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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (24687)	1/16/2004 3:13:34 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793670

LB, I'm so disappointed in that response...you must be having a bad day. Very well, don't want to cause you stress-- I'll take it elsewhere. Here's a parting gift: Left Behind, Again As computer jobs go overseas, techies say they're "not going to take it anymore" by Jason McGahan - January 15, 2004 PETER M. MORLOCK ILLUSTRATION Chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Martin Regalia says outsourcing white-collar jobs to countries like India is "as certain as the law of gravity." Back in the days when information technology was booming, James Pace Jr. and a dozen of his fellow IT consultants started meeting periodically at the Bennigan's Restaurant in Rocky Hill. They were IT consultants; they called it networking. When the tide turned and the dog days of 2002 set in, the diners turned from networking to commiserating. By then most of them, including Pace, a 23-year veteran of the field, had lost their jobs to imported workers or companies that sent them overseas. "At one point it got to where only two of us were working," said John Bauman, a friend of Pace's who was a regular at the dinners. Bauman is an IT consultant with 25 years of experience who was laid off last September by Northeast Utilities. He also happens to be the father of two unemployed IT consultants and the father-in-law of another. He now works 12 hours a day delivering packages for FedEx, a temporary job that was likely to end after the holidays. "The other day," he said, "I showed my hands to a guy I work with and I asked him, 'Do these look like the hands of a computer programmer to you?' And he said, 'You too?'" What makes Bauman and Pace remarkable amid the swelling ranks of unemployed IT workers is that they are fighting back. Since white-collar jobs in general lack any organized representation in the workplace, it fell to the Bennigan's dinner group to become the nucleus for a nationwide network of IT workers called The Organization for the Rights of American Workers (TORAW). The response has been electric since the group organized 12 months ago with some 200 members in 27 states now participating. Pace has also been working with a sister organization, Rescue American Jobs, based in Mesa, Ariz. In six months, 37 chapters of RAJ have sprung up in the U.S., including three in Connecticut. The two organizations have dedicated much of their efforts toward advocating for stricter limits on visas for foreign IT workers. Their grievance, the TORAW website explains, "is with our American companies who deliberately and unfairly reject qualified Americans and elect to import workers from another country in order to improve their bottom line." Responding to TORAW's entreaties, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd and U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson have submitted duplicate bills to Congress that would impose tighter restrictions on the importation of foreign workers. The bigger question, however, is how to address the much greater threat of outsourcing jobs overseas. Researchers predict 473,000 IT jobs will be outsourced to India by 2015. And studies show companies save from 40 to 60 percent by outsourcing IT work to India. For this, TORAW looks to the alliance it has cultivated with MAD in the USA, a coalition of small manufacturers in Connecticut which, as Bauman admitted, has much greater clout in the state. Pace and Bauman have brought their members to participate in the "Buy American" demonstrations that have been taking place outside area Wal-Marts through the initiative of MAD in the USA's co-founder Fred Tedesco, who owns the Pa-Ted Spring Company of Bristol. Tedesco has, in turn, written to ING's Hartford office threatening to withdraw his company's investment in a 401k plan if the Dutch company does not cease outsourcing IT work. He even floated the idea of a nationwide boycott by other small businesses like his. "I endorse what they're doing, but I'm not optimistic," said Mark Sullivan, director of the Labor Education Center at the University of Connecticut. "This all reminds me of a movie made in the 1970s called Network where one of the characters keeps shouting, 'I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!¸' and all these other people shout it along with him. To me this is all really part of that scream." That scream has reportedly chilled corporate officers who would otherwise be trumpeting to stockholders such reductions in overhead and increased profit. At a news conference last month, however, chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Martin Regalia showed no such note of caution, saying this kind of outsourcing was "as certain as the law of gravity." Yet James Pace labors on. Having answered a want ad looking for a used car salesman "no experience necessary," he landed the job and has begun passing out Rescue American Jobs business cards to every struggling IT worker who steps onto his lot. He says there are plenty of them. Journalists Take Flak in Iraq (01/15/04) by Laura Rozen Ward of the State (01/15/04) by Paul Bass Mr. Clean's Swan Song (01/15/04) by Paul Bass Sea Snail Venom -- It Makes You Feel Better (01/15/04) The New Order (01/15/04) Mess With Texas (01/15/04) by Alan Bisbort Ejection 2004 (01/15/04) Rowland Building Sends Wrong Message (01/15/04) section archives » Journalists Take Flak in Iraq (01/15/04) by Laura Rozen RESOLUTION OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST JOHN G. ROWLAND, GOVERNOR, AND ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT (01/01/04) Wave Good-Bye, Guv (01/01/04) by Paul Bass and Carole Investigative archives »