Steve Demmings' article "Manitoba's lack of motion: Province missing boat" is a highly skewed and misleading PR piece that should to be dismissed without further consideration. Mr. Demmings, president of a call-centre consulting firm, bemoans the fact that Winnipeg lost out on attracting companies like RIM (Research In Motion: manufacturers of the Blackberry) from setting up shop here. Never mind the fact that RIM is less than a month away from a hearing in the U.S. that could spell oblivion, or that more and more "customer contact centres" are leaving our shores every day for cheaper labour overseas, we should, he argues, be doing our best to foster a high-tech work force to man a ship that has already sailed. I would counter that the way to develop a "knowledge economy" is not to hop on the backs of wind-blown, bottom-line obsessed multi-nationals, but to create innovation and excellence within our own community by encouraging the growth of small and medium sized businesses. Sell your snake oil somewhere else Mr. Demmings.
Friday, February 03, 2006
We Don't Need Your Stinking Call Centres
This is another letter sent to the editors of the Free Press. If you have a subscription there is a link to the original editorial embedded in the title of this posting.
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After 'poisoning the well' in Manitoba in his Winnipeg Free Press puff-piece entitled: Manitoba's lack of motion Province missing boat attracting high-tech jobs, in which he was highly critical of the Manitoba government, Steve Demmings has been hired as Founding CEO by the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC). His solution to the ailing Thunder Bay Economy: Low-Paying Call Centre Jobs.
In a recent edition of ExportWise published by Export Development Canada, Steve Demmings was quoted as advocating low-paying call centre jobs in replacement of high-paying resource-based jobs such as those until recently plentifully available in Thunder Bay’s forestry and pulp and paper sectors.
The article entitled ‘Call Centres: Ringing in Profits’ reads as follows:
According to Site Selection Canada [Demmings’ personal consulting firm], in the last three years 166 call centres were established in Canada, creating about 50,000 jobs. Of these, 60 per cent were smaller call centres located in tier two and tier three cities, with up to 300 employees. This would indicate an emerging opportunity in the smaller centres such as Thunder Bay, Sault Saint Marie, Bathurst and Sydney.
"We have a strong infrastructure and a growing reputation for delivering quality service at an affordable price. The next step is to focus on education and training, especially in those resource-based communities where industries are dying. This is a great opportunity to build our skill level and give people meaningful jobs at decent salaries of $40,000 to $60,000 a year," says Demmings.
I don’t know what I find more reprehensible, the fact that Mr. Demmings clearly doesn’t understand the fact that call centres only pay their employee operators between $8.00/hr and $11.00/hr (i.e. $16,640 and $22,880 per year respectively based on a 40-hour work week), or the fact that notwithstanding Mr. Demmings’ palpable lack of understanding of the economic development needs of the City of Thunder Bay, that the CEDC has nonetheless hired Mr. Demmings to lead Thunder Bay out of economic decline. From 'Call Centre Salesman' to 'Chief Economic Development Officer', this bubble-blower's product is still the same old snake oil.
SOURCE: http://www.edc.ca/english/publications_10819.htm
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