| |
A "Stop Off Shoring" protest held in San José on
March 22, 2004. Photo by Ashok Jain, Times staff
|
Selfless
deeds of a San José man
Many Americans and non-Americans associate success
with money and fame. But once in a while someone comes
along, who had it all, more...
U.S.
Jobs Off Shoring - Where are the jobs going?
In dollar terms, five countries - China,
Japan, Canada, Mexico and Germany account for over 66
percent of total trade deficit of $489 billion dollars
in the year 2003 more...
|
|
|
|
U.S.
Jobs Off Shoring
Where are the jobs going?
Ashok Jain, Contributing Writer
In dollar terms, five countries - China, Japan, Canada, Mexico and
Germany account for over 66 percent of total trade deficit of $489
billion dollars in the year 2003.
On Monday March 22, 2004, the entrance to the IBM, now called the
Hitachi campus in South San José was the location for the
protests called "STOP OFF SHORING." This event was organized
by the California Labor Federation, an AFL-CIO organization, South
Bay Labor Council and the Communications Workers of America.
Many union members and non-members were holding the protest signs.
It was also the kick-off point for the bus tour to take about 51
laid-off workers, one from each state and the District of Columbia,
to travel to various states and cities in eastern and mid-western
regions of the U.S. to show the negative impact of off shoring to
the country.
"2.3 million jobs have been lost in the United States since
President Bush came to office in 2001," said Art Pulaski, Executive
Secretary of California Labor Federation. "First the manufacturing
jobs were sent to various countries with cheap labor and now the
companies are sending high tech, high paying jobs to countries like
India where the wages are low as compared to the wages here in the
United States."
Natasha Humphries, spoke about her story of losing her job as a
Senior Quality Assurance Software Engineer at Palm One to people
in India. She mentioned that she went to India for two weeks to
train people in India. Later she said, she realized that she trained
people in India to be her replacements for doing her job.
When asked, if in two weeks the people in India can be trained to
a level that they can replace her Senior Software position in the
U.S., she answered that after two weeks in India she assisted
the people in India for about 6 months over the phone or video conference
for about an hour a day on the average.
Focus mostly on India
The focus during this campaign kick-off tour event was mostly on
job losses to India. It was one of the countries mentioned several
times by the speakers. The press releases distributed by the
union members contained names and examples mostly of India.
In dollar terms, the U.S. government census bureau data indicate
the trade deficit of about $8 billion with India for the year 2003.
In comparison, the U.S. has the largest trade deficit of $124 B
with China, $66 B deficit with Japan, $55 B deficit with Canada,
$41 B with Mexico and $39 B deficit with Germany.
In dollar terms, the majority of job losses can be attributed to
the huge trade deficit with China, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Germany.
The U.S. trade deficit with these top five countries ranges from
a whopping 1,550 percent with China to 487 percent with Germany
as compared to India.
The U.S. also has much higher trade deficit with countries like
Ireland, Italy, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and France with trade deficits
ranging from 225 percent to 150 percent as compared to India.
Over 879,000 U.S. jobs have been lost due to NAFTA as per the Economic
Policy Institute Snapshot publication on December 10, 2003.
The CBS news reported on Jan 8, 2004, that about 8 million undocumented
workers are estimated to be living in the United States. And
under the new US "temporary worker program", the undocumented
workers are allowed to have "temporary legal status" as
long as they have jobs here in the United States.
USA Today reported on March 16, 2004 that fewer than 200,000 jobs
are outsourced to India. But, with the exception of passing references
to other countries, most of the focus was India at the "STOP
OFF SHORING" protest event in San José.
The event organizers presented one worker who lost her job due to
outsourcing to India, but they did not present a single example
of any other worker who lost a job due to other countries which
have much higher trade deficits as compared to India.
Trade
Deficit vs. Trade Surplus
The Foreign Trade Statistics division of the U.S. Census Bureau
indicates that the U.S. trade deficit of $489 billion for 2003 contain
two important major categories of numbers:
(1) Goods
(2) Services
For 2003, the U.S. has a trade deficit of $549 billion for goods
alone. This is about $60 billion higher than the cumulative "Goods
and Services" trade deficit of $489 billion trade deficit.
In dollar terms, the top-5 manufacturing countries that have over
66 percent of the total trade deficit are China, Japan, Canada,
Mexico and Germany. China is the largest by far even among the top-5
manufacturing countries. The associated press reported on March
26, 2004 that more than 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost
in the U.S. since the mid-2000s.
On the other hand, the services sector of the US has a trade
surplus of $60 billion dollars.
The global services blue chip companies like IBM and HP computer
services have a positive effect in hiring a small percent of their
overall U.S. workforce internationally, including India and other
countries, that brought the "service" trade surplus of
$60 billion to the U.S. in 2003.
Without the trade surplus of the services sector the total trade
deficit could be far worse at $549 billion as compare to $489 billion.
State Government Social Services Jobs
Like Art Pulaski, many people from India share the view of not sending
various State Social Service jobs off shore to other countries.
Art Pulaski said that when needy people in U.S. call the food stamp
office, the phone is answered by call center representatives in
India or Mexico for Spanish speaking people.
As per the published numbers in Indian media, the state services
jobs account for around 2 percent of the total U.S. off shored jobs
to India.
Many Americans and Indians agree that these social service jobs
should stay where the recipients live. Many Indians take pride in
competing fairly for challenging technical jobs, but they do not
feel the same way for these call center local social service type
jobs.
Security
Concerns
Art Pulaski and other speakers talked about the security concern
for outsourced accounting or medical transcription jobs. Many Indians
also share this concern. They have as much stake in having their
personal data secure as any other citizen or resident in the U.S.
A security background check system for people who work with such
personal data of US citizens here in USA or in India or any where
else in the world. The FBI or other such agency background
check could provide a better solution. Any person with harmful intent
in the USA or any where else in the world can misuse access to such
personal data.
Unfit off shored jobs moved back to the U.S.
A few weeks ago, it was widely reported that US based Dell Computers
moved its call center back to the U.S. from India. It was not a
good fit nor a good value to the Dell to keep this call center in
India based on their customer complaints. No one in India tried
to keep such jobs in India. It took Dell less than a few weeks to
move back its operation to the U.S.
Some high tech firms choose to keep a percentage of their overall
workforce in India because it is a good fit and good value to them.
If not, they will move out of India back to the U.S. or any
other country in the world in a very short period of time.
There are many countries in the world with lower or government subsidized
low rent and lower wages those that in India.
U.S.-Owned Cold Call Marketing Centers
The speakers at the "STOP OFF SHORING" event did not mention
about off shoring the U.S. owned COLD-CALL marketing call center
jobs to India. But a solid majority of Indians agree with the unions
to stop these U.S. owned businesses off shored to India. Many Indians
do not like these COLD-CALL U.S. owned maquiladora-type telemarketing
companies. It will be good news if these U.S. owned COLD-CALL marketing
companies moved out of India back to the U.S.
The Union Carbide Disaster
Currently most U.S. based high tech companies with operations in
India are environmentally friendly and provide a safe work environment
in India. But it was not always the case.
It was December 1984 when a gas leak from the U.S. based Union Carbide
plant in India killed over 8,000 people and injured several hundred
thousand in the immediate aftermath of the massive gas leak
from its pesticide plant in the heartland of India. As its legacy,
even today tens of thousands of men, women and children are living
severely handicapped lives. It was the most horrific U.S. company
industrial accident within or outside the U.S.
The Union Carbide corporation blamed an Indian employee for causing
this accident. Later the Union Carbide corporation paid less than
one billion dollars for their share of responsibility.
If such accident had occurred in any state in the U.S. and over
8,000 Americans died and thousands of American men, women and children
became handicapped, would any labor union in U.S. agree with such
explanation from any U.S. company or agree with such settlement
from any U.S. company?
|
|
|
