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Ohio Democrats Push Bill to Keep Call Centers in the United States

photo of call center bill supporters
JO INGLES
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

Democrats in the state Legislature are pushing a bill that would make it tougher for companies to move call centers overseas.

The bill would require companies to notify Ohio’s Job and Family Services director 120 days before moving call center jobs out of the country. It would also require the state to bar companies that outsource this way from receiving state aid. Communication Workers of America spokesman Frank Matthews says there’s a security issue here too.

“While we are taught never to give our Social Security number and bank information to a stranger, many companies that we do business with daily have no issues with contracting companies in other countries and handing our most private information over to them,” he said.

An executive order by Gov. John Kasich covering many of these points expires at the end of his term, so lawmakers want to pass the bill in the next year.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.