Call centre organising in adversity: from Excell to Vertex

After many years of indifferent decline, trade union membership is now being revitalised. Strategies known as union organizing are being used to recruit and re-energize unions around the globe. This book considers exactly how trade unions are working to do this and provides a much needed evaluation of these rebuilding strategies. This chapter examines how the CWU pursued a partnership agreement with the new outsourcing employer, Vertex, and it was October 2002 before the 1,000-strong workforce in their Glasgow and Birmingham call centers received the opportunity to vote (overwhelmingly) for representation by the CWU