I had an interesting discussion today at a press conference held by Sal Rosselli, president of United Healthcare Workers West, which represents 140,000 S.E.I.U. members in California, who, as many of you know, is the public face of a group of delegates and leaders who object to some of the positions, actions and vision of SEIU’s top leaders. There has been much consternation about SEIU’s proposal to create call centers that will handle workplace and union issues for members. Rosselli said he didn’t object to the idea in general, saying it depends how they are implemented.

    I have to say that I don’t think that the union has done, initially, a very good job of explaining how these call centers will operate–or maybe it was just yours truly that didn’t get it. When you say "call center," most people think of some faraway operation that answers calls on everything from your wireless modem that won’t connect (having personally had to wrestle with that, boy, did I want to strangle the modem maker and the person on the other end of the phone) to your phone bill.

    But, that isn’t what is being proposed here. The call-center is run by union staff. At least in New York City, at Local 32BJ, the call center is in the union building. The phone calls are fielded by people who know the contracts, and know how to explain and deal with grievances and other problems. Because all the calls are logged into a database, the union’s leaders can track workplaces to see if there are specific problems arising in a specific place. So, let’s say you get six complaints from one building, that can get flagged and dealt with.

    I’m not saying that this could be a problem if members begin to feel distant from the union. But, the flip side is this: having run a local union before, I recall that the union spends 95 percent of the time dealing with 5 percent of the members. The theory–and this will be tested over time–is that a call center can resolve a lot of basic questions and problems members raise, freeing up union staff to be deployed for organizing or political work.