Often readers contact us off line with their beefs and frustrations. Here is one of those emails:
The Miami Herald seems to have joined the thousands of American companies taking jobs away from Americans. If you call The Miami Herald's customer service number (305) 350-2000 you are asked to call the new toll-free number: 1-800-843-4372. The only problem is, you won't be speaking with anyone in in the U.S.A. My call was routed to Malaysia.
There is another number you can call to get someone in Miami (305) 350-2111, but they can't help with customer service. They can, of course, take your complaint. Maybe if enough people call to complain, The 'Herald will reconsider. How many jobs were lost here to overseas workers?
Outsourcing generates less money for us and hurts our local economy, but it does something worse: It sends a message that we don’t value all our citizens. The Herald has wiped away a large swath of entry level jobs for a large segment of our population. The fact that so many American companies are outsourcing their call centers is disturbing, especially to the many qualified workers who have either lost their call center jobs or new people in the job market who seek these jobs that now don’t exist. Another disturbed bunch is the consumer, who constantly has to call overseas for banking, credit card inquiries, purchasing, mailing, and now the local newspaper! In fact, companies have tried to deal with complaints by giving call center workers overseas American names, but Americans are not stupid. We are hurt. Miami Herald you hurt the community with this one. Maybe your pocketbook is better off, but we have unemployment here. You could have helped us here in Miami Dade County. You can complain about readership: What about goodwill?
What can we do Eyeonmiami? Reader in Hialeah
3 comments:
Reader your points are valid. The Herald is suffering with readership declines which translates into less ad revenue. Miami Herald is but a finger of a larger corporation and I doubt that the decision was made locally. I share your pain at seeing people out of work when these jobs would offer them some security and a sense of pride. Corporate bottom line decisions is ripping out the hearts of our working class as they reward their CEO's with multimillion dollar contracts and I honestly don't know what to do.
It's outrageous on so many levels. You have to wonder if the left wing rag is paying a living wage to the Malaysians. I'm sure it's down with socialized medicine though. CEO pay is an issue, I'll concede that point, but the belief here is the Herald and other companies would continue to outsource jobs.
I was 17 when I landed my first job at the Burdines Credit Office & Customer Service Dept. back in 1978 --- one reason why I'm so passionate about keeping these types of jobs here at home. At the time, I was told to be the youngest employee hired to work there and the one with the least experience, as the minimum age was 18 with 2 years of work experience.
Few people like to work late hours, weekends or holidays, but in the days back when I did it and loved it. I went to school during the day and worked nights and weekends. That partime job also provided me with health insurance, paid sick days and vacation time. Employees also enjoyed special employee-only sales and a large discount on store items throughout the year, holiday bonuses and added compensation if a supervisor felt you deserved it.
That is no longer the case and Burdines has since fallen into the pages of history. Government is doing very little to offer tax breaks to companies who keep jobs at home and penalize those who take jobs away. Call center jobs are close to non-existent nowadays in our hometowns and it's a shame.
It's a shame that The Miami Herald is cutting so many jobs. In the end, its fate may be the same as Burdines' and other companies who once offered jobs to thousands of South Floridians.
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