This is pure outrage! Here is our Congress, supposedly out to create jobs in the United States for Americans and this is what they do!
IT amendment for US workers, US companies stripped by Congressional Democrats from Stimulus:
Congressional Democrats stripped from President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan a local lawmaker's bid to assure that American high-tech companies would get jobs funded by that plan.
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, said his amendment would have required that any health information technology system bought under a $20 billion grant program in the stimulus package be manufactured in the United States by American workers.
When it comes to tech workers, engineers in the United States, obviously both sides of the isle think it's perfectly fine to offshore outsource their jobs, ruin their careers and destroy their financial livelihood.
1 million jobs in I.T. Obama? I think you forgot to mention those jobs would be filled with foreign H-1B, L-1 guest workers and contracts awarded to offshore outsourcing firms!
I am so glad you are giving away my U.S. tax dollars from my ever shrinking paycheck to India!
Take action! Please recommend this story in social networks, forward to your friends and repost. Please call your Senators and the White House and demand they use our money for jobs...for us!
Representative Murphy:
From the iron mines to the manufacturers, to the mills, let's use it to buy American. If we really are going to be serious about American jobs, we should require the billions in taxpayer funds go only towards American jobs and to buy products that say 'Made in the U.S.A.'
Medicaid and Medicare is extensively using offshore outsourcing. From a 2006 GAO report (large pdf) on health privacy data going offshore gives some statistics.
and state Medicaid agencies also reported that offshore outsourcing is initiated by their domestic vendors. Thirty-three Medicare Advantage contractors, 2 Medicare FFS contractors, and 1 Medicaid agency indicated that their domestic vendors transfer personal health information offshore, although they did not provide information about the scope of personal information transferred offshore. Moreover, the reported extent of offshore outsourcing may be understated because many of the federal contractors and agencies did not know whether their domestic vendors transferred personal health information to other locations or vendors. Specifically, 57 percent of Medicare Advantage contractors, 29 percent of Medicare FFS contractors, 26 percent of state Medicaid agencies, and 20 percent of TRICARE contractors reported that they did not know whether their largest domestic outsourcing vendors had further transferred personal health information.
How come we can't team up
How come we can't team up with the AFL-CIO, WashTech and FAIR so that there can be a drive to call the senators? On Monday, I will call my senator. Calling only works if there are volume calls.
If there is an important fight to save American jobs this is the most important one or else American IT workers will be begging for work again even with the stimulus.
WashTech is part of the AFL-CIO
WashTech is part of the AFL-CIO. Part of the CWA, which in turn is under the AFL-CIO umbrella.
The key is to make this an AFL-CIO issue and since Professional workers, IT workers especially do not join unions, organize, IT/Tech/Professionals issues get moved to the back of the bus because of all of the other labor issues which most affect their members.
But, the AFL-CIO DPE, IFPTE, California Nurses Union, I think there are more, do care, lobby on these issues but they cannot pull in the lobbyists barrage that say NASSCOM demands (with the help of the India government too).
FAIR is a reduced immigration group and while there is overlap, why I have no idea but on similar goals these cats do not join forces. The AFL-CIO is for "amnesty" but it's a much more workers, labor amnesty than say the SEIU, which appears to be insane in terms cause/effect/wages etc.
But that's why. That said, I hope the AFL-CIO picks up on this, the general theme of U.S. taxpayer money for U.S. jobs hiring U.S. workers....because not putting provisions like this on the jobs....well, uh, in a global labor arbitrage, offshore outsourced contracts (one can get funds/contract for a project and potentially offshore outsource the entire thing in say China) this needs to be done.
The corporate lobbyists, including NASSCOM are now out in droves whining "protectionist" and all sorts of crap, buying our Congress...well this is pure insanity. This is not private money, the private sector, this is the United States government, public funds expenditure.
With new Employee Fair Act
With new Employee Fair Act (I think that's what its called) may encourage IT Folks to join Unions and to pay extra union funds for lobbying. By the way, I also post this news in the linkedin groups that I belong to.
We really have to push colleagues and friends to call. It's not really hard since you really talk to the aide which gives the information to the senator.
I also submitted a form in the AFL-CIO website with a link to this news.
This is our Armageddon, the major battle we have to fight against the H1b and L1 plague, if they win this one then our battle is lost and I'm going to find a different profession.
Where Is the AFL-CIO?
The AFL-CIO was late coming to the real problem - the H-1B. Instead, AFL-CIO focused on off-shoring without linking the two. Off-shoring is very difficult without the H-1B.
The AFL-CIO has never faced the painful truth - that the Democrats are no better than the Republicans on this issue.
The American technical worker has no party. The sooner we and the AFL-CIO realize this - the sooner we will have our country back.
I'm beginning to think
That we need a new look at autarky as a trade strategy. Seems to me one way this could be done, that would throw a bone to the WTO watchdog while actually (gasp) providing jobs for Americans is a repeal of all federal subsidies, replaced with a set of domestic-only subsidies that encourage autarky but without actively withdrawing from foreign trade.
The way to do this would be to create a new labeling program, by which companies could receive "Buy USA Subsidy" stickers & financing equal to the difference in manufacturing cost between building/growing their product here in the United States vs their cheapest overseas competitor for the *same existing product*. To get the subsidy, they'd have to use e-Verify to prove that all of their workers are either citizens or carrying "Permanent Resident" cards, and that their entire supply chain back to Natural Resources comes from the United States and US Protectorates. In return to the WTO, we would agree to either not export "Buy USA Subsidy" products at all, or accept tariffs against such labeled products in other nations.
That way, we could make sure that at least one domestic company is building or growing every product our people want, for domestic use. It wouldn't necessarily mean we exit foreign trade altogether, but rather that we are fulfilling the "self-sufficient" obligations of an autarkic economy *before* turning to international trade for exotic luxuries.
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Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.
Teamsters spoke to Pelosi, but about air maintenance outsourcing
-- Teamsters Ask For Outsourcing Moratorium In Stimulus Bill -- http://aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=7c8e1b6e-f24c-4147-8236-a9...
i'm searching to see if anyone else did...
Thanks Amberglow
We'd love to have you on EP btw, upper right is the create account. EP is a community blog, i.e. anyone can write a blog post and the comments are threaded for discussion etc.
Especially if you find any other labor organizations piping up. Obviously the Teamsters had zero influence on Pelosi and I'll bet they are now screaming considering how much they did for Democrats in this election (and every election). They are part of the SEIU (which makes no sense to me since their own positions are often different on various labor issues).
thanks!
: >
this so infuriates me -- i can't begin to tell you.
the "bailout" was horrendous enough, and "stimulus" is turning out even worse, i'd say.
another -- "Machinists Union Defends 'Buy America' Provisions" -
http://sev.prnewswire.com/aerospace-defense/20090126/DC6284626012009-1.html
"... "The extraordinary gall of these corporate lobbyists to align themselves with foreign corporations at this time is nothing short of economic treason," declared Buffenbarger. "Every other country in the world puts its own industries and workers first. For the sake of our nation and our economic recovery, our elected officials should do the same."
..."
When people become aware of offshore outsourcing
i.e. a Stimulus bill tallying now $900 billion bucks...
that is supposed to create jobs....
uh, is not going to create jobs for U.S. workers....
if they think the outrage over the TARP is bad....I think there will be riots.
But the key is to let the public know this situation.
and meanwhile, France is tying all auto $$ to keeping jobs home
-- France Dangles EU6 Billion in Auto Aid, Wants Plant Commitments -- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLUYiDSEvAak&refer=home
mind if I use this
for a Manufacturing Monday update?
of course not -- it's vital that we show how other countries
are just as protectionist, if not more so.
Johnny, also go thru these EU pages --
tons of stuff on how they protect their own industries while trying to open every other country to their products --
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/sectoral/competitiveness/global_europe_...
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/wtodispute/search.cfm?code=2
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/respectrules/safeguard/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/sectoral/index_en.htm
and check the WTO too -- http://www.wto.org/
this is good too -- States & public money to private industry
Businessweek -- Rebuilding America's Job Machine -- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_06/b4118038654198.htm?ch...
Ariel, Next time you create
Ariel,
Next time you create an article, please take a step back for a minute and take a deep breath. This article is filled with opinionated conclusions and emtional convolution. "This is pure outrage!" You draw a conclusion without even presenting any facts, so then I'm supposed to read this with a frown on my face? The best way to get your point across is to present the facts first and then present some data of what has developed from similar events in the past. At that point, you would not have brought to my attention and others with my same attitude that the article is more than likely a waste of time.
who is ariel?
secondly this was an immediate, fast moving stimulus legislation so outrage in this case appropriate.
If people do not know that jobs are being offshore outsourced due to labor arbitrage, i.e. for the purposes of lower wages and is hurting U.S. workers, especially tech workers they must be living in a box.
The waste of time is people who do not want to help U.S. workers and call their representatives to get Stimulus funds going to U.S. workers for jobs.