I think the previous post comparing the new T-Mobile center to a maquila underestimates the positive impact these new jobs could have in the local economy as a whole and individually in each employee's life.
I agree that more money needs to be used for job training and that there should be more accountability from the GBIC as mentioned in the second post that compares BEDC with MEDC. However, we should not dismiss any job. I've worked as a customer service rep at Convergys and is not anything akin to a maquila job. It requires computer skills, problem solving skills, social skills, and a certain type of temperament.
Yet, not everyone that applies is hired and not everyone that is hired lasts. All you have to do is think back to the last time you had to dispute a charge on a bill or had a problem with a service to realize how important it is to have a competent person on the other end of the line. Nonetheless, it is a job that doesn't require a college or vocational degree and so it's likely to attract more of the less educated, as the poster stated. It is also why you are not going to get a very high starting wage, though $9/hr is higher than most starting wages down here.
The reality remains that we do have a great number of residents with limited education and in the immediate they need jobs. As far as the type of people that will work at this center, there will be singles, single-parent, married without kids, married with kids, etc. You cannot tailor wages to people's personal circumstances and you cannot base your starting wage on the most difficult of these home situations. That would weaken the incentive to move up the educational and employment ladder and it would remove consequences from choices. A lot of these employees were those students who were consumed by dating and social events and had no curiosity for academics.
From what I remember at Convergys, a lot people were fired for chronic tardiness. I actually sat through a group meeting in which the employees actually tried to convince someone from management to let them stay in the conference room for the day since there weren't that many calls. The senior supervisor, who was from out of town, had to explain to them that they weren't in high school and that they were getting paid for that time. It was an appropriate comparison since it reminded me so much of those times when as students we all at one point or another tried to convince a teacher to keep talking off-topic so we didn't have to go back to the lesson. It was embarrassing, but sadly, it was also a reflection of a certain immaturity some of these employees still displayed even years after leaving high school. Fortunately, some were in fact beginning to think about getting ahead and going back (or for the first time) to college and the human resources office at Convergys try to accommodate them when scheduling shifts. I can only hope that T-Mobile has the same policy. Also, as T-Mobile continues to add jobs every year until they reach their target, they will promote a certain number of those who began as customer service reps to supervisory positions. So while this is not the ideal job, it does allow those that want to move on to something better the opportunity to do so.
Now, as far as the calculations go, they may seem revealing but the impression they leave is misleading. The $ 3.5 million in incentives will be conditional and it's a one-time grant distributed over five years. That is an average of $ 700,000/ year for five years. There are roughly 100,000 spending adults. This comes out to about $7 per spending adult per year for five years; or, another way of putting it, each spending adult will contribute on average about 1 cent/year for five years per employee; or, each will contribute 5 cents total per employee; or, each spending resident will pay a total of $35 total for all 700 positions. Furthermore, the statement that these are really $7.50/hr jobs is the result of an exercise in symbolism and erroneous logic. For this to be true, it would mean that the $5000 per employee was actually paid for by the specific sales tax contributions of those 700 people; and even then, it would be paid off in the first five years. Of course, that is not actually true because, as I explained earlier, the one-time, finite burden of the incentive package will be spread over a spending, citizen base of over 100,000 people and the wages would be indefinitely concentrated in only 700 people.
Remember, a wage is what will be available to an employee for his or her use. $ 7.50/hr will not be the physical reality for these employees, $9-12/hr will, for a total of almost $15 million/year in wages once all positions are filled. The city puts up a one-time payment of $3.5 million over five years and T-Mobile pays out $ 15 million/year for as long as it's located in Brownsville. This is not a bad deal at all. Is this the best deal? No. Do kids grow up wanting to be customer service representatives? Of course not. However, through a complicated mix of failures on the part of our educational institutions and personal choices by parents and students, this is the situation we find ourselves in and these 700 jobs will help alleviate it.
Patricia
