I wonder if all his clothes are US made
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?
Comments
I feel like the problem is not outsourcing. I think the real problem is that workers allow ourselves to be pitted against each other to the detriment of us all. Workers in the U.S. should be forging links with workers in other countries to raise everybody's standards and not scapegoating one another.
But I think it stinks that there is a big fuss being made over the outsourcing of white collar jobs when those same people didn't say anything when blue collar jobs were going through the same process.
I also think that part of the problem is that employees should have a say in whether their job is moved or not. It shouldn't just be solely up to the employers' discretion.
Posted by: zagg | July 19, 2004 4:51 PM
I agree. Labor issues aside, it's a xenophobia that reeks of racism. It's okay for brown people to take care of sewing and stamping, but not pushing pixels or programming.
Posted by: dj@randomwalks.com | July 19, 2004 6:16 PM
I've been hearing complaints about jobs moving out of the country for decades. There may be new words for it now (outsourcing, offshoring) and it may be affecting new industries (thus making more people aware of it), but there's nothing new here, and really the effect is more overstated than ever.
I still hear complaints and see stories about Nike or Levi's or whatever moving production out of the US. NAFTA is still a political target. So I also don't know where your assumption that CW accepts manufacturing outsourcing but not knowledge outsourcing comes from either. The press in its myopic way is playing up the knowledge outsourcing because it's a new angle, but it's the same old echo chamber effect.
But I think it stinks that there is a big fuss being made over the outsourcing of white collar jobs when those same people didn't say anything when blue collar jobs were going through the same process.
Who are these "same people"?
Posted by: Dave Adams | July 19, 2004 10:41 PM
"Same people" = the people being impacted now, i.e. Armstrong.
Also NAFTA (and the proposed FTAA) are completely justifiable political targets. NAFTAs been devastating for workers in both the U.S. and Mexico. FTAA is much worse.
But I do agree that the impact is being far overplayed. This is happening, but it's not actually a very large factor in the millions of jobs lost since 2001.
Posted by: zagg | July 20, 2004 9:26 AM