Celinda Lake President Alysia Snell Partner Michael Perry Partner David Mermin Partner Robert G. Meadow, Ph.D.

Partner Daniel R. Gotoff Partner Joshua E. Ulibarri Partner Tresa Undem Partner Rick A. Johnson Sr. Vice President Robert X. Hillman Chief Operating Officer

To:

Interested Parties

From: Celinda Lake, David Mermin, and Jeff Klinger, Lake Research Partners Re: Date: Democrats and Republicans strongly support anti-offshoring proposals1 August 10, 2012

Democrats, Republicans and Independents all have a negative impression of overseas call centers. Overall, 78% of voters rate overseas call centers negatively, with 6 in 10 (59%) saying they have a very unfavorable impression of them. Voters across the board hold a negative view of overseas call centers, including Democrats (12% favorable/79% unfavorable), Independents, (13%/78%), and Republicans (14%/75%).

Voters strongly and broadly support a variety of proposals in response to the offshoring of call center jobs, including ending tax breaks, grants and loans to companies that offshore jobs, and another proposal that would give consumers the right to be transferred to a customer service agent in the United States. At a time when so many issues divide voters, these proposals2 all garner between 75 and 90% support, all with strong bipartisan support. Democrats and Republicans, men and women, retired voters and working voters all solidly support these proposals.

Lake Research Partners conducted a survey of 805 likely voters, nationwide, on behalf of the Communication Workers of America. The survey was conducted July 26-31, 2012. 2 -Give consumers the right to request that their call be transferred to a customer service agent who is in the United States -Pass a law that companies that offshore call center jobs overseas would not be eligible for U.S. taxpayer funded federal grants and loans - End tax breaks that companies get to ship call center jobs overseas.

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CWA: August 2012 Support for Proposals by Party

Voters support is rooted in deep concern about identity theft and Americans jobs being shipped overseas. Voters across party lines respond strongly to statements about these anti-off shoring proposals that are focused on these two issues. Nine in ten voters say a statement3 of identity theft and Social Security numbers being sold overseas on the black market is a convincing reason to support the proposals (64% very convincing). A statement4 focused on job loss and 500,000 call center jobs being shipped overseas is convincing for 88% of voters (62% very convincing). Anti-offshoring proposals give candidates a powerful, pro-active issue to talk about on the campaign trail and more importantly a policy to support and vote in favor of. These are clean, common sense proposals that resonate with voters and can cut through the clutter of a campaign. *****

Identity theft is a very real problem and offshoring call center jobs makes it much worse. These foreign countries have few privacy protections. Now, we see cases of our social security numbers and other personal information being sold on the black market overseas. We cannot afford to let this happen 4 With so many Americans struggling to get by, we need to keep jobs here. From 2006 to 2010, we lost five hundred thousand call center jobs to offshoring and these companies got tax breaks and bailouts to ship the jobs overseas. We cannot recover if we continue to ignore this issue.

Lake Research Partners