call center workers answer about 15-20 calls per day, spending about 30 minutes on each call.
Sometimes workers—a majority of whom are women and people of color—face abusive callers, callers who express thoughts of suicide. Sometimes they get racist comments.
The CWA has blasted Maximus over racial inequities, as the company touts its diverse workforce and commitment to diversity (Maximus’ workforce at the Riverview call center is about 75.5% female and 80.6% people of color, per the union).
And workers in Florida aren’t the only ones to take action. Last November, Maximus workers went on strike in Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Virginia.
The strike planned by workers in Riverview on Monday comes after workers rallied last month, and coincides with strikes planned in Virginia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
“This is a critical period for affordable care act (ACA) enrollment, just as millions of Americans may be pushed off of Medicaid and will need help maintaining their health coverage through the federal marketplace that is staffed by the call center workers at Maximus,” the union said in a statement.
Although the workers have not yet sought formal union recognition, workers also want the company to allow them to organize free of unlawful intimidation or interference.
As an additional call to action, workers are also calling on HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to investigate whether Maximus’ labor practices are consistent with its responsibilities as a federal contractor, and for the Biden administration to publicly voice support for their demands.
“We want the Biden administration to say that, you know, workers deserve the ability and have the right to organize, and they deserve better wages,” said Snurpus.
They control the purse strings to some extent, she added, because of the multibillion dollar contracts they have with Maximus.
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay reached out to Maximus for comment on this story, but has not heard back as of publication.
The West Central Florida labor council, a coalition of AFL CIO-affiliated unions in the Tampa Bay region, tweeted their support of the strike late Thursday, calling on the community to show up to the picket line Monday morning in solidarity.Strike Request Support: Join us on the strike line Monday!
— West Central FL Labor Council 🤝 (@WCFLC) June 2, 2023
Call Center workers organizing with @CWAUnion are going on a one-day strike in Riverview as they struggle for fair pay and better job stability. pic.twitter.com/xF0XNDzrfB
Local elected officials, including Florida Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa), Hillsborough County commissioner Pat Kemp, former Florida Rep Sean Shaw, as well as various union members and other political advocacy groups will be in attendance.
St. Pete city council member Richie Floyd, a former teacher and delegate to the local labor council, also tweeted his support.
McCleary said local Maximus employees want to be able to have respect in the workplace, job security, and wages that allow them to live comfortably.
“If we’re distracted with our own problems, we can’t help them [callers] the best that we can.”
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