ARE THERE PLAYS ABOUT CALL CENTRES?

A call centre that once employed up to 1, 000 people in Derry is to lay off its last 15 employees in the city.

This is the opening paragraph in an exclusive report by Ursula Duddy on page 3 of  Derry News, dated 7th February 2013. 

The city in question is Derry Londonderry (54 degrees North, 7 degrees West), designated the first ever UK City of Culture, with a rich programme of events already under-way and many more  to come.

In the coming months, as part of the programme for the year, there will be two productions of plays about shirt-factories. These were major centres of industrial activity in the city. The plays are Tillies by Patsy Durnin and The Factory Girls  by Frank McGuinness.

These factories, which mainly used the labour of women, are held in high esteem by the people of the city and beyond. They are viewed as part of the city's industrial and social history, sites of skilled tradeswomen and men, now, largely, no more.

Seamstress. Overlocker. Cuffer. Stitcher. I've done more than twenty years in the shirt factories. All closed. Have you a trade?

A question to ask the now-redundant call centre workers, who gave their labour to Stream International.

Because of its dedication to recruit, train and retain the best talent, Stream has become one of the area's largest employers, and an "Employer of Choice" in Londonderry. Stream provides exceptional labor conditions, work stability, excellent training programs and long-term career paths for its local employees.

Local workers saw their future in the much-trumpeted technology sector that political, business and civic leaders promulgated as the solution to the city's depressed economic conditions.

I've been good. I've studied. I've kept my nose clean. I've bought all the things I was told to buy. I've lusted after all the things I was told to lust after. I've watched the films they told me to watch. I've dreamed the dream they told me to dream. (Beat.) I've bought the suit.

Stream International is an actor in the great outsourcing and offshore drama of the contemporary economic system. Cynics now opine that they move off having exhausted UK incentives, tax breaks, grants and the local labour force.   

With its central location and highly-educated workforce, the United Kingdom (UK) and the Republic of Ireland remain top outsourcing destinations and are among the largest outsourcing markets in Europe. The UK outsourcing sector is significantly advanced in its development and growth and was one of the first regions in Europe to accept offshoring as a viable outsourcing solution. 

What is the legacy of Stream International, in terms of skills, trades and crafts that can be applied in other settings? Will there be other call centres opening?

The complex relationship between public finance and private profit enters a new act. The people who lost their jobs will now seek re-training on publicly-funded schemes, further challenging the notion that there is an economic sector that can be called  'private' in any meaningful sense.

Is there a play in this? The story of a woman who's mother worked in a shirt factory until it closed, who herself worked in a call centre until it closed and now having made a long-term commitment to a mortgage to provide a home for her family struggles to make repayments because of the short-term commitment the call centre made to her and her city?

The shirt factory girls, they danced through the gate

Past cameras and press intent on their fate.

The factories flew off to sunnier climes

And left them to fend in more flexible times.

Do playwrights write about call centres?

Derry News; newspaper; Derry Londonderry; 7.2.2013

http://www.stream.com/media/1913/sgs%20united%20kingdom%20and%20ireland%20profile.pdf

The Recruiting Office: stage-play; Dave Duggan; from Plays in a Peace Process; book; Dave Duggan; Guildhall Press; Derry; 2008

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