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.
Unfair, and hardly worth a response.
If you were right, why would I be spending a little time engaging with you folks?
I really don't get some of you. If all you can do is sling nastiness against someone who disagrees with you, then I am going to assume you are a Democrat, because that's what they do.
So Americans are supposed to compete with workers from every third world shit hole that will work for 1/3 what we can?
The jobs on Dice are very inaccurate. Most of the jobs don't exist. I haven't figured out why they are doing this. When I was first laid-off, I thought there were a ton of jobs out there. I was surely going to have a job within a few weeks. The months passed and no job. That's when I realized how old the jobs were on Dice or sometimes the jobs never existed in the first place. I'm not sure what the logic for posting these outdated jobs is. I never figured it out. Maybe it's to get people to view their web site.
Too bad the federal government hadn't found a way to tax his inheritance, eh? </sarcasm
You and a few others here need to abandon the ALL YOU WHINERS ARE JUST INVOLVED IN SELF PITY kick and instead look at the reality of the situation here.
We have been abandoned by corporate greed and planned policies by the left to de-manufacture our country, either through deliberate plans or through drastic solutions to upcoming world ecnomics.
You must be someone who only got laid off once, right? I have had over 30 jobs inthe last 10 years.
30. Not because I cant keep a job, but because I live in a high tech area with only an AS, and each time the economy takes a dive, it is the BS people who get the work, and that means i go deeper into debt, and when I get work, my first priority is to pay bills,not go to school. And each time I do have money to go to school, it is usually to take upgrades in CAD to stay competitive, only now, the only CAD jobs offered in the papers in the last 6 months are for BS degreed or civil engineering, which is not my field, I am mechanical, or some obscure high end CAD that is only taught through some high priced group you cannot afford after 2 or 3 months on unemployment.
I have shown more detemination just in surviving through this than any of you so-called heros here that think you are taking the high road calling us whiners, I havent quit yet, nor am I quitting, So take your accusation and stick it. I would love to see you go through half what I have been through in this state looking for work and keep your so-called optimism. My outlook is not defeat, it is reality. And don't tellme you live by the grace of God unless you have been tested. I have been tested like you cannot imagine, and I am well aware that the only chance i have of surviving anything is by His grace while you yourself have probably not even been through 1/10 of what I have professionally.
It is time for people to take stock of what is going on in this country and smell the coffee!
This globalization is killing our manufacturing base, and if you dont believe it, you havent been to New England lately. Go to the CT Job Site, http://www.jobsearch.org/CT/seeker/jobsearch/quick?action=seeker_search_process&JobSearch_pageLink=2, that is just page 2 of my closest qualifications.
In phone calls with diffferent agencies, I have been told they receive 500 resumes A DAY!!
I want anyone here to tell me they have that competition. And dont try to be so smart and tell me to move. You need money to move. You also need ajob to move to, and every out of state job I have looked into told me that I have twice the job competition in those states with more jobs, like California or Colorado.
Dont tell me I aint tryin, you dont even know what trying is.
I've no doubt of the existence of such people. Personally, I have never in my life paid for cable TV, and drive a 14-year-old van with 250,000 miles on it. It's important to have a van, since we have 5 children.
I also have a 19-year-old two-door car which I used to get to work (thus saving our highly valued family vehicle from the additional miles and wear and tear), but it's currently broken, and there is hardly any way I can afford to get it fixed.
That said, those ideas werent mine....
Yeah, I've been struggling with that one for the past 4 years.
Ofcourse. They are trained with tax payers $$$. Put PukinDog in the real world and lets see how he does.
Been reading Marx lately, haven't you?
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