Congress Wrestles with 'Slamming,' Myth of High-Tech Job Shortages

Congress is wrestling this year with a number of bills that may affect CWA members and other high-tech workers throughout the nation, according to speakers at CWA's 1998 national legislative-political conference.
One of the bills would outlaw "slamming," which is viewed as a form of high-tech theft that may affect as many as two million consumers annually.

CWA strenuously opposes another bill, which would increase the number of foreign workers allowed into the U.S. to fill nonexistent job shortages and is viewed as an attack on highly-skilled American workers.

A third set of measures focuses on employers - including telecommunications industry executives - who misclassify workers as "independent contractors" when, in truth, the labeling is used to deny workers their rights.


Slamming and Cramming
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who is the most senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, attacked the Federal Communications Commission for failing to protect telephone consumers from "slamming and cramming."

• Slamming is the practice by small, aggressive, anti-union companies to hijack consumers from larger companies such as AT&T.
  
  
• Cramming is the practice by which phone companies load up consumers with services they don't need and often can't afford.
  

Dingell has introduced the Slamming Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 3050), which would empower customers to recover three times the actual economic loss in cases of intentional slamming, plus attorneys' fees. The Senate, on May 12, passed, 99-0, John McCain's (R-Ariz.) and Fritz Hollings' (D-SC) Consumer Anti-Slamming Act (S. 1618), which prohibits the switching of a carrier without a verbal, written or electronic verification. Dingell also plans to introduce legislation that would end the practice of cramming.

High Tech Hoax
The software industry has gone crying to Congress, claiming there is a shortage of skilled workers and that without authority to increase the number of foreign workers permitted in the U.S., the nation will lose its competitive edge.

CWA President Morton Bahr is only one of a number of American leaders who have called the so-called shortage "hogwash" and a "hoax." CWA vigorously opposes S. 1723, the American Competitiveness Act, introduced by Sen. Spencer Abraham (R- Mich.), which would authorize thousands of new foreign workers to enter the U.S. over the next several years.

CWA's position is twofold: 1) no shortage exists and the hidden agenda of the high-tech industry is greater access to cheap labor and 2) the federal government should create training opportunities for downsized American workers, allowing them to compete for jobs that may exist.

The High-Tech Immigration and United States Worker Protection Act (S. 1878), introduced by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.), would provide $100 million for training - but was rejected on a 10-8 party line vote in the Judiciary Committee.


'Contract' Scam
During recent years, employers - including employers in the telecommunications industry - have victimized workers by misclassifying them as independent contractors, thereby denying them the umbrella of protections covered by the National Labor Relations Act and other laws which govern employee-employer relationships.

There are an estimated 9 million independent contractors working in the U.S. today, moving from project to project, assignment to assignment, often subjected to a form of double taxation on Social Security, high health care premiums and more frequent Internal Revenue Service audits.

CWA supports H.R. 2642, introduced by Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), which would simplify the test that establishes whether a worker is classified as an employee or independent contractor, and H.R. 769, H.R. 770 and H.R. 771, introduced by Reps. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Chris Shays (R-Conn.), which would overturn a safe haven provision in the IRS code that protects employers who misclassify workers.