Two Twin Cities translation service centers for the deaf closing, 50 losing jobs

Texas-based Z Video Relay Service (ZVRS) will pull up stakes in Minnesota, closing call centers in Little Canada and Bloomington and laying off about 50 Minnesota interpreters who provide call translation services for the deaf.

The company cited several reasons for the call center closures, including profitability and a recent federal rule that lowers the percentage of workers allowed to work from home, according to an email.

But workers are crying foul, saying managers told them Jan. 11, hours before some employees had a scheduled meeting with Communications Workers of America to discuss unionizing. It also came months after many workers declined to sign a form agreeing to a new arbitration policy that would take away the right to unionize, sue or pursue other court actions, said Micah Draejer, who worked for ZP for two and a half years.

The closures also come just a few months after ZVRS and other ASL video service providers won significant reimbursement rate increases from the federal government.

The new closures will take effect Feb. 18 and also impact the nationwide company's Seattle operations, according to an email Minnesota employees received from the company.

The layoffs were "an absolute shock," said Rosa Linda Estrada-Alvarez, who worked for ZVRS for eight years. Shutting Minnesota's two call centers will be "not just be hard for the interpreting community, it will be hard on the deaf community."

About 1.1 million Minnesotans are deaf or hard of hearing, according to the state's Department of Human Services.

Affected workers mostly earn $20 to $38 an hour and handle a wide range of video relay calls so deaf Minnesotans can communicate with 911 operators, doctors, attorneys, court officials, teachers, bosses, family and friends. Employees average four to six calls an hour.

An email sent to workers Jan. 11 from ZVRS Chief Administrative Officer Caryn Bain said the company evaluated factors from its ability to meet demand "and the need to balance organizational and facility costs with our fiscal responsibility to provide efficient services."

While the company decided to cease Video Relay Service operations in Minnesota; it will continue to offer in-person ASL interpreting services, the email said.

Until last month, ZVRS was actively hiring in Minnesota and asking workers to run overtime shifts to help shorten wait times, workers said.

"They were encouraging people to join the work-from-home program," Estrada-Alvarez said. "There was talk of them opening up another office here."

Employees notified the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) of the layoffs. DEED staffers have since been trying to reach management to find out more about the layoffs and offer workers services through the state's Career Force offices, DEED officials said last week.

The Minnesota workers said they recently learned that the Purple Communications firm ZVRS bought in 2017 had a history of labor complaints and of shutting call centers when talks about unions arose.

In September, a ZVRS subsidiary, Purple Communications, settled a class-action lawsuit filed by California workers alleging wage theft and union busting and retaliation. The company agreed to pay $320,000 without admitting wrongdoing.

The National Labor Relations Board received 52 union petitions and unfair labor practice complaints against Purple Communications between 2012 and 2019 in California, Arizona, Colorado and Illinois.

Joseph Klug, who has worked for ZVRS since 2022, said he and other Minnesota workers were already uneasy about what happened in California. Then the company asked them to sign the new arbitration agreement.

"That led to a lot more discussions around starting a union," Klug said. "We had a few people who felt this was a really fishy [arbitration] contract."

Now workers are scrambling to find jobs with other interpretive agencies and waiting to see what requirements might be attached to ZVRS' severance package. A followup Jan. 12email from Bain said workers can expect to receive severance equal to one week of pay for every year of service, up to eight weeks, plus $500.