Oct. 7, 2003

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Guild Honors Customer Service Professional Day

Honoring Guild Unit Members Who Keep Compay Revenues Flowing

It’s time to recognize the folks who make it all possible, from Pulitzers to paychecks.

Without the customer service professionals of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, neither would exist. There are Guild Customer Service Professionals in nearly every Guild bargaining unit--so this week, in celebrations all across the local, co-workers are saying thank you to the people who labor graciously in the jobs that keep the customer satisfied and the revenue coming. It is their efforts that bankroll the journalism (and other work) that wins awards and the pay that butters your bread. And though they play an indispensable role in generating corporate profits, including the $229.5 million at Tribune Co. and $60.6 million at the Washington Post Co. during the second quarter, they certainly aren’t getting rich themselves.

They’re getting timed bathroom breaks.

So let’s pause to give them some applause, while redoubling the commitment every union member has to fight with them for better pay and working conditions. Their welfare is our business. Across the nation, there are at least 130,000 customer service professionals in the Communications Workers of America, the Guild’s parent union. Here are just a few examples of what they do at The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post:

— In advertising. Sales assistants such as the Sun unit’s Jake Schultz stay at their desks to manage the nuts and bolts of accounts, freeing up sales representatives to meet customers face to face. While the more highly paid sales reps are out visiting clients, Schultz handles calls from other customers, giving some demographic information that helps them target promotions or arranging to place their ads. “Our clients get what they need,’’ he said of how he approaches his job. But though Schultz handles a multimillion-dollar book of business that encompasses The Sun’s grocery store advertisers, his base pay — like that of other sales assistants — isn’t commensurate with his worth. Top minimum pay for The Sun’s advertising sales assistants: just under $37,000 a year.

— In classified. Post unit sales representative Darlene Meyer handles 20 to 30 customers a day, sometimes taking multiple calls from each as she answers questions about legal ads, takes orders for them and sets them herself. Every day brings a crisis. When a long-time customer blew a deadline and couldn’t place his ad in the pre-printed classified section, Meyer rushed to find room in another section for the time-sensitive notice. Like other customer service reps, she is part social worker and traffic cop, listening to advertisers’ problems and getting wayward phone calls to the right extension. Legal ads bring in what Meyer describes as a “massive” amount of business, but The Post’s top minimum base pay for positions like hers runs just $36,121 a year.

— In circulation. Hours before the sun rises, customer service reps are solving distribution problems that still-slumbering subscribers will never know they had. By 6:30 a.m., they are handling the first calls from irritated customers, changing the minds of some who threaten to cancel and “selling up’’ others, turning mad customers into better ones by getting them to expand their subscriptions before they hang up.

“These people take an unbelievable amount of verbal abuse,’’ Post unit shop steward Lynn Sulyma said, noting their efforts to save customer subscriptions and sign up new ones results in higher circulation, which in turn helps sell more ads. “That all ties in with money, money, money.’’

But for all their efforts, circulation customer service reps get limited breaks, computers that monitor their every move and top minimum pay ranging from $26,741 at The Sun to $34,560 at the Post, depending on the specific circulation department job title.

Other customer service reps have equally important and stressful jobs. Newsroom editorial assistants take and direct calls from readers with gripes and story ideas. Credit customer service reps chase down overdue payments from advertisers, bringing in revenue that otherwise would never get paid.

Customer service professionals earn far less than they bring in to the company in ads, subscribers, and clients, and the employer is rarely willing to recognize at the bargaining table just how important their work is. The Guild does recognize it, and will continue to fight for improved wages and working conditions for those who really are on the front line with the paying customer.

The Sun, The Post, Catholic News Service, and the American Nurses Association Staff Union Guild units all plan to honor their customer service professionals on Wednesday, October 8th. The Bureau of National Affairs Guild unit plans events throughout the week. Check with your local shop stewards about when and where the celebration for your customer service representatives will be and show up to give them some applause. They deserve all of our support.

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