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  • New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna calls them "high quality, highly skilled, high paying, pollution-free jobs." ("Premier Challenged on Job Creation" 1). McKenna was describing the thousands of jobs that have lately been created in New Brunswick by enterprises in the hightech communications, information, and business-service sector setting up shop in the province. McKenna and his government have been particularly successful in persuading national and international companies to set up customer-service centres using toll-free phone numbers. Most of those working in such centres are women. Since 1992, over 4,000 jobs have been created in New Brunswick by more than 30 companies establishing call-centre operations in the province.(1) The largest of them, in terms of job creation, is United Parcel Service (UPS), which has more than 1,000 people working in its customer-service and administrative centres. The smallest, a travel agency's call centre, has created five jobs. Most have located in Moncton, Saint John, or Fredericton, although smaller communities such as Bathurst, Campbellton, and St. Stephen are now also host to call centres. Certainly, there are great differences between the New Brunswick call centres and the Mexican maquiladoras and like industries. Tariffs and duties are not a factor in the communications technology sector in New Brunswick. The maquiladoras are based on light manufacturing, the call centres on communications technology. Such light industries typically require an extreme manual dexterity from workers, while call centres need only competent keyboarders.

  • The article explores labor relations and the environmental movement in New Brunswick. Emphasis is given to alliances and cooperation between entities such as the New Brunswick Federation of Labor, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, and the New Brunswick Union of Public and Private Employees. The author offers information on conferences that detail the relations between labor leaders and environmentalists on topics such as the construction of nuclear power plants, forestry management, and climate change.

Last update from database: 9/24/24, 4:10 AM (UTC)

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