Medicare, Obamacare call center employees in Phoenix walk out. Here's why
Hundreds of Maximus employees across the country walked out on Thursday to fight for better wages, health care benefits and workplace treatment at the medical services call center.
At Maximus's Phoenix call center, employees were accompanied by the Communications Workers of America, a labor union representing communications workers around the country. Christy Baum, one of the event's organizers, said Maximus is the largest federal contractor for Medicare and Medicaid.
Similar walkouts took place in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Chester, Virginia; Bogalusa, Louisiana; London, Kentucky and Tampa, Florida.
Now that open enrollment has begun, attention has been brought to the lack of fair medical coverage, with many employees having gone into medical debt, Baum said. Employees were also fighting for a livable wage.
Baum said Maximus also has anti-union sentiments, and that employees should be able to unionize without fear of retaliation.
In a statement, Maximus said it is "fully aware of and complies with union organizing and strike protections provided by the National Labor Relations Act."
While none of the Maximus call center locations have technically unionized yet, the Communications Workers of America is working to help organize employees. Once that happens, they would be able to move forward with negotiating a contract with Maximus.
Tonya Jackson, a Maximus employee, answers calls to help people get enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid and answers questions about things like the Affordable Care Act.
"We're going on strike because we deserve livable wages and adequate health care benefits," Jackson said.
Jackson said many employees currently earn about $16 per hour and are asking for $25 per hour. The median household income in Phoenix is about $65,000 according to the Census Bureau, which would translate to just over $30 per hour.
Jackson was one of four of 1,100 employees in the Phoenix center who participated in the walkout, although an estimated 700 participated at the other call centers. Jackson said she has participated in several walkouts before and would be prepared to walk out for more than one day if necessary.
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Ezekiel McQuiggin, another Maximus employee in Phoenix, said some of his colleagues are forced to sleep in their cars because they don't make a livable wage. McQuiggin also said he currently pays $300 per month of Maximus's basic health care plan.
Shad Ercanbrack with the Communications Workers of America said employees are also fighting for better conditions inside the workplace. Both McQuiggin and Jackson said that employees only get six minutes for bathroom breaks and are fighting for their bathroom breaks to be untimed.
"When you're timing people to use the restroom, that's a problem," said Ercanbrack.
Ercanbrack added that Maximus takes large contracts from the federal government, such as the current nine-year $6.6 billion contract to answer calls about Medicare and Obamacare for the Centers for Disease Control hotline. Ercanbrack said some of that money is siphoned off for things like large bonuses for the management team, as opposed to paying their employees a living wage.
In 2022, President Joe Biden helped to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour for federal employees and contractors. But before that, Communications Workers of America staff member Fernando Roman said Maximus was paying some of its employees $7.25 per hour. While Arizona's minimum wage is currently $11 per hour, some states like Mississippi go by the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
In a statement to The Arizona Republic, a Maximus representative said false information is misleading employees, customers and national and local leaders.
"The level of false information is inappropriate and intentionally timed at the expense of 75 million Americans who are navigating open enrollment in Medicare and the Affordable Care Act," the statement says, adding that the contact centers are the only point of contact for people seeking information about Medicare benefits.
"During the past five years, we have increased compensation, reduced out-of-pocket health care expenses, and improved the work environment," the statement said.
The statement also cited a 2023 Global Employee Engagement Survey administered by a third party, PricewaterhouseCoopers, that said that 75% of surveyed employees would recommend Maximus as a great place to work, with that number up to 77% for contact center operations employees.
Maximus also said employees can take a break at any time and are never shamed for taking a break.
Reach the reporter at ahardle@gannett.com or by phone at 480-259-8545. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @AlexandraHardle.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Maximus employees walkout for fair wages, benefits
