Particulary when the Pizza Hut wage still puts her over much of the Third World. We have a problem when the shelf life of our domestic industries is shorter than the average career of the American workers in those industries.
Posted on 08/07/2003 5:25:07 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
Hundreds of Sprint Corp. employees may lose their jobs as the Overland Park-based telecommunications giant moves forward with a plan to send certain technology jobs overseas.
Sprint chairman and chief executive Gary Forsee on Wednesday said competitive pressures had forced the company toward "offshoring" -- the growing trend of U.S. companies relying on lower-paid computer programmers as far away as India and China.
Sprint put out a request for proposals from outsourcing companies earlier this year and has since narrowed the list to two offshore vendors. Forsee said Sprint is conducting site surveys and is in "serious discussions" with the two companies.
"At the end of the day, it's several hundred jobs that could be impacted," Forsee said. "But we don't know what the ultimate result is."
A final decision on how to handle sending the jobs overseas is likely within 60 days.
Layoffs would not be immediate, Forsee said, because moving work to the outsourcing companies could take six to 12 months.
Forsee also said the company hopes to ease the impact of sending jobs overseas by moving some displaced workers to other information technology projects within Sprint and replacing existing contractors with Sprint employees.
Sprint already was considering moving jobs overseas when Forsee replaced William T. Esrey as the company's top executive earlier this year. But Forsee said he made the final decision to go ahead with the request for proposals.
Sprint already uses an offshore company for some customer service jobs. The company has outsourced information technology jobs to U.S. firms for years. But it has resisted sending information technology jobs overseas.
That has changed as Sprint, like other telecommunications companies, struggles with weak sales in what continues to be a difficult economy.
For almost two years, Sprint has been on a campaign to lower costs to compensate for soft sales. Since October 2001, more than 18,000 jobs have been eliminated. Hundreds of contractors also have lost work at Sprint.
Computer programmers and other skilled technology workers have been among the hardest hit, and there remains a severe shortage of available technology jobs in Kansas City and elsewhere.
Sprint's move toward sending jobs overseas will make a bad situation worse, said Rick Kumar, a former Sprint contractor who last year founded a support group for laid off information technology workers.
"The market is where it was a year and a half ago," Kumar said.
Many people still are out of work or have abandoned their information technology careers for other work, Kumar said. But unlike many of his information technology colleagues, Kumar said he does not blame Sprint and the many other companies that have turned to cheaper labor overseas.
"They have to follow the model or go out of business," Kumar said.
That is precisely how Sprint explains its move toward an offshore vendor. When competitors began cutting information technology costs by turning to offshore programmers, company officials said, Sprint was forced to look at following suit.
"We've got to stay on top of our competitive position," Forsee said. Offshoring "has become a significant trend that we hadn't participated in, so we looked at that as a strategy that was important...because of the competitive aspects."
IBM, Microsoft and HP are among the U.S. companies that are sending information technology jobs overseas or reportedly plan to start. Sprint must lower its cost to keep pace, Forsee said. But he knows careers are at stake.
"When you take actions like that, you're doing that hoping to keep the company as a whole strong," realizing that there are "people and careers and jobs at stake," Forsee said. "We try to do that part very carefully. It's not without significant consideration."
Shares of FON closed Wednesday at $14.05, up 1 cent. PCS closed at $5.41, down 36 cents.
Particulary when the Pizza Hut wage still puts her over much of the Third World. We have a problem when the shelf life of our domestic industries is shorter than the average career of the American workers in those industries.
Now would you care to provide some evidence taht Sprint would have gone out of business or wiull you merelty assert something that is unproven and unprovable. The tariff operation would have had teh same effect on its competitirs and the most efficient will shake ourt and succeed. The overall employment and investment in the USA will increase because a company's exp[enses will be higher for offshoring than for opertaing in the USA most especially when the actual risk factor is included instead of taxpayer having the taxpayers pick up the political and currency risk.
You're right, it becomes a death spiral. Even the burger flippers will be out of a job when people can't afford to go out and eat burgers.
When I was a kid it was a real treat to make the once-a-month trek from the suburban town I lived in in NJ into Trenton (you could do that safely back then) to eat at McDonald's. It was a luxury. It was cool to get a 15 cent cheeseburger and a Big Mac for a quarter and sit in the car and eat. But we had to drive 20 miles to get there because our town didn't have the Golden Arches. Now they're on every other corner (not really, but it seems like it). They won't be if the standard of living of the average family drops to what it was back then.
I am willing to sacrifice every job in India or China to protect the Amnerican economy. How many American s are you willing to sacrifice to continue the subsidies to other nations? Why are not your first loyalties to the USA. If you are a Chinese or Indian national then the answer is you have some loyalty. If you are an American then these questions deserve anmswers.
I've got a big problem with government regs that attempt to chooose winners and loosers between Americans.
I've got no problem with picking winners and loosers between Americans and workers in other countries. That's in the national self-interest, promoting the general welfare, etc. In the same light, nor do I have a problem between picking winners and loosers between winners and losers in different countries. I'd make out tariff higher on China than Mexico, for example. Mexico should be our cheap labor source of choice.
The IRS will come knocking on the door of anyone who makes more than $50k to take their 90% cut shortly.
After all, our seniors require their prescription medications and so does Africa.
That would be a growing problem just from the pace of technological change. If tech change were the only problem, retraining would be the answer.
When cheap international labor is the problem, retraining isn't the answer. Retrain to what?
My nightmare is that Bush is Herbert Hoover, some Dem is Roosevelt. After the election-day wipeout, we get a frenzied burst of make-work socialism which one way or another will plague us for another fifty years.
You guys have to quit pretending that Bush doesn't know or understand this...Of course he knows...What do you think the Bush's New World Order is all about???
The Mexicans have come here (illegally) to take the jobs the very uneducated American people don't want...That's fine with you guys...Then the Mexicans and Chinese take the jobs that the factory workers have...That's OK...They're just a bunch of union bums that cause you to pay too much for everything...
Now, the white collar jobs are going to India...Because you guys are making waaaayyyy too much money...And you think the patriot act was passed to protect us from the foreigners???
I've got no problem with picking winners and loosers between Americans and workers in other countries. That's in the national self-interest, promoting the general welfare, etc. In the same light, nor do I have a problem between picking winners and loosers between winners and losers in different countries. I'd make out tariff higher on China than Mexico, for example. Mexico should be our cheap labor source of choice.
Very well said. The influence of OPIC which uses the full faith and credit to subsidize overseas investment must also be considered in all these discussions. The companies investing in offshore provision of goods and service will be reimbursed by the Americna taxpayer if they lose their investment due to currency manipulations or political risk (nationalization, war etc.) If this is such a good idea why don't they absorb the risk themselves or pay for private insurance. I note there are no private insurers offering such coverage at a rate that would make such investments feasable becuase of the high risk involved.
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