14 Articles Worth Reading
14 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Saturday, July 30, 2005 11:45 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
July 30, 2005 No. 1302
COMMENT FROM ROB: (See article #12) The State of California tailored a job ad for a person that is probably already working for them by requiring: "One year of experience in the California state service". You can bet that the foreign worker that is already working at this position has a student visa and just graduated from college and has one year of this specific experience by interning. Since nobody else in the world will have this experience, California will be able to claim that there is no American qualified to do the job. If an American had 13 months he would be over-qualified, and 11 months under-qualified. For some reason state governments seem to be particularly prolific when it comes to running phony job ads that require a specific length of service. Perhaps states have the best legal advice on how to exploit the guest-worker visa system.
Article 1:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165701701
More Than 8,000 Apply For H-1B Visa-Cap Exemptions
More than 8,000 petitions seeking exemptions to the 65,000 cap on H-1B visas this fiscal year have been made to the government, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Tuesday.
Article 2:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4683687.stm
Barclays moves tech jobs to India
Barclays is to move its in-house technical support centre from Cheshire, north England to India, in a move which could see many staff lose their jobs. A total of 140 workers are affected by the move. "We see offshore outsourcing as a way of ensuring improved productivity and efficiency," said a company spokesman.
Article 3:
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=12940&n_tit=Bangalore%3A+Motorola+to+Double+its+Headcount+in+the+City+Core+Network
Bangalore: Motorola to Double its Headcount in the City Core Network
Motorola Inc plans to double the headcount of its Core Network Division in India to over 500 even as it seeks to go in for vendor rationalisation over the next 12-18 months
Article 4:
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13896800
British Gas to outsource 2,000 jobs to India
Energy group Centrica confirmed plans on Friday to outsource about 2,000 back-office jobs from its British Gas unit to India.
Article 5:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/159285/1/.html
Sole proprietor jailed, fined for hiring foreign workers illegally
A sole proprietor has been jailed 12 months and fined S$87,000 for hiring and deploying foreign workers illegally.
The Manpower Ministry said the harsh sentence was handed down to Tan Hong Leok, despite him being a first time offender.
Article 6:
http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts07252005.html
The US Navy...Made in China
China-Mart Takes Over
My poor beloved country, trapped in a Middle Eastern quagmire and tricked by Osama bin Laden into subsidizing to the tune of $300 billion (spent or appropriated) a training ground for Muslim terrorists and insurgents while our once fabulous economy disintegrates. If the US were still rich and just wanted to throw several hundred billion dollars at bin Laden as a good will gesture, that would be one thing. But we are borrowing the money that we are using to train Muslim terrorists to kill and maim our troops in Iraq and Londoners in England. The money is being lent to us mainly by Asians, especially the Chinese.
Article 7:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jul-28-Thu-2005/news/26953934.html
TEACHER SHORTAGE: School district in 'crisis'
Officials hiring substitutes, foreigners
For the first time in Nevada, school district recruiters have gone overseas to bring foreign-born teachers to Clark County. Teachers from the Philippines are expected to arrive in town soon. They'll be followed by 14 teachers from Spain and six teachers from Canada, who will arrive in Las Vegas in the next few weeks. The teachers will work under temporary visas that expire in three years. She added that the district is considering recruiting in Mexico, Singapore and Puerto Rico. But any additional recruiting overseas will depend on how well the foreign recruits perform.
Article 8:
http://www.fairus.org/Media/Media.cfm?ID=2730&c=34
White House Forms Coalition to Sell Open Borders to the American Public
With the Bush Administration's scheme to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and open the borders to millions of additional guest workers failing to gain traction in Congress or with the American public, the White House recently revealed it is turning to special interest groups to pull the wool over our eyes. Known as Americans for Border and Economic Security, the coalition will consist of ethnic and business interest groups prepared to kick in as much as a quarter of a million dollars each for deceptive ad campaigns selling amnesty for illegal aliens and the admission of unlimited numbers of new guest workers.
Article 9:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0728-20.htm
Democracy Sold Out - CAFTA Approved by Pork and a Hill of Beans
Razor Thin Vote Seals Fate Against More Expansion of NAFTA
At 12:03 am on July 28th, the House of Representatives approved the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA. CAFTA, which would expand NAFTA to Central America and the Dominican Republic, would devastate farmers, privatize essential public services, and accelerate the race to the bottom on wages in the US and all over Central America.
Article 10:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050729/spanking_the_cafta_15.php
Spanking The CAFTA 15
Enough is enough. The 15 so-called Democrats who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement must pay a heavy price for turning their backs on labor: None of them should receive a dime from labor unions and each one should face a labor-backed primary challenger next year. And the recruitment of good candidates should start now. If the CAFTA 15 do not suffer the political consequences for their vote, labor will look weak and the march of so-called "free trade" will continue.
Article 11:
http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=4200
Applauding the Cafta 15
The Cafta 15 deserve respect for their independence and good judgment. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimated that Cafta could increase United States agricultural exports by nearly $1.5 billion a year; the National Association of Manufacturers said it would add about $1 billion a year to the value of United States exports of manufactured goods. Finally, Cafta will benefit the most underrepresented constituency in America: consumers, particularly the lower-income consumers who find that a 50-cent difference in the price of a T-shirt actually means something.
Article 12:
http://www.programmersguild.org/docs/dmh_exam_july2005.html
While some private sector employers still claim there is a tech labor shortage and ongoing need for 85,000 H-1B workers per year, one exam for programmer positions at the California Department of Mental Health drew about 80 candidates. I counted about 80 applicants in the exam room. This is roughly a "job lottery," the equivalent of day laborers who line up on sidewalks, hoping to be picked over the dozens of other workers.
Article 13:
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/050726_behind.htm
(text not provided in newsletter)
US Falling Behind Across the Board
Yesterday I reported that the US, formerly a superpower until afflicted with "new economy" syndrome, has lost so much manufacturing capability that it can scarcely produce one submarine every two years and one aircraft carrier every five years. US manufacturing capability is so reduced and shrinking so fast that the president of the American Shipbuilding Association recently said that in the next several years "more and more manufacturing of ship components and systems will migrate to China."
Article 14:
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=4221685
(text not provided in newsletter)
From T-shirts to T-bonds
Beijing, not Washington, increasingly takes the decisions that affect workers, companies, financial markets and economies everywhere. China's impact on the world economy can best be understood as what economists call a "positive supply-side shock". Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University, reckons that the entry into the world economy of China, India and the former Soviet Union has, in effect, doubled the global labour force (China accounts for more than half of this increase). This has increased the world's potential growth rate, helped to hold down inflation and triggered changes in the relative prices of labour, capital, goods and assets.
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http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165701701
More Than 8,000 Apply For H-1B Visa-Cap Exemptions
New government rules allow up to 20,000 foreign nationals with graduate degrees from U.S. institutions to avoid the 65,000 visa cap.
By Eric Chabrow, InformationWeek
July 12, 2005
More than 8,000 petitions seeking exemptions to the 65,000 cap on H-1B visas this fiscal year have been made to the government, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Tuesday.
Each year, the government allows 65,000 foreign nationals to enter the United States to work in highly skilled and professional occupations such as IT, architecture, accounting, and medicine. In May, the government issued new regulations to let an additional 20,000 foreign workers into the country if they hold at least a master's-level degree from a U.S. academic institution. As of Tuesday, 8,069 petitions had been received for the exemption for the fiscal year that ends Sept 30.
In each future year, an additional 20,000 foreign workers receiving graduate degrees in the United States could qualify for the H-1B visa above the 65,000 cap.
Congress established the H-1B visa category a half century ago and added the cap in 1990. The program's aim is to allow American employers to augment their payrolls with highly skilled temporary workers.
The Department of Homeland Security says it requires U.S. employers to meet specific labor conditions to ensure that American workers aren't adversely impacted, while the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division safeguards the treatment and compensation of H-1B workers.
But critics contend the visa program's main purpose is to provide employers with cheap labor by giving entry to foreigners who are willing to accept lower salaries than their American counterparts, resulting in fewer jobs for U.S. workers. Many employers, however, counter that they can't find certain skills among the U.S. workforce and must turn to foreigners to fill those positions.
The government didn't break down what occupations petitioners sought to fill, but about one-third of H-1B visa holders in the past held IT jobs.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4683687.stm
Barclays moves tech jobs to India
Barclays is to move its in-house technical support centre from Cheshire, north England to India, in a move which could see many staff lose their jobs.
A total of 140 workers are affected by the move, but Barclays says it will try to redeploy as many as possible within the firm before making any job cuts.
"We see offshore outsourcing as a way of ensuring improved productivity and efficiency," said a company spokesman.
The Amicus union said the business case for moving jobs offshore was weakening.
We cannot say we can provide new jobs for everyone, but there will also be the opportunity for people to go to India to help training staff there
Barclays spokesman
"There is growing evidence that the case for offshoring has failed, " said a spokesman for the union, which has been at the forefront of campaigns to prevent more finance jobs being moved to India.
"We can only hope that Barclays has not taken this decision lightly and that there will not be more job cuts."
New jobs?
At present if staff have technical problems, they contact the company's Servicepoint help centre at Radbroke Hall, Knutsford, in Cheshire.
Last October, Barclays set up a joint venture with Indian firm HDFC to create a company in Mumbai called Intelenet, which will now deal with problems.
"We are currently holding one-to-one meetings with staff about possible redeployment opportunities," said a Barclays spokesman.
"We cannot say we can provide new jobs for everyone, but there will also be the opportunity for people to go to India to help training staff there."
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http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=12940&n_tit=Bangalore%3A+Motorola+to+Double+its+Headcount+in+the+City+Core+Network
News -- Bangalore: Motorola to Double its Headcount in the City Core Network
Bangalore, Jul 20: Motorola Inc plans to double the headcount of its Core Network Division in India to over 500 even as it seeks to go in for vendor rationalisation over the next 12-18 months
The Core Networks Division, based in Bangalore, is working on Motorola Soft Switch (MSS), IP Multimedia Subsystem, push-to-talk over cellular and seamless mobility.
Michael Krutz, Vice-President, Motorola's Core Network Division, said his division expects to double its India headcount to 500 over the next 12-18 months. Motorola currently has some 250 engineers working for its core network division in Bangalore and over 150 engineers at its five outsourced software development partners.
"India will be the primary development centre for all of our core products," Krutz said, adding that the company started moving work to the Bangalore centre two years ago. "As we move more development work here, we expect to increase our headcount," he said.
The development centre in Bangalore accounts for almost 80-85 per cent of the software that goes with Motorola's core network products. The company recently set up a new facility that can accommodate about 650 people. The Bangalore centre is responsible for the entire lifecycle of core network products that include systems engineering, software development, product testing and systems testing, he said.
Motorola expects each of its outsourcing partners to focus on specific areas such GSM, CDMA and push-to-talk cellular going forward. The company plans to retain some development work in the US and Spain to support customers in North America and Europe respectively, he said. Motorola also expects to double the number of engineers working with its partners over the next 12-18 months, he said. The core networks division accounts for over 10 per cent of the Motorola's total workforce of 2,100 in India.
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http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13896800
British Gas to outsource 2,000 jobs to India
Friday, 15 July , 2005, 23:00
London: Energy group Centrica confirmed plans on Friday to outsource about 2,000 back-office jobs from its British Gas unit to India.
"Centrica confirms that as part of its ongoing transformation programme in British Gas and continued drive for cost efficiencies, it is reviewing the future of its back-office operations," it said in a statement.
"As progress with the transformation programme continues, the company will have a requirement for fewer back-office staff... it is now proposed that these roles be transferred to India.
"In total around 2,000 roles could be lost from the organisation," Centrica said, adding they would not go until after 2005.
The group's statement was published shortly after British Gas said it was considering the transfer of non-customer-facing clerical work to outsourced agencies in Britain and India, which could impact jobs at the company's offices in Manchester, Oldham and Solihull.
That led to fierce criticism from unions, who had forecast 2,000 job cuts.
National officer of the GMB union Brian Strutton said following the British Gas statement: "This is a devastating blow... British Gas makes big profits from British customers and they should support British jobs or the British people will not support them. We have already told the company not to go ahead with this decision.
"We will join forces with local communities and fight this proposal and, if necessary, I think our members will want to take strike action," he added.
The Unison union said the plans would hit one office in Oldham and two in Manchester, northwest England, and one in Solihull in the country's West Midlands.
"If our members want to be balloted for strike action then that is what we will do," said Unison's head of utilities Steve Bloomfield.
British Gas, the former state-owned monopoly gas supplier, employs about 26,000 staff across Britain. It said it expected to recruit more than 2,500 customer service and sales staff, as well as service engineers this year.
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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/159285/1/.html
Title : Sole proprietor jailed, fined for hiring foreign workers illegally
By :
Date : 22 July 2005 1657 hrs (SST)
SINGAPORE : A sole proprietor has been jailed 12 months and fined S$87,000 for hiring and deploying foreign workers illegally.
The Manpower Ministry said the harsh sentence was handed down to Tan Hong Leok, despite him being a first time offender.
It had pressed for a deterrent custodial sentence in view of the large number of employment offences committed.
Its investigations, conducted between October 21 2003 and June 25 2004, found Tan had illegally deployed 29 foreign workers to the conservancy sector, to clean and sweep HDB compounds, when their work permits only allowed them to work in the marine industry.
He also illegally employed 24 foreign workers without work permits to work as conservancy workers.
Tan is the sole-proprietor of Man-City Engineering Services, Good Will Conservancy Services, Maint-System Engineering Services, Emoil Engineering Contractor and Frontier Econ Marine Engineering & Services.
Inspections also revealed Tan had assisted another company to deploy two foreign workers to work as cleaners at Bedok North Street 1, although they held work permits to work onboard harbourcraft vessels for one of his proprietorships, Good Will Conservancy Services.
He also helped another company to deploy seven foreign workers to work as cleaners although the workers' work permits had already been revoked by the Manpower Ministry.
The Ministry said it will continue to step up enforcement operations against illegal employment and take stern action against errant employers.
It noted there has been an increase in the number of illegal cross-sector deployment of foreign workers.
In particular, the number of marine workers illegally deployed to work in the conservancy sector has increased more than two-fold, from 710 cases in 2003 to more than 1,700 last year.
Under the Work Permit conditions, a foreign worker is only allowed to work for the employer and in the occupation stated in his work permit card. - CNA/ms
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http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts07252005.html
July 25, 2005
The US Navy...Made in China
China-Mart Takes Over
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
My poor beloved country, trapped in a Middle Eastern quagmire and tricked by Osama bin Laden into subsidizing to the tune of $300 billion (spent or appropriated) a training ground for Muslim terrorists and insurgents while our once fabulous economy disintegrates.
If the US were still rich and just wanted to throw several hundred billion dollars at bin Laden as a good will gesture, that would be one thing. But we are borrowing the money
that we are using to train Muslim terrorists to kill and maim our troops in Iraq and Londoners in England.
The money is being lent to us mainly by Asians, especially the Chinese. China has so many dollars to lend to us because we send so many dollars to China to pay for the goods and services that patriotic American corporations have decided to supply to us from China instead of from America.
US corporations decided that the way to get rich was to destroy their American consumer base by closing their American factories, throwing their US employees out of work and hiring Chinese instead.
The Chinese work for less, you see, and free trade economists say lowering costs makes us better off.
What US corporations and the free trade economists overlook is that giving Americans' jobs to foreigners raises foreign incomes and lowers American incomes. When credit cards and home equity lines are maxed out, there will be nothing to support the US consumer market. The American corporations who moved their capital and technology to China will have to find new customers.
Maybe the Chinese government will let the relocated US firms sell to Chinese customers, or maybe the Chinese government will let the US firms go bankrupt. The latter favors China's strategic interest. Chinese businessmen will purchase the bankrupt firms, and Chinese businesses will sell to Chinese customers.
Americans are pouring so much money into China that China can finance our wars while it buys up our companies.
Everyone was shocked that a Chinese company could outbid Chevron for Unocal. China has already purchased IBM's personal computer business, and is now after US appliance maker Maytag (whose appliances are made in Mexico).
The outsourcing mania has hit the Pentagon, and China will soon be supplying the ships for the US Navy. The Pentagon, seeking lowest cost, is pushing defense contractors to outsource offshore for more materials, components and systems.
This means the end of US shipbuilding capability. Component suppliers to American shipbuilding are already skeletal thin, with most components only having sole suppliers. For example, Manufacturing & Technology News (July 8) reports that 80% of the components for the Virginia Class submarine come from sole sources.
With not enough US Navy ships being built to support even an industry of sole suppliers, Asia is fast becoming the only source for US Navy ships.
While President Bush spends $300 billion recruiting and training terrorists for bin Laden in Iraq, US Navy ship procurement has fallen 33% since 2001.
Meanwhile China is on a rip. China is now the third largest shipbuilder after South Korea and Japan. In five years China's submarine fleet will be twice the size of America's. In 10 years China's navy will be larger than the American fleet.
This is amazing performance for a country that as recently as 1989 had essentially no shipbuilding industry.
This year the US is producing 6 ships, one-tenth of South Korea's output. In 2006 the US is scheduled to produce only 4 ships, because China has outbid us for the steel. The US "superpower" can no longer afford to compete against China for essential materials.
Cynthia Brown, president of the American Shipbuilding Association says that "the manufacture of entire components and systems will migrate to China in the next several years under current Department of Defense policy with respect to outsourcing."
But, hey, we will get ships cheaper, and it is making us rich!
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http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Jul-28-Thu-2005/news/26953934.html
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Copyright ) Las Vegas Review-Journal
TEACHER SHORTAGE: School district in 'crisis'
Officials hiring substitutes, foreigners
By ANTONIO PLANAS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Substitutes will replace a shortfall of about 500 teachers in specialty areas when students begin pouring into Clark County School District classrooms in late August.
"We are in a crisis," said Lina Gutierrez, the district's executive director of licensed personnel. "Every year, recruiting gets tougher and tougher. We're forced to go full force in recruiting substitutes."
Gutierrez said she expects to have about 1,600 teachers contracted by the first day of school Aug. 29. But the district -- one of the fastest growing in the nation -- needs about 2,100 teachers to fill all its vacancies, most of which are in high-need areas such as special education, math and science.
At the beginning of the 2003-04 school year, the district had about as many teachers contracted as were needed, Gutierrez said.
Mary Jo Parise-Malloy of Nevadans for Quality Education said the number of substitutes who will be teaching in the fall is alarming. But she said she doesn't know how the problem can be fixed in a district that grows by about 12,000 to 15,000 students a year.
"The ideal situation would be to have a qualified licensed teacher in every position," she said. "But this is a problem nationwide ... Maybe the solution is to rope them in, tie them up and haul them by trailers."
Substitute teachers are required to have a minimum of 62 college credits, six of which must be in education. Prospective substitutes also must pass a skills test that covers English, reading and math, Gutierrez said.
She added that the district has contracted 1,231 teachers and is waiting on 447 teachers who haven't yet committed to teaching in Clark County. She expects the majority of those who have yet to decide to agree to contracts.
Gutierrez said the district has made more than 2,100 offers and has been rejected by more than 400 teachers. Those who have rejected contracts from the district have cited low starting salaries and high property costs in the area.
Gutierrez said the district had about 2,000 teachers contracted by the beginning of the 2003-04 year.
The shortfall comes at a time when the district has implemented unique recruiting methods to fill its vacancies.
For the first time in Nevada, school district recruiters have gone overseas to bring foreign-born teachers to Clark County. Teachers from the Philippines are expected to arrive in town soon. They'll be followed by 14 teachers from Spain and six teachers from Canada, who will arrive in Las Vegas in the next few weeks. The teachers will work under temporary visas that expire in three years.
JoAnn Schlekewy, director of licensed personnel in charge of recruiting, said all the recruits are expected to begin teaching in the fall. The teachers will fill roles in special education, math and science.
Schlekewy said the international-teaching recruits boast impressive credentials, including being bilingual and holding multiple degrees.
She added that the district is considering recruiting in Mexico, Singapore and Puerto Rico. But any additional recruiting overseas will depend on how well the foreign recruits perform.
"Culturewise there will be a shock," Schlekewy said. "How they'll make a transition? We won't know until they get here."
To fill other needs in specialty areas, district officials have contacted the Nevada Department of Education in an attempt to get recently retired teachers back into the classrooms.
Gutierrez said state law permits retired teachers to re-enter the field only if they will fill a void in a specialty area. The district has identified 14 areas that are considered high needs.
But not everyone thinks the teacher shortage is as dire as presented by district officials.
Jill Eastman recently was hired by the district as a substitute. Eastman touts a master's degree in education and has worked in special education with preschool children She has taught in various facets of education for the last 30 years.
She said she was surprised to find that the district did not offer her a contract, citing the fact she has not taught special education since 1999 and has not taught in the same school in the last three years.
"They are their own worst enemy," Eastman said of the district's hiring practices. "It seems better to me to have a teacher that is qualified than not to have any teacher in a classroom."
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http://www.fairus.org/Media/Media.cfm?ID=2730&c=34
White House Forms Coalition to Sell Open Borders to the American Public
July 26, 2005
(Washington, D.C.) With the Bush Administration's scheme to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and open the borders to millions of additional guest workers failing to gain traction in Congress or with the American public, the White House recently revealed it is turning to special interest groups to pull the wool over our eyes. Known as Americans for Border and Economic Security, the coalition will consist of ethnic and business interest groups prepared to kick in as much as a quarter of a million dollars each for deceptive ad campaigns selling amnesty for illegal aliens and the admission of unlimited numbers of new guest workers.
The Bush Administration intends to satisfy the demands of some business interests to gain legal access to low wage foreign workers and to appeal politically to Hispanic voters. In an attempt to overcome staunch public opposition to the president's plan, the goal of the coalition will be to sell the plan as a solution to mass illegal immigration.
"A more accurate name for this association of special interest high-rollers would be the Coalition to Destroy the American Middle Class," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "It is a blatant attempt to convince America's embattled middle class that they will be better off if employers can legally bring millions of foreign workers to this country.
"Mass illegal immigration is certainly a problem, but the solution is not amnesty and guest worker programs," Stein continued. "Whether these millions of people enter legally or illegally, the impact on American workers and the nation's vital social institutions is exactly the same."
White House strategists are also promoting the administration's amnesty and guest worker plan as a way to appeal to Hispanic voters. However, a 2004 opinion poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center found that immigration was eleventh on the list of concerns among Hispanic voters. The poll found that, like every other identifiable group of voters, Hispanic Americans are concerned about jobs, education and access to affordable health care.
"Having failed to deliver on concerns one through ten, the administration has skipped to item eleven, believing that amnesty for illegal aliens and open borders will win Hispanic votes," observed Stein. "In fact, if the administration's plan were to be carried out and millions more immigrants and guest workers flooded into this country, the core middle class aspiration of Hispanics and almost every other category of Americans would be irrevocably destroyed.
"Immigration reform, as the vast majority of Americans understand it, means enforcing laws against illegal immigration and setting reasonable limits on legal immigration. Instead of true reform, the administration is simply attempting to repackage the demands of a handful of special interests that benefit economically and politically from open borders," concluded Stein.
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http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0728-20.htm
Published on Thursday, July 28, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Democracy Sold Out - CAFTA Approved by Pork and a Hill of Beans
Razor Thin Vote Seals Fate Against More Expansion of NAFTA
by Deborah James
At 12:03 am on July 28th, the House of Representatives approved the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA. CAFTA, which would expand NAFTA to Central America and the Dominican Republic, would devastate farmers, privatize essential public services, and accelerate the race to the bottom on wages in the US and all over Central America.
At the end of the allotted 15 minutes of voting time the count was 180 to 175 against CAFTA, so the Republican leadership kept the vote open over an hour, in order to bully legislators into approving the bill. In the final tally, which was 217 to 215, a full 15 Democrats voted in favor of big business by supporting CAFTA, while 25 Republicans defied the Bush Administration and voted against it. Democrats deserving of punishment include Representatives Bean (D-IL), Cooper (D-TN), Dicks (D-WA), Cuellar (D-WA), Hinojosa (D-TX), Jefferson (D-LA), Matheson (D-UT), Meeks (D-NY), Moore (D-KS), Moran (D-VA), Ortiz (D-TX), Skelton (D-MO), Snyder (D-AR), Tanner (D-TN), and Towns (D-NY). The full roll call vote is available at http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2005&rollnumber=443.
The Republicans who refrained from voting were known CAFTA opponents who evidently caved into hard-core bullying from their leadership. Yet stiff criticism also goes to the Democrats who could have prevented handing Bush a win on a silver platter by sticking to labor and their environment rather than corporate interests.
It seems that some Representatives have not reviewed the record of the massive failure of NAFTA, the agreement that cost a million US jobs and increased poverty in Mexico. NAFTA also caused the loss of 38,000 US family farms, while pushing 1.5 million Mexican farmers off their land. Yet others, like Hilda Solis (D-CA), the only Representative from Nicaragua, gave a passionate and compelling argument against CAFTA.
CAFTA was approved, and that will be the bottom line for communities in Central America and the US who will face years of decreasing living standards, falling wages, eroding environmental protection, and losing family farms because of CAFTA - not to mention the 275,000 HIV positive Central Americans who will be cut off from life-saving generic medicines because of the extremist patent monopolies embodied in the treaty.
In tonights vote, money values of big corporate interests trumped human values of workers rights, fair trade, and environmental protection. Once again, the people of the US -- and the Democratic Party -- lost an opportunity to deliver a crushing blow to the Bush Administration. Yet House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) predicted that Bush's win on CAFTA "will be a Pyrrhic victory for him, because we will take our message to the American people that we are the ones looking out for them."
Twisting Arms Until They Break into a Thousand Pieces
Since CAFTA was so damaging to American workers, the environment, and Central Americans, it wasnt able to pass on its own merits. CAFTAs passage was bought by an outrageous amount of pork barrel politics, and fake side deals that dont amount to a hill of beans. Earlier this month, Republican leaders -- in no secret maneuver -- casually linked transportation and energy bill giveaways to support for CAFTA.
A report issued earlier this month by Public Citizens demonstrated that 89% of side deals negotiated to gain votes for previous trade deals have been broken. The side deals on sugar, labor, and textiles have all been exposed as band-aids that hardly cover the festering wounds of job loss that CAFTA will cause. And the China-punishing legislation hastily approved to buy another couple of votes was shown by the AFL-CIO to contain less protections for American jobs that other China legislation already in committee.
Unpacking the Rhetoric
A central tenet of Republican arguments rests on a projected theory that free trade delivers economic prosperity, ergo CAFTA will deliver development. Had the situation not been so tragic, it would have been comic to view Republicans repeatedly claiming that CAFTA would help poor Central Americans develop because they would have increased access to US imports. The problem with the theory, is, well, the results of the theory when applied.
After 25 years of following free-trade doctrine (opening markets, privatizing basic services, deregulating industry, lowering tariffs, orienting their production for export, and consecrating intellectual property) Latin Americans have achieved the lowest rate of economic growth in their history -- less than .5% a year in the last 25 years, compared with a total of 80% during the previous 20 years. The main issue here is that so-called "free trade" doesnt actual deliver the promised benefits -- because it really has little to do with free trade, but much to do with transferring wealth and decision making power from the public to private, unaccountable elites known as multinational corporations. Until we have a sea change in what the US public understands by the phrase "free trade" we will continue to see our democracy turned into a political system of corporate rule.
Specter of 9/11
The US Trade Representative Robert Portman was joined by Vice President Dick Cheney in working the House floor tonight to secure votes. President Bush made a highly rare appearance in the House, mostly framing CAFTA as a security issue. As Bush's polling numbers fall, support for the war in Iraq recedes, and his top advisor Karl Rove is embroiled in a political scandal, Bush pushed hard for a "policy win" to attempt to demonstrate that he wasnt a lame duck.
Bushs primary argument centered around the outrageous argument that CAFTA would increase our national security. The phrase "fledgling democracy" was used so many times to refer to Central American countries that youd think they had hatched last month, with the help of mother hen USA. Tom Delay has evidently taken up permanent residence in never-never land to be able to make arguments like, "It is good for our national security in supporting these fledgling democracies at our back door. It is good for our effort against illegal immigration. It is good for our economy."
House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pushed back hard against the ridiculous Bush hypothesis that CAFTA would increase national security. "Trade alone, devoid of basic living and working standards, has not, and will not, promote security, nor will it lift developing nations out of poverty," she said. "Our national security will not be improved by exploiting workers in Central America."
Republicans have been much more adept than progressives at linking issues of security with trade. We in the global economic justice movement must learn adapt our rhetoric and strategies to the political changes our country has undergone post-9/11, and make the argument that fair trade, not corporate globalization, will increase security. But we also need more collaboration with the movements for civil liberties and peace to link the issues, including from our progressive media, who barely covered CAFTA before it passed.
Vision for the Hemisphere
Republicans actually acknowledged that poverty -- and a lack of hope for future economic opportunity -- breed insecurity. But they have the math backwards. CAFTA will not eradicate poverty, but will greatly increase it The biggest impact of CAFTA, according to the think tank the Center for Economic and Policy Research, will be to push down wages. And the Administration continue to frame the issue of free trade and democracy as two sides of the same coin, rather than acknowledging that one is an economic platform that a well-functioning democracy may choose not to pursue.
CAFTA proponents repeatedly baited voters with the specter of an imminent takeover of Central America by alleged communist forces, harkening back to the wars and instability of the 1980s. "We can send free trade to Central America today, or we will be sending troops tomorrow" was a frequent refrain. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cubas Castro were constantly invoked as being ready to "fill the ideological void" if the Congress "turned their backs on Central America." It was as if Central America was an empty vessel, waiting for US leadership to fill. It was the first time the subject of ALBA, the Venezuelans Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, was raised on the House floor -- yet it was portrayed as a radical attack on America rather than a political and economic program that embodies a different vision for the future of the Americas based on a better vision of economic integration among the peoples of Latin America.
Stepping Stone to the FTAA Crumbles
The passage of CAFTA is a serious blow to our movement for global justice. But the vote also seals the fate of the future of NAFTA expansion. If CAFTA, a deal with the tiniest economies in the region and the least economic impact on the US possible, squeaked by with only a razor-thin 2-vote margin, the possibility that the Administration could get a deal approved with economies that would actually impact the US doesnt pass the laugh test. The Bush dream of a Free Trade Area of the Americas is even farther away than before the CAFTA vote. The "stepping stone to the FTAA" has crumbled under their feet.
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
This week, in addition to bribing CAFTA into existence, the Bush Administration has also been negotiating the expansion of NAFTA to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia through the Andean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA -- it, too, rhymes with NAFTA.) AFTA negotiations have stumbled over crucial chapters on agriculture and intellectual property. They have also been difficult to continue amidst the popular overthrow of governments in Ecuador and Bolivia in the midst of negotiations. A recent round of negotiations in Miami this month ended inconclusively. But most governments have been waiting to see if CAFTA was going to be approved by the US Congress. Now that the margin was so razor-thin, negotiators will likely take the hint that "free-trade" agreements under the same model are highly unpopular with the US public.
Day of Reckoning
Now that the fight is over, we pass into the stage of reward and retribution. We can, and must, display the political power to not walk of the playing field now, but to spend the extra effort necessary to back up our elected officials when they fought for us, and punish those who sold out their constituents interests by voting them out of office.
This may be difficult during the week when the labor movement has experienced its biggest split in 50 years. It should not go unnoticed that Bush picked the moment when the labor movement, those in the US who will be most clearly affected by CAFTA, was fighting each other as much as fighting against CAFTA, notwithstanding the Herculean efforts of the rank and file -- and the AFLs trade program -- to organize hard to against the bill.
Where To Go From Here
There are two main agenda items for the next few days. The first is to call your legislator and reward or punish them for your vote. Let them know about the deep knot in your gut from witnessing the CAFTA defeat, and the emptiness on the tables of many workers that will follow. Check out the link above to find out how your legislator voted, and call the switchboard 866-340-9281 or 877-762-8762 with your response.
But then, we must pick ourselves up, and fight even harder next time. That means the current negotiations on the World Trade Organization, which has a key General Council meeting this week in Geneva, Switzerland. And it means stopping the expansion of NAFTA to the Andes through AFTA.
But most importantly it means getting involved more than we were this time. Bush won because they are fighting to win -- whatever it takes, including unethical and undemocratic pork barrel and arm-twisting. Our side fought very, very hard to win, but we lack control of both chambers of the legislative branch, and the executive. (That makes the fight to keep the judiciary balance all the more essential, by the way.) To win on that unlevel playing field, we have to be more strategic, better funded, more organized, and get millions more people involved.
Highly strategic, savvy grassroots organizing was carried out by groups like the Citizens Trade Campaign and Public Citizen, along with key unions, environmental groups, faith communities, solidarity activists, and human rights organizations including Global Exchange. These groups are only as strong as their membership base is active. But they also need your support. So right after you get off the phone with your legislator, be sure to check out the groups listed below, and others that have supported the fight against CAFTA. Become a member, get on their email lists, and make a donation.
That way, well all build a stronger Fair Trade movement, and convert this legislative defeat into a long term opportunity to build a movement that will lead us to true victory against AFTA, the FTAA and the WTO the next time around.
Deborah James is the Global Economy Director at Global Exchange and is reachable at deborah@globalexchange.org.
For more information, to get involved, and to make a contribution:
www.citizen.org/trade
www.citizenstrade.org
www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/cafta
www.stopcafta.org
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http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050729/spanking_the_cafta_15.php
Spanking The CAFTA 15
Jonathan Tasini
July 29, 2005
Jonathan Tasini is president of the Economic Future Group and writes his "Working In America" columns for TomPaine.com on an occasional basis. His blog Working Life chronicles the labor movement and other issues affecting American workers.
Enough is enough. The 15 so-called Democrats who voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement must pay a heavy price for turning their backs on labor: None of them should receive a dime from labor unions and each one should face a labor-backed primary challenger next year. And the recruitment of good candidates should start now. If the CAFTA 15 do not suffer the political consequences for their vote, labor will look weak and the march of so-called "free trade" will continue.
In 1993, after a small group of Democrats defected to support the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), unions threatened to get even. But virtually nothing was done. The message this sent to each elected representative was that labor would make a lot of noise but eventually the waters would grow calm -- and no one suffered for casting a vote that hurt workers here and abroad.
And so, as each trade vote loomed, Democrats could contemplate wandering off the reservation, either to protect campaign contributions from large corporate donors or to extort some promise from supporters of so-called "free trade" to build a highway, fund a pet project or place a federal research center in a wavering politicians district. Votes were for sale.
Here are the CAFTA 15...drumroll, please...: Melissa Bean, Illinois (8th District): Jim Cooper, Tennessee (5th District); Norm Dicks, Washington (6th District); Henry Cuellar, Texas (28th District); Ruben Hinojosa, Texas (15th District); William Jefferson, Louisiana (2nd District); Jim Matheson, Utah (2nd District); Gregory Meeks, New York (6th District); Dennis Moore, Kansas (3rd District); Jim Moran, Virginia (8th District); Solomon Ortiz, Texas (27th District); Ike Skelton, Missouri (4th District); Vic Snyder, Arkansas (2nd District); John Tanner, Tennessee (8th District); and Edolphus Towns, New York (10th District).
The arguments against taking down the CAFTA 15 go something like this: Trade is only one policy arena and labor cant pillory politicians just for voting wrong on CAFTA; doing so would tar labor with the dreaded "single-issue" constituency label. According to this line of thinking, many union members care about a broader set of issues; they need politicians who will vote right on other issues, even if those same politicians stray here and there on a vote or two. And, some would argue, trade only hurts a particular slice of the unionized workforce. Finally, going after Democrats in "swing" districts makes it harder to take back the Congress from Republicans.
Heres the fallacy with that political pragmatism. Trade is not just a single issue. So-called "free trade" is shaping the economy, here and abroad -- it is the central issue upon which other economic policy issues revolve. To overlook a politicians vote on trade means turning a blind eye to the legislative tool most responsible for shifting the power of self-determination from the hands of citizens to the corporate boardrooms of global capitalism.
Compared to a decade ago, a broader segment of unions and their leaders are starting to see how so-called "free trade" hurts them. A July 25th letter to the House Democratic leadership raising concerns about possible Democratic defections on CAFTA was organized by none other than Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters who was the most visible early supporter of John Kerry. He could have argued that his members arent directly touched by CAFTA -- you cant get firefighters from another country to put out the fire in your house here. But to his credit, Schaitberger sees this as a huge fight, hitting his members hard as deals like CAFTA help push down wages and benefits throughout the economy. As he told me at the AFL-CIO this past week, "this is a bright line - We can no longer give a pass on these issues."
I am not unsympathetic to the political calculation of the balance of power in Washington. But one of my favorite political axioms is that if you give voters a choice between a Republican and Republican-lite, they will always choose the real thing. No other issue can, and should, distinguish the two parties. But if some Democrats cannot understand, or, worse, do not care that so-called "free trade" is eviscerating the dreams of millions of people, they shouldnt serve in Congress. They are hurting the partys long-term prospects, not to mention the future for workers.
I have argued for a long time that labor should stop pouring money into politics -- at least at the federal level -- and instead pour union resources into organizing millions of new workers. Then they can return to the political arena, when labors vote can carry more weight. But, for Gods sake, shouldnt we at least cut off money to people who wont stick up for the future economic livelihood of millions of workers?
Labor must declare immediately that unions will deny the CAFTA 15 their support. That means that, come campaign season, the CAFTA 15 will not find a single check in their mailboxes, nor receive an endorsement to grace their campaign literature, nor count on union members to make the thousands of phone calls or house visits that turn out voters. Lets find primary opponents for each one.
Few politicians are guided by deep principle. Most understand one thing: power. And, just as important, once tasted, the absence of power is an enormously effective motivator. Nothing focuses the mind of a politician more than the thought of losing his or her seat. If labor had taken out one or two Democrats who voted for NAFTA more than a decade ago, I suspect that the CAFTA 15 might have numbered two or three -- or maybe none.
The time for hardball politics is now.
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http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=4200
Editorial: Applauding the Cafta 15
In the wee hours yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement by a sliver of two votes. Fifteen Democrats joined 202 Republicans in voting to open up trade between the United States and El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Anyone who believes, as this page does, that the benefits of free trade outweigh those of protectionism should give a pat on the back to the Democrats who chose principle over politics and defied their party's leaders to vote for the trade pact.
Trade votes are always cliffhangers, and Cafta was no exception. The vote, which started just after 11 p.m., took almost an hour as some Republicans, many from textile states, jockeyed over who would be allowed to vote against the bill and save face back home. But the Republicans who voted for Cafta at least did so knowing that they were ensuring for themselves the approval of their party leaders, including President Bush. Many of the Democrats who voted for the pact knew that they were practically guaranteeing themselves a primary fight come next election. Indeed, organized labor was already talking yesterday morning about extracting revenge. "Punish the Cafta 15" was a headline in Working Life, a pro-labor blog.
Labor unions should obviously give their support to anyone they deem fit. But the Cafta 15 deserve respect for their independence and good judgment. Cafta is a modest trade pact, hardly likely to lift the six countries' economies into the 21st century. But it may be enough to lift them into the 20th century by lowering tariffs and helping job growth in a needy region. It should help export growth in America as well. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimated that Cafta could increase United States agricultural exports by nearly $1.5 billion a year; the National Association of Manufacturers said it would add about $1 billion a year to the value of United States exports of manufactured goods.
Finally, Cafta will benefit the most underrepresented constituency in America: consumers, particularly the lower-income consumers who find that a 50-cent difference in the price of a T-shirt actually means something.
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http://www.programmersguild.org/docs/dmh_exam_july2005.html
California Dept. of Mental Health programmer exam draws 80 candidates
SACRAMENTO - July 30, 2005 - Programmers Guild. While some private sector employers still claim there is a tech labor shortage and ongoing need for 85,000 H-1B workers per year, one exam for programmer positions at the California Department of Mental Health drew about 80 candidates.
In fact, California seems to have intentionally narrowed the pool of potential candidates. Applications were only accepted if filed in person on ONE WORKDAY, Friday July 22, 2005, between 8am and 4pm, at the downtown facility where parking can be an issue. Only those who met the job qualifications and had filled out the proper application forms were permitted to sign up for the exam. And many potential candidates were eliminated due to the requirement to appear in person during work hours.
The exam was held Saturday, July 30, 2005. I counted about 80 applicants in the exam room. This is roughly a "job lottery," the equivalent of day laborers who line up on sidewalks, hoping to be picked over the dozens of other workers. (I did not attend as a "spy" but rather as a sincere candidate hoping for the stability of a government position.)
The position and exam details are here.
Here is a subset of candidates waiting for the doors to open. Many more will milling in areas off camera.
www.ZaZona.com
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