Posted on 05/26/2003 3:51:30 PM PDT by Lessismore
WASHINGTON: On a recent April afternoon in Silicon Valley, moments after he was told he had been laid off from his computer programming job at a Bank of America training centre, Kevin Flanagan stepped into the parking lot and shot himself dead.
Some of America's technology workers, who like Flanagan have also had to collect pink slips over the last several months, think they know why Flanagan took his life: Bank of America not only outsourced his job to India, but forced him to train Indian workers to do the job he had to give up.
In the weeks since his death, the techies have used the incident as fuel to fire a campaign against outsourcing to India, an issue that now seems poised to become a major sticking point between the two countries. Several US states are already considering legislation to ban or limit outsourcing.
Bank of America is one of several major US corporations – General Electric, Microsoft, Intel are among others - under scrutiny for outsourcing jobs to India. The Bank created what is called a "Global Delivery centre" in 2000 to identify projects that could be sent offshore.
Since then it has signed agreements with Infosys and Tata Consulting Services (TCS) to provide solutions and services.
In an e-mail exchange with this correspondent, Kevin's father Tom Flanagan said "a significant reason for which my son took his life was indeed as a result of his job being outsourced."
"Did he blame India for his job loss? No. He blamed the "system." He couldn't understand why Americans are losing jobs. Rather I should say he understood it economically, but not emotionally," Flanagan said.
Bank officials, who did not return calls relating to Flanagan's death, have said in the past that the deal with Indian companies would effect no more than 5 per cent of the bank's 21,000 employees, or about 1,100 jobs, in its technology and operations division.
According to some surveys, the US has lost at least 800,000 jobs in the past year and some 3.3 million jobs will move overseas over the next few years because of outsourcing, mostly to India.
The Bank has also acknowledged that it had asked local workers to train foreigners because such knowledge transfer was essential. According to Tom Flanagan, his son was "totally disgusted" with the fact that he and his fellow-workers had to train foreigners to do his job so they could take over. "That sir is a travesty," he said in one e-mail.
US tech workers are challenging the corporate world's claim that it is outsourcing work to improve bottomlines and efficiency. Some analysts have also pointed out that US corporations were being forced to tighten up by the same people who are moaning about outsourcing, and who, heavily invested in the stock market, demand better performance.
But on one website that discussed the Flanagan case, a tech worker pointed out that data processing consumed only a small per cent of revenues and was hardly a drain on the Bank's profit.
"(It is) a prosperous bank which has let greed trump any sense of patriotism or social responsibility," he fumed.
You're right. Now if only we could offshore the trial lawyers and their lawsuits as well.
Never, when everything else is outsourced, they'll have the board "fire" them, with a golden parachute that will see them and their heirs through for quite a long while.
Strawman. I never claimed that that's why I went into IT. You mentioned that you did well for yourself and managed to save enough money to retire. I retorted with the fact that those people who are not jobless did well for themselves as well and would've continued to do so if they didn't face people who can live on $100-150 a month.
I dont care if a good pilot comes from India or China, many already do. If one puts me out of work, so be it.
Nice response. Given that you were in the Navy - that's rich, since they wouldn't be competing with you.
You are not paying attention. I would NOT compete against someone working for that amount. However, if an Airline wanted to park me in a 747-400, I would be happy to do it for the experience alone. Any money would be icing on the cake.
I'm in sales as well. Seems that folks like us gravitate to sales; not because of the trade, but because of our experience.
Morally neutral.
You gotta admit - the above is quite a retreat from what you were saying before: Nope, I only flew jets for two decades, while managing to save enough money to not be worried about finding a job anytime soon.
Obviously you wouldn't be able to do all that if you had to compete with foreign workers like the IT people are doing now.
If you live in a country where the cost of an apartment is $20 a month, you can accept a much lower wage. How is that an even playing field? If just food staples, housing, and basic transportation cost more than what a worker somewhere else is paid, you can't buck up, and tighten the belt, unless it's around your throat.
Vietnamese subcontractors for Nike pay some workers $.17 cents an hour. You work 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, with no vacation, and you have earned $5,616. Compete with that. With 2.3 billion people in china and India, you can't compete with that.
Another example... You are a sprocket maker. You get paid $8 an hour. You can assemble 80 sprockets an hour. It costs the company $.10 a sprocket for you to do this job.
There is some guy in Cambodia, who can assemble 20 sprockets an hour. His wages are $.20 an hour. The cost for labor is $.01 per sprocket. The company hires him and 3 other people with similar skills, 1/4th as good as yours, and ends up paying them $.80 to your $8.00. Wow, you should have competed better. Your choice is to drop your salary to $.80 an hour, or create 800 sprockets an hour just to compete with these guys salary wise.
Fun, fun, fun.
You still haven't provided any kind of a solution to competing with those who are fine living on $100-150.
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