randomWalks

Yahoo! News - Software Engineer Wants Outsourcing Ban

Armstrong, a self-described "independent progressive" who has never gotten involved in politics before, said he began working against "outsourcing" to foreign workers in 2000 after he was laid off twice and saw co-workers going through the same thing. At US West, which is now Qwest, Armstrong said he trained his replacement.

Anyone who cares about labor should stand up against the backlash against "outsourcing," until the discussion in the national media includes wider labor issues. Why is it OK to outsource the production of fancy athletic wear but not computer software?

Posted by David Jacobs at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

For a few months, I've been cutting and pasting every story about outsourcing/off-shoring with the intention of someday making a post.

Today's the day.

Here's a whole wide-range of off-shoring pieces that touch on a bunch of different aspects of the issue.

• 11/2/03: Boston Globe: As Economy Gains, Outsourcing Surges


• 12/24/03: Reuters: US Companies Moving More Jobs Overseas


• 1/26/04: Sacramento Bee: U.S. overseas payrolls grow


• 1/26/04: In These Times: Tech Workers Combat Offshoring


• 2/2/04: Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Some companies buck the offshoring trend, rejecting its strategy


• 2/8/04: Workday Minnesota: As tech jobs go offshore, Teamsters devise new strategies


• 2/11/04: Editors Weblog: Reuters takes outsourcing to a new level with journalists


• 2/10/04: Washington Post: Bush, Adviser Assailed for Stance on 'Offshoring' Jobs


• 2/17/04: New York Times: Outsourcing Backlash Hits India


• 2/17/04: Christian Science Monitor: Shipping out White Collar Jobs


• 2/19/04: Hindustan Times: "Don't Close Borders to Deal with Job Losses"


• 2/19/04: Inter Press Service: Job Loss, Rising Inequalities Dog Bush Administration


• 2/21/04: Albany Times Journal: GE forced to allow outsourcing issue on ballot


• 2/22/04: News Today (India): Right to strike to be unions' main demand


• 2/22/04: Associated Press: Newest outsourcing wave: Foreign accountants prepare Americans' tax returns


• 2/23/04: Christian Science Monitor: Sending tech jobs overseas hasn't been as easy as some firms believed. But they persevere.


• 2/23/04: New York Times: Debate Over Exporting Jobs Raises Questions on Policies


• 2/23/04: Bloomberg: Delta Air, General Electric Say Creating Jobs Abroad Helps U.S.


• 2/23/04: Associated Press: Action Urged on Job Training


• 2/23/04: Time: Is Your Job Going Abroad?


• 2/23/04: New York Times: U.S. Politicians Target Disappearing Jobs


• 2/24/04: LA Times: A Labor Problem Made in the USA


• 3/04: San Francisco Chronicle: A Special Report: Looking at Off-shoring


• 3/10/04: New York Times: Work at foreign companies is changing Indians' lifestyles


• 3/10/04: Seattle Post-Inteligencer: Outsourcing's long-term effects on U.S. jobs at issue


• 3/11/04: Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Outsourcing bill dies, but backers keep issue alive

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (2)

Police in Washington, D.C., mishandled a 2002 anti-globalization protest by not telling participants to disperse and then arresting them for disobeying the nonexistent order, according to a D.C. Council report. The report also faults D.C. police for its dealings with protesters as far back as 2000, says the Washington Post. Police chief Charles Ramsey calls the findings "bullshit."

Posted by Mike at 2:54 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

The M I A M I M O D E L !

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 10:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

But that was not enough. The police then attacked the dispersing crowd, chasing about 30 people into a corner. They shoved them to the ground and beat them. They gassed them at close range. My colleague from Democracy Now!, Ana Nogueira, and I got separated in the mayhem. I was lucky to end up on the "safe" side of the street. Ana was in the melee. As she did her job - videotaping the action - Ana was wearing her press credentials in plain sight. As the police began handcuffing people, Ana told them she was a journalist. One of the officers said, "She's not with us, she's not with us," meaning that although Ana was clearly a journalist, she was not the friendly type. She was not embedded with the police and therefore had to be arrested.

In police custody, the authorities made Ana remove her clothes because they were soaked with pepper spray. The police forced her to strip naked in front of male officers. Despite calls from Democracy Now!, the ACLU, lawyers and others protesting Ana's arrest and detention, she was held in a cockroach-filled jail cell until 3:30 am. She was only released after I posted a $500 bond. Other independent journalists remained locked up for much longer and face serious charges, some of them felonies. In the end, Ana was charged with "failure to disperse."

The real crime seems to be "failure to embed."

Jeremy Scahill on the "Miami Model" via American Samizdat.

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As months of joblessness drag on — Washington's unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in June — many professionals are working their way down the employment chain. They're applying for everything from low-level service jobs to dubious multilevel marketing schemes, sectors where labor is cheap and workers are interviewed by the batch.

And it's only going to get worse.

In the next 15 years, American employers will move about 3.3 million white-collar jobs and $136 billion in wages overseas, according to Forrester Research. That's up from $4 billion in wages in 2000.

Ten years ago a lot of people scoffed when manufacturing jobs started going to nations like Mexico and China saying sweatshop wages were good for developing nations while saying that workers in the U.S. would move into new fields. Does it seem so harmless now that it is white-collar jobs going too?

Also, Business Week asks, Outsourcing Jobs, Is It Bad? where some of those same defenses are re-aired.

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Posted by David Jacobs at 9:08 PM | Permalink

On a Dupont Circle park bench last Sunday, community activist Marco Del Fuego, 38, was reading "Anarchism and Other Essays" and wearing his favorite shoes: black high-top Chuck Taylors.

"I love these shoes, but I'll never buy another pair again," he said. "I don't like Nike's labor practices in the Third World . . . you can't stop the corporate monster, man."

Posted by Mike at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The U.S. government can get behind a $550 billion handout, errr, tax cut to the rich, can spend (and dole out nice juicy contracts for Becht-hell and Cheneyburton), and can spend $399B on the general military. And CEO compensation went up again amid a recession. (sidenote: your Mom's ethics or a CEOs?)

But then at the same time there's no money for social services and teachers are selling their blood to help fund schools. And our pay is either stagnating or going down even as health care costs rise.

Why is it that I'm supposed to support a system with these priorities?

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 5:26 PM | Permalink

Among the top-line findings: it's American policies, not American people, that many respondents disliked.

Wait, isn't that what we're saying about Iraq? Watch Bill Moyers' Now.

Posted by at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Demonstrators in Paris smashed the windows of a McDonald's restaurant last week, forcing police in riot gear to move in to protect staff and customers of the American fast-food outlet. The attackers sprayed obscenities and "boycott" on the windows. [..]"This started as a light-hearted reaction to Americans dumping French wine in the gutter and renaming 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'," he said. "But it feels good to take a stand against this war. It is just a small gesture, but a good one."

Posted by at 11:55 PM | Permalink

Yesterday, in southern Iraq, U.S. troops provided an ironic example. They named two temporary refueling facilities Camp Shell and Camp Exxon.

A tad indelicate? Deliberately insensitive, given the criticism that the United States has undertaken the war to secure Iraqi oil? Neither, said a Pentagon spokesman, who explained that the camps are "basically gas stations."

originally posted by xowie

Posted by Adam at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by Adam at 4:58 PM | Permalink

The hearing officer was unmoved - and found him guilty on all 22 charges, ordering him to pay the full $1,100 in fines.
...
Fabiano points in disgust to the way the city handled Microsoft's recent illegal ad blitz, which blanketed city sidewalks and subway stations with butterfly logos as part of a $30 million advertising campaign. In that case, the company last month was allowed to plead guilty to a single offense, paying a modest $50 fine.

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Monkeyfist's WEF Protests News and Chronology links to a report of five women arrested in lower Manhattan for a banner drop ("Bush and big biz agree that people with AIDS drop dead").

If you want to follow the WEF news at one site, this Monkeyfist page is probably your best bet.

Posted by Adam at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Who's going to Quebec in April? Read about the new steel curtain surrounding the city as it prepares for FTAA madness. Download a Backgrounder on FTAA.


Other sites:

Quebec 2001

WTO Action

Caravans

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 2:57 PM | Permalink

"Mickey Mouse is the Anti-Christ." I read two stories about this guy on the same day in Mother Jones and Adbusters a few months ago. Now a director - Richard Sandler - that MK and I met at the Vegan Bakery is making a movie about him. Oh yeah, Richard also has another pretty neat movie.

originally posted by zagg

Posted by Adam at 10:46 AM | Permalink