Coalition Against the American Middle-Class (ignore 1st one)
Coalition Against the American Middle-Class (ignore 1st one)
Date: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 11:25 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
(This is a second send because the email server cut-off part of the
message. Portions of the commentary have been improved since the fist
send so read this one)
A gang of corporate fat-cats and professional lie-for-hire shills has
formed the "Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs". Their
mission is to allow unlimited numbers of H-1Bs to work in the U.S. and
to thwart all attempts at limiting the outsourcing of jobs to foreign
nations.
There about 200 power-players in this group. Here is a partial list:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Business Roundtable
American Bankers Association
American Manufacturer's Association
National Association of Manufacturers
Information Technology Association of America
Harris "the Shiller" Miller, president of the Information Technology
Association of America (ITAA), said that the coalition was formed to
"educate the public" but his real agenda is to obscurate the truth.
Miller's educational technique should be called what it is - blatant
anti-American propaganda.
Strategies to be employed by the coalition include mind control through
the use of language. The name of their organization is a good example
of their doublespeak strategy, and another is their use of the term
"worldwide sourcing" instead of outsourcing because it sounds less
provocative. Anytime "worldwide sourcing" is used in the press you can
bet that it was planted by shills working for this coalition. Lobbyists
for the coalition have informed officials at the White House, the
Commerce Department, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on
methods to disseminate this term to the public, so don't be surprised
when politicians start to parrot it. The power of words cannot be
underestimated. As an example, the same shills changed the term "fast
track" to "trade promotion authority" and it helped them push the bill
through Congress because it sounded more palpable.
The statement below is a classic Harris Millerism used to misrepresent
the facts. Pay particular attention to what he doesn't say because
that's the important part. He offers explanations about why there are
job-losses in the U.S. but never admits outsourcing is one of the
reasons. Miller implies that IT jobs won't suffer the same fate as the
textile industry because we need people here; but he doesn't mention
the large numbers of foreigners who are taking those jobs by coming
here on H-1B and L-1 visas. Miller cleverly assuages the fears of
job-loss by claiming that only lousy jobs like manufacturing are sent
overseas - not good IT and programming jobs.
much of the job loss has nothing to do with overseas jobs loss,
It has to do with oil prices, the burst bubble, and other things.
Reports that the IT industry is going to go like the textile
industry are pure and absolute nonsense because these jobs require
people to be here. The jobs going overseas are less qualified
ones.
Miller understands that high unemployment hurts his cause because his
window of opportunity to sneak legislation through Congress will last
only as long as Americans feel comfortable about their economic
security. Comfortable workers are usually complacent and docile.
If unemployment continues to go down it might lessen concerns,
but if unemployment remains after the elections, it would grow,"
Miller said.
"The Shiller" likes to insult anyone that differs with him. In his
mind, it's not possible for rational people to oppose open-borders and
unregulated global trade policies.
"I'm an optimist. I believe even with irrational arguments,
rational minds will prevail against stupid acts".
They also hinted that they will use the WTO to clobber anyone that
resists them:
In addition, the group says blocking non-U.S. operations from
working on state contracts violates World Trade Organization
agreements.
Lou Dobbs has been one of the few in the press that has the courage to
tell the truth. The coalition:may be focusing on Dobbs as an enemy:
Troubled by a great deal of adverse publicity, such as the
daily dose by CNN's Lou Dobbs on his Money Line programme,
the coalition is deliberating on a public education campaign.
Miller once referred to myself and several others as members of the
"Flat Earth Society". To see that quote and his haughty picture, go to:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/images/photos/miller.jpg
Read the article at (paste the address together if it's two lines):
http://web.archive.org/web/20030424212221/http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,14508,00.html
The picture was never put online.
Make no mistake about what is going on. This cabal is composed of very
powerful and influential organizations that are richly funded by
multi-national corporations and employers that can't get enough
cheap-labor. Their in-your-face approach indicates that they sized up
their opposition and decided they can impose their globalist agenda
with impunity. Hopefully that's a miscalculation, but if history is any
guide, they may win major concessions. Lavish corporate funding will
enable them to buy influcnce on Capitol Hill and to manipulate the
press. Strategically this amounts to a direct frontal assault against
the American workforce. So far the only opposition is a few
under-funded advocacy groups and the labor unions. The shills are
bringing out the heavy artillery while the few patriots who understand
the gravity of the situation have nothing but toy pop-guns.
http://www.itaa.org/news/pr/PressRelease.cfm?ReleaseID=657556796
ITAA Calls Offshore Bill Off Base
March 4, 2004
For More Information Contact:
Tinabeth Burton (703) 284-5305 tburton@itaa.org
Arlington, VA - The Information Technology Association of America
(ITAA) today criticized Senator Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) amendment to
S. 1637 that would, in most instances, bar work from being performed
for federal or state agencies outside of the United States.
"This is the first shot in a trade war in which American IT workers and
US IT companies will be the losers," said ITAA President Harris N.
Miller. "The US IT software and services industry has a multibillion
dollar surplus with the rest of the world, in large part because
governments around the world buy products from US IT companies. That
means we create more jobs selling to them than they create by selling
to us. Yet as the IT industry marches down the field toward the goal
line, Senator Dodd wants to call a penalty on our own team, inciting
other governments to impose similar restrictions. Trying to protect
unclassified government business from overseas competition is a step
that is sure to backfire, shrinking markets and harming workers."
Miller said the amendment is bad legislation for numerous reasons:
Placing prohibitions on where and how non-classified government work is
performed will lead to similar trade sanctions abroad, foreclosing the
ability of U.S. companies to pursue international business and
shrinking job growth at home;
Such restrictions raise the cost of doing business at the very time
that the federal government is running record deficits and state
governments are struggling to control spending and balance budgets;
Adding layers of red tape and restrictions on U.S. companies with
multinational operations will cause many to withdraw from government
markets, limiting the government's procurement options and diminishing
the taxpayer's ability to receive best value;
Protectionist measures turn a blind eye to economic realities. Keeping
barriers to trade low in a global market generates many benefits,
including lower costs and prices, reduced inflation, greater GDP,
improved job growth and more innovation across an array of industries.
"The media hype about offshoring has outrun the facts in the midst of a
political campaign," Miller concluded. "We need a positive approach to
meeting global competition and making US workers more competitive, such
as the one Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) just announced, not a return to
the trade wars of yesteryear which produced the Great Depression. Smoot
and Hawley are long dead, but their spirits will return if the Senate
passes this extremely unfortunate legislation."
The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) provides
global public policy, business networking, and national leadership to
promote the continued rapid growth of the IT industry. ITAA consists of
over 400 corporate members throughout the U.S., and a global network of
53 countries' IT associations. The Association plays the leading role
in issues of IT industry concern including information security, taxes
and finance policy, digital intellectual property protection,
telecommunications competition, workforce and education, immigration,
online privacy and consumer protection, government IT procurement,
human resources and e-commerce policy. ITAA members range from the
smallest IT start-ups to industry leaders in the Internet, software, IT
services, ASP, digital content, systems integration,
telecommunications, and enterprise solution fields. For more
information visit www.itaa.org.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/125658-6932-031.html
Business defends its outsourcing
Trade groups go on the offensive to defeat efforts to keep jobs here.
By Michael Schroeder
The Wall Street Journal
March 2, 2004
WASHINGTON -- With overseas outsourcing a hot U.S. election-year issue,
big business is quietly mounting an offensive against state and federal
efforts to keep jobs at home and otherwise restrain globalization.
Some of the best-financed trade groups in the United States have formed
a coalition to beat back federal legislation that would restrict
foreign outsourcing by government contractors and limit visas for
non-American workers with technology skills.
Calling itself the Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs, the
new entity consists of about 200 trade groups -- including the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the American Bankers
Association, the National Association of Manufacturers and the
Information Technology Association of America -- as well as individual
firms.
While U.S. manufacturing jobs have been going abroad for decades, the
more recent and highly publicized outflow of white-collar jobs -- from
call centers to software engineering -- is causing anxiety among
skilled white-collar workers at a time when the growing U.S. economy
hasn't produced many new jobs.
"Money and energy could be better spent to keep jobs at home rather
than to try to convince people that there isn't a problem," said Thea
Lee, assistant director of the AFL-CIO's international economics
department.
Dozens of bills to protect U.S. jobs have been introduced in state
legislatures and in Congress. Business is alarmed by a provision in the
federal government's omnibus fiscal 2004 spending bill that bars
companies that bid for certain work done by government employees from
moving work offshore, said William Sweeney, vice president of global
government affairs at Electronic Data Systems of Plano, Texas, which
does government outsourcing work.
One target of the coalition's lobbying is a bill that would require
workers at telephone call centers to disclose their physical locations
at the beginning of each call. The bill was introduced by Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and is backed by Democratic
presidential contender Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Leaders of two Indiana business trade organizations said they were not
aware that the Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs was
operating in the state.
Pat Kiely, president of the Indiana Manufacturers Association, said he
hadn't heard of it. Neither had Cameron Carter, president of TechPoint,
a technology group.
"We get a coalition a week starting in Washington," Kiely said.
The coalition also is working against a half-dozen bills that would
restrict companies from bringing foreign workers to the United States
on guest visas to do jobs previously done by Americans. With layoffs
among tech workers rising, some U.S. workers and labor unions say the
widespread use of so-called H1-B visas for skilled workers is
exacerbating U.S. job woes and undermining wages.
Stopping state initiatives is a major goal of the coalition. About 80
bills aimed at keeping jobs in the United States by limiting
international outsourcing have been introduced in about 30 states. Of
the few that have come up for a vote, none has passed. Bills in six
states have been tabled or voted down.
The coalition says the outsourcing bills create unintended consequences
for state governments that have international programs and fail to
acknowledge the money-saving benefits of work done outside the country.
In addition, the group says blocking non-U.S. operations from working
on state contracts violates World Trade Organization agreements.
Star staff contributed to this report.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0304/030204cdam2.htm
March 2, 2004
Business leaders don't like 'outsourcing' either
By Keith Koffler, CongressDaily
Business officials leading a new coalition to combat efforts to prevent
companies from moving some operations overseas know they have a public
relations problem, and they are preparing to act.
"Outsourcing" has become a national dirty word.
And, just as they partially succeeded in converting "fast track" to
"trade promotion authority," corporate leaders are about to try to
strike outsourcing from the lexicon.
The coalition is now rallying around "worldwide sourcing" as a less
provocative term for the movement of jobs around the globe. The change
is part of a new strategy to try to impart the business community's
view that preventing firms from relocating outside the country to
reduce costs will restrict competitiveness and ultimately cost jobs.
Leaders of the business alliance -- called the Coalition for Economic
Growth and American Jobs -- have met in recent days and weeks with
officials at the White House, the Commerce Department, and the Office
of the U.S. Trade Representative to brief them on the new message.
According to one federal official in one of those meetings, the
business leaders pushed the term "worldwide sourcing" and suggested
adding context to the debate by showing that fears during earlier
periods that jobs were going to evaporate because of new technology or
foreign competition turned out to be unfounded.
Business officials presented polls and focus groups showing how the
issue could be better framed with workers.
Business Roundtable President John Castellani told CongressDaily the
new PR campaign stemmed directly from the torrent of attacks on
outsourcing in the Democratic campaign. "Our concern was that if we
didn't respond, we ran the risk of having a reversal of those kinds of
polices that promote economic growth and job creation," he said.
Castellani and others in the coalition referred to their opponents as
"isolationists."
AFL-CIO trade lobbyist Scott Paul rejected the term, noting labor's
concern with workers internationally. He said unions just want to stop
giving companies incentives -- provided by the tax code and trade
treaties that he said do not sufficiently protect workers' rights -- to
relocate overseas.
Castellani said worldwide sourcing was a more appropriate term because
outsourcing has for decades referred to efforts by companies to more
efficiently manage their costs by contracting with other domestic
producers.
With worldwide sourcing, "you participate in worldwide markets, you do
the things in those markets appropriate to products and services and do
things in the United States that we're best at -- design and
innovation," Castellani said.
Administration officials appear undecided on whether they will adopt
"worldwide sourcing" for themselves. With the disastrous exception of
Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Gregory Mankiw, Bush aides
already studiously avoid using the term outsourcing.
The administration also has avoided using the term "outsourcing" to
describe its efforts to subject hundreds of thousands of federal jobs
to competition from private firms. Administration officials say the
term "competitve sourcing" is more accurate, because when agency teams
win the competitions, the jobs are not outsourced.
Is the business effort on "worldwide sourcing" just a public relations
move? Time will tell. But last year, proponents of "trade promotion
authority" got their way after years of failing to pass "fast track."
http://afr.com/articles/2004/03/02/1078191317015.html
US business fights electioneering on outsourcing
Michael Schroeder | Wall St Journal | Washington
2004/03/03
With overseas outsourcing a hot election-year issue, big business in
the United States is quietly mounting an offensive against state and
federal efforts to keep jobs at home and otherwise restrain
globalisation.
Some of the best-financed trade groups in the US have formed a
coalition to prevent federal legislation that would restrict foreign
outsourcing by government contractors and limit visas for non-American
workers with technology skills.
Calling itself the Coalition for Economic Growth and American Jobs, the
new entity comprises about 200 trade groups - including the US Chamber
of Commerce, the American Bankers Association, the National Association
of Manufacturers and the Information Technology Association of America.
While US manufacturing jobs have been going abroad for decades, the
more recent and highly publicised outflow of white-collar jobs is
causing anxiety among skilled white-collar workers at a time when the
growing US economy has not produced many new jobs.
"Money and energy could be better spent to keep jobs at home rather
than to try to convince people that there isn't a problem," said Thea
Lee, the assistant director of the international economics department
of the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial
Organisations.
Dozens of bills to protect US jobs have been introduced in state
legislatures and in Congress. Business is alarmed by a provision in the
federal government's omnibus fiscal 2004 spending bill that bars
companies that bid for certain work done by government employees from
moving work offshore, said William Sweeney, vice-president of global
government affairs at Electronic Data Systems. EDS does government
outsourcing work.
One target of the coalition's lobbying is a bill that would require
workers at call centres to disclose their physical locations at the
beginning of each call.
The bill was introduced by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, and is
backed by Democratic presidential contender Senator John Kerry.
The coalition is also working against several bills that would restrict
companies from bringing foreign workers to the US on guest visas for
jobs previously done by Americans.
With lay-offs among technology workers rising, some unions say the use
of so-called H1-B visas for skilled workers is exacerbating US job woes
and undermining wages.
Stopping state initiatives is a major goal of the coalition. Because
this is an election year and because any state legislator can propose a
bill, there has been an unusually rich crop in a relatively short time.
About 80 bills aimed at keeping jobs in the US by limiting
international outsourcing have been introduced in about 30 states. None
have passed so far. Bills in six states have been tabled or voted down.
Bruce Josten, an executive vice-president of the US Chamber of
Commerce, said the coalition was instrumental in fending off bills in
New Mexico and Virginia.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?msid=534471
American group to fight anti-outsourcing sentiments
IANS[ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 03, 2004 04:00:44 PM ]
WASHINGTON: A new coalition of trade groups hopes to change the
American antipathy to outsourcing, particularly to India.
Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of
America, spoke about the newly formed Coalition for Economic Growth and
American Jobs that has been set up to educate the public and leading
government officials and to combat the "inaccurate and unhistorical"
reporting that US jobs going overseas was bad for the country.
Among the 200 or so trade groups that have come together to form the
new coalition are the Business Roundtable made up of leading CEOs, the
American Manufacturer's Association, The Bankers Association as well as
the US Chamber of Commerce and ITAA.
India, in particular, has become the butt of public and political anger
as the destination for jobs lost to American workers. Outsourcing is
one of the top issues in this election year.
"Much of the job loss has nothing to do with overseas jobs loss,"
Miller said. It has to do with oil prices, the burst bubble, and other
things.
"Reports that the IT industry is going to go like the textile industry
are pure and absolute nonsense because these jobs require people to be
here. The jobs going overseas are less qualified ones," Miller told
IANS.
But arguments made by the industry lobby stand in stark contrast to
those made by American workers groups. Virtually all labour
organisations, as well as IT workers associations, are ranged against
employers, a classic confrontation that makes for election rhetoric.
All Democratic candidates are posturing against outsourcing and
currently there are some 88 bills pending in 38 states seeking to ban
outsourcing.
"The election season does heighten the rhetoric but it would be naove
to think it (the anti-outsourcing hype) will go away after the
elections. If unemployment continues to go down it might lessen
concerns, but if unemployment remains after the elections, it would
grow," Miller said.
"Part of our challenge is to explain that it's not a jobless growth
taking place. Firstly, it's always the case that the last part of the
economy to recover is the jobs. It happened in the 1990s," he said.
"We have seen a slow increase, not as rapid as some would like, in
jobs. There's been a net increase of 500,000 jobs since September,"
Miller conceded.
The Business Roundtable this month released research it said
demonstrates that Americans want US employers to engage in a worldwide
economy and to pursue innovation. The research took a poll of 1,049
people.
"Engaging in the worldwide arena has allowed the US, our companies and
our workers to lead," said John J. Castellani, president of the
Business Roundtable.
But, in the charged atmosphere, few are prone to believe this.
The National Hire American Citizens Professional Society leads a
coalition called American Worker Replacement Programmes By Work Visas
and Corporate Off Shoring of American Jobs.
The divide may be vast between the two lobbies, Miller says, but "I'm
an optimist. I believe even with irrational arguments, rational minds
will prevail against stupid acts".
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/features/stories/99081.html
US industry unites to fight BPO backlash
The gloves are out. The United States' top industry and trade bodies
and individual companies have now joined hands and constructed a
formidable coalition to battle the growing backlash over outsourcing.
S. Rajagopalan, March 02, 2004
The gloves are out. The United States' top industry and trade bodies
and individual companies have now joined hands and constructed a
formidable coalition to battle the growing backlash over outsourcing.
The industry's move is clearly a counter to the recent formation of an
umbrella body by the antioutsourcing groups to intensify their
offensive against the flight of American jobs to India and other
low-cost countries.
The industry initiative, called the Coalition for Economic Growth and
American Jobs, aims to beat back the rash of legislative proposals to
stop outsourcing of government contract jobs and curtail visas for
foreign tech workers.
As many as 80 bills have been introduced in about 30 states across the
US to ban outsourcing of jobs under state contracts, according to
figures quoted by the Wall Street Journal. It is another matter that
most of the bills have not come up for consideration and not one bill
has been passed so far.
But industry sources say this is hardly a cause for comfort. The trade
bodies are getting into the overdrive because things have now begun to
move to a feverish pitch with the Democrats making loss of jobs the
principal issue to pin down the Bush administration in the November
elections.
The major industry bodies that have come together in defence of
outsourcing include the US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable,
National Association of Manufacturers, American Bankers Association and
theInformation Technology Association of America.
The coalition is getting set to intensify its lobbying on Capitol Hill
and in the states. The business groups have had some small successes
lately in fending off bills in Virginia and New Mexico, but the
coalition clearly has a long, long way to go.
Troubled by a great deal of adverse publicity, such as the daily dose
by CNN's Lou Dobbs on his Money Line programme, the coalition is
deliberating on a public education campaign.
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