Hattiesburg City Councilwoman Deborah Delgado was recently joined by church leaders, activists and workers from the Maximus call center in delivering a letter of concern to Hattiesburg’s Cloverleaf Mall location, where workers have raised concerns over low pay, poor treatment and inadequate health benefits, among other issues.
Delgado, who represents the city’s Ward 2, said she delivered the letter to Maximus officials to bring attention to the call site’s working conditions and to help advocate for a living wage for workers.
“I’m just in support of working people,” she said. “I hope (something will come of it). I know that the plan is to also mail a copy of the letter to management.
Maximus – which purchased General Dynamics Information Technology in 2018 – is a for-profit federal contractor that handles support for www.healthcare.gov, the official website of the Affordable Care Act. The company oversees federal call centers in Mississippi, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Utah and Virginia, and employs more than 13,000 operators throughout the year.
In June 2019, workers from the Hattiesburg center gathered outside Lake Terrace Convention Center to protest for higher wages, more paid vacations and better working conditions. At the time, the Hattiesburg location employed more than 1,000 workers.
“The point is, they have contracts to provide these services, and these are governmental contracts,” Delgado said. “The company shows significant profits and contributions to their bottom line, but at the same time, they’re not being responsible and equitable to the people who are helping them to carry out the service.
“And it has not been until the workers started to organize that they were even given any idea that they would have the possibility of a raise. Most of them were making $9 an hour for a very long time, and asking for a better wage.”
Maximus workers also have made allegations of wage theft and have called out the company’s anti-union campaign, matters that have been covered in New York Magazine and Mother Jones. In February, Hattiesburg employee Anna Flemmings told New York Magazine she is in the process of organizing a union with the Communications Workers of America, but Maximus is opposing the effort.
“It wasn’t until they started organizing and working with CWA that the company even made any movement toward raises,” Delgado said. “I think some of them may have gone to $10 or $11 an hour, or even $12 now, but that did not start to happen until there was some self-help measures taken on by these employees partnering on with CWA.”
A Maximus management official who was on site last Wednesday declined to comment on the matter.
In addition, an email from Madison Donzis with Unbendable Media states that in addition to the letter delivery, activists attempted to put on a free medical clinic in the parking lot near Maximus. That effort, however, was shut down at the request of Maximus officials approximately 45 minutes after it started.
“The union helped organized a free health care screening with local community organizations, and Maximus management would not even allow their employees to get free health care screenings,” said Willie Clark, pastor at Hattiesburg’s Whole Armor Church of God in Christ, in the email. “That’s a low blow.”
