US techie loses his job to India

Date: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 1:46 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Tom Flanagan said that the blame for his son's suicide rests with the
government for allowing job destruction. So why does the title imply
that Flanagan blames India? Perhaps the staff of this Asian newspaper
didn't understand the Flanagan quote, or perhaps their intent is more
pernicious.

The Bank of America is partially to blame and they should apologize for
their selfish behavior. This webpage asks the BofA president to offer a
formal apology:
http://www.nomoreh1b.com/BankOfAmericaSuicides.aspx

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/top/story/0,4136,26169,00.html

The New Paper - 28 May 2003

US techie loses his job to India

... he kills himself when he is forced to train Indians before being
laid off

MOMENTS after he was laid off from his computer programming job at a
Bank of America training centre in Silicon Valley, Kevin Flanagan
killed himself.

Other retrenched technology workers in America say they know why he
shot himself in the centre's parking lot - his job, like theirs, has
been outsourced to India.

His suicide is now the platform on which other workers are mounting a
campaign against corporate America's thirst for profits at the expense
of American jobs.

Several major US corporations - Bank of America, General Electric,
Microsoft and Intel among others - are under scrutiny for outsourcing
jobs to India.

The bank created a ''Global Delivery centre'' in 2000 to identify
projects that could be sent offshore. It has since signed agreements
with Infosys and Tata Consulting Services (TCS) to provide solutions
and services.

Threatened techies are irked. Kevin's father, Mr Tom Flanagan, is
outraged.

In an e-mail to The Times of India, he wrote: ''...a significant reason
for which my son took his life was indeed as a result of his job being
outsourced.

''Did he blame India for his job loss? No. He blamed the 'system'. He
couldn't understand why Americans are losing jobs. Rather I should say
he understood it economically, but not emotionally.''

Bank officials have, however, said that the deal with Indian companies
would effect no more than 5 per cent of the bank's 21,000 employees, or
about 1,100 jobs, in its technology and operations division.

But techies aren't appeased. Some surveys state that the US lost at
least 800,000 jobs last year and that a staggering 3.3 million more
could move overseas over the next few years because of outsourcing,
mostly to India.

Mr Flanagan said that his son and fellow workers were ''totally
disgusted'' that they had to train foreigners to take over their jobs.

But the bank said that such knowledge transfers were essential.

The corporate world's obsession with improving bottomlines and
efficiency has led to outsourcing, claim US technology workers.

One of them, discussing the Flanagan case on a website, pointed out
that data processing constituted a very small portion of the bank's
revenues and didn't drain profits.

''(It is) a prosperous bank which has let greed trump any sense of
patriotism or social responsibility,'' he wrote.

Copyright ) 2003 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

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