Free Queens Jan 28:“Union organizing and the globalization of information technology employment”
Free Queens presents Making Meaning: Conversations on Society and Culture
The Free Queens Winter course will be presented by Queen’s University Graduate students. You can access details about each week of the course here: http://www.queensu.ca/freequeens/?page_id=7 .
On Monday January 28th, 6:30 pm in Dunning 12, Andrew Stevens presents “Calling for resistance: Union organizing and the globalization of information technology employment”
This lecture looks at the nature of call centre employment, an important part of the broader information- and knowledge-based industries, and how this sector is being shaped by corporate globalization, offshoring, and technological change. The lecture also examines the conditions of work within call centres, such as the degree of workplace surveillance, management control, as well as related physical and mental stress. As a response to these realities, the lecture looks at forms of resistance that take place at local and collective levels, with an emphasis on the potential for increased unionism within the sector and greater solidarity between workers and worker organizations. With StarTek (an American-based outsourced call centre firm) being a major employer in Kingston, this lecture has some regional significance.
Biography: Andrew Stevens is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and is researching the political economy of outsourcing, offshoring, and the call centre industries in Canada and India. His Master’s level work looked at Marxist and anarchist theories of organization.
ACCESIBILITY - There will be hearing aid devices available at the lectures for those who need them. If you have any other accessibility requirements please contact freequeens@sgps.ca or 613.533.2924 and they will do our best to ensure those needs are met.
In Free Queen's
Posted on Jan 7