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This and That
Jobs lost to overseas companies
By THOMAS MICHALSKI
Article published on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 |
Thousands of dedicated workers are losing their jobs to foreigners in India, the Philippines and even China.
About 400 Tampa-based General Motors call center employees just recently learned that their jobs will vanish by December, and taken over by overseas contractors.
One Pinellas County-based electronic retailer has been shedding its full-time staffers and replacing them with part timers, home-based workers and foreigners.
They opened a call center about three years ago in the Philippines and added “home agents” – people who answer phones in the comfort of their domicile to the tune of screaming kids and barking dogs in the background. They enjoy no benefits and as “independent contractors” are responsible for their own taxes.
The company has eliminated its credit card, computer tech support and other divisions that were moved overseas. Veteran employees who helped build the company were simply trashed.
Just this month their president of domestic operations “resigned to pursue other interests,” which is a corporate way of saying that she was canned.
That retailer is not alone in the greedy quest for profits.
Wal-Mart recently ended up with egg on its face when the New York Times published a memo from senior Wal-Mart management calling for the elimination of older workers as a cost savings measure. The memo, according to the Times, said those with seven years service are no more productive than two-year workers who earn considerably less.
Locally, the Pinellas Park Wal-Mart Superstore on U.S. 19 pressured veteran employee Rveva Barrett out the door. This, after years as a “Wal-Mart ambassador” promoting the store to anyone who would listen.
Contact any call center and most likely you will talk to a foreigner. They even developed electronic gadgetry that disguises accents into American-sounding ones.
I once spoke to a customer service representative with a pleasing southern drawl. Something went wrong with the telephone gizmo and her voice fluctuated from her natural foreign accent to southern American and back again.
Call center employees aren’t the only ones affected by job cuts. Thousands more in data processing, travel and banking have been replaced by foreigners.
Some companies hire so-called “efficiency experts” and vagabond managers who float from job to job without ever setting roots. They are trained to make life miserable enough to force employee resignations. Later they, too, are dumped and go on to other companies to repeat their vicious management style.
Computers, of course, are the major reason for the shift in jobs to overseas companies. Between 1995 and 2002 America lost 11 percent of its manufacturing jobs. During the 1970s 394,000 telephone operators were employed in the U.S. Today that figure is down to about 50,000.
Maybe the government should tax American corporations who replace our people with foreigners?
Now there’s an idea that could cause heart palpitations in corporate board rooms.
Until next time ...
Thomas Michalski is the staff writer for Pinellas Park Beacon.
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Article published on Wednesday, April 12, 2006
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