13 Articles Worth Reading
13 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Saturday, April 16, 2005 4:24 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
April 16, 2005 No. 1234
COMMENT FROM ROB: The title of Article 10 says it all: "U.S. EVEN
OUTSOURCES ITS PROPAGANDA". To learn more about this theater of the
absurd read 8-11.
Article 1:
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/politics/61681
CALLS TO WHITE HOUSE OUTSOURCED TO INDIA (satire)
Next time you call the White House to give the President a piece of
your mind, don't be surprised if the operator's regional accent is a
bit hard to place -- because the administration has quietly outsourced
all phone answering duties to India!
Article 2:
http://www.contact-center-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=086006FVMWHQ
Convergys Workers Say Jobs Went Overseas
Convergys spokeswoman Melanie Brunson said Friday the May 1 layoffs at
the Tucson location are solely due to a "reduction in call volume," not
the outsourcing of jobs to India and Canada. But employees said there
has been no such reduction, and that the company had told employees two
years ago that their jobs would eventually be outsourced to another
country.
Article 3:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_15/b3928076.htm
How Google Searches -- For Talent
At the India Code Jam, only the hottest software writers need apply
It's the Google India Code Jam, a contest to find the most brilliant
coder in South and Southeast Asia. The fastest will win $6,900 -- and
more important, the offer of a coveted job at one of Google's research
and development centers. At the stroke of 10:30 a.m., the contestants
begin, emerging exhausted three hours later. "It's been incredibly
difficult and awesome," says Nitin Gupta, a computer science undergrad
at the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay.
Article 4:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/regstate/articles/1467217.html
Textile workers protest job losses
The San Francisco march highlights a trend in the garment industry of
shipping work overseas, mostly to Chinese immigrant workers marched
through the streets of downtown San Francisco on Tuesday, shouting
slogans and waving signs to protest the loss of garment jobs they say
are being outsourced to China. Former employees of San Francisco-based
apparel maker Nova Knits Inc. claim they were laid off last month
without prior notice, severance pay or benefits in violation of state
labor laws. And the workers -- mostly middle-aged Chinese women who
speak little English -- believe their jobs are being shipped to China,
the world's largest clothing manufacturer.
Article 5:
http://www.decaturdailydemocrat.com/articles/2005/04/11/news/opinion/editorial02.txt
Immigration reform needed
Despite massive agitation for a restrictionist immigration policy, a
new poll shows surprising support for proposals to allow foreigners and
illegal immigrants to obtain work permits and earn their way to
citizenship. According to the Goeas-Lake poll, immigration is not among
the top concerns of the public. While only 9 percent of voters favor
increasing the number of legal immigrants in the United States, 86
percent also agree that immigrants who work, pay taxes and learn
English should have a way to become citizens.
Article 6:
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3234,36-638157@51-638260,0.htm
l (French Version)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041205I.shtml
In Spite of Growth, American Industry Continues to Decline
By Eric Leser (translated from French "Le Monde")
The United States logged a record trade deficit of 617 billion dollars
in 2004. Faced with massive imports, auto, textile, and numerous other
traditional sectors have seen their workforce and market share melt
away over the last ten years. The American economy has taken off over
the last two years. Doped up by monetary and fiscal stimulants, it
overcame the 2001 recession, the September 11 attacks, the bursting of
the Internet bubble, two wars, bankruptcies, and other Wall Street
scandals. Average growth has been over 4% since July 2003 and should be
sustained over the coming months. Yet, one sector remains that has not
emerged from the crisis and continues to drop jobs: traditional
industry.
Article 7:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39194554,00.htm
Arrests made in offshoring theft case
Police have arrested former employees of an Indian call centre that
handles US customer accounts for allegedly stealing consumers' funds.
The suspected gang members arrested by police in Pune included three
ex-workers of Mphasis BPO.
Article 8:
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=30989&printerfriendlyVers=1&
Voice of America to move part of news division to Hong Kong
Voice of America, the international broadcasting service funded by the
U.S. government, is shutting down the overnight shift of its central
news division in Washington and replacing it with a new workforce in
Hong Kong. Iliff, who oversees VOA's news operations, said the move was
prompted in part by budgetary concerns, and he bristled at the notion
that the agency was "outsourcing" jobs to China, as the America
Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents VOA, has
charged.
Article 9:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0504/15/ldt.01.html
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
We've reported here for more than two years on the thousands of
American jobs being exported to cheap overseas labor markets. Tonight,
a simply stunning example of your taxpayer dollars being used to ship
American dollars to cheap foreign labor markets. This time it's the
voice of America. A broadcaster funded by you, the American taxpayer,
moving its Washington-based overnight shift to Hong Kong. That's right,
Hong Kong, China. In an effort to cut costs, eight highly-skilled
English news- writing positions funded by the United States government
-- that is you and me -- are being moved to communist China. All to
save $300,000 each year.
Article 10:
http://prorev.com/2005/04/voice-of-america-to-become-voice-of.htm
VOICE OF AMERICA TO BECOME VOICE OF HONG KONG AS U.S. EVEN OUTSOURCES
ITS PROPAGANDA
Article 11:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55134-2005Apr14.html
Voice of America by Way of Hong Kong
American corporations, fleeing high labor costs, often head overseas.
Turns out, some federal agencies may be doing the same. The Voice of
America, working with ever-tightening budgets, is planning a little
outsourcing itself -- to Communist China -- to save some taxpayer
dollars.
Article 12:
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=4906
Washington Mutual Faces Criticism from Outsourced Indian Call Center
Workers
According to his former Wipro colleague Gagan Sameer "Every time we got
three new people, three people would get fired in the Seattle office."
Long hours and forced, unpaid overtime are, say Sameer and Kharbanda, a
regular feature of working life at Wipro. And due to long commuting and
waiting time resulting from the ubiquitous shared taxi system, staff
can often spend 13 or 14 hours a day away from home, he says.
Article 13:
http://www.careerjournal.com/salaryhiring/industries/engineers/2005
Even Tech Execs Can't Get Kids to Be Engineers
Vinod Dham is among a growing number of technology executives warning
that the U.S. faces an engineer shortage. To stay globally competitive,
he says, the nation must do better at steering its youth toward
engineering careers. Mr. Dham knows how hard that is: He can't persuade
his own kids to go into engineering.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/politics/61681
CALLS TO WHITE HOUSE OUTSOURCED TO INDIA
By BRETT ANNISTON
Next time you call the White House to give the President a piece of
your mind, don't be surprised if the operator's regional accent is a
bit hard to place -- because the administration has quietly outsourced
all phone answering duties to India!
"That cheerful person answering the phone may identify himself as Sam,
but his real name is more likely Satyajit -- and the overwhelming odds
are that he lives somewhere like New Delhi," reveals an administration
source.
"Many large companies have outsourced their customer service lines --
the White House is simply adopting a standard, modern- day business
practice."
The Bush administration has tirelessly championed outsourcing, claiming
that shipping jobs overseas strengthens the American economy.
"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," according
to the President's annual report to Congress last year.
Now, as part of a commitment to trim government expenditures, the White
House has begun to practice what it preaches.
"Look, when Joe Blow from Behind God's Back, Kan., calls to give
President Bush his ideas on how to fix the economy or find Osama Bin
Laden, it's not as if someone scrupulously jots down the message and
passes it on," the administration insider explains.
"An operator basically blows the guy off in a polite way. Why should we
pay an American worker top dollar to do that when we can hire some poor
Indian in Calcutta who'll do it for pennies an hour?"
To avoid angering unemployed Americans who've lost their jobs to
outsourcing, last month's switch from in-house operators went
unannounced -- and administration officials refuse to confirm the
story.
"The overseas phone workers have received special training to sound as
American as possible -- their accents are almost undetectable," reveals
the insider. "They've even been taught American slang phrases."
One way to tell that your call to the White House has been outsourced
is to pay careful attention to that slang. "A lot of it is suspiciously
outdated," reveals the insider. "For example, an operator may say, 'Oh,
you're calling from Ohio -- that's peachy keen.'
"Most callers will simply assume the person they're talking to is some
really unhip Young Republican type who's as American as apple pie --
but nothing could be further from the truth."
When Weekly World News called the White House and confronted an
operator, he initially insisted he was in Washington. But after 20
minutes of grilling Haresh Ramanuja, 32, confessed that he was
answering the call from a sweatshop-like phone bank in New Delhi.
That doesn't make him a total fraud, he insists.
"I really do love America," he said. "I love your Bruce Willis,
baseball and rock 'n' roll music."
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.contact-center-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=086006FVMWHQ
Convergys Workers Say Jobs Went Overseas
April 13, 2005
Convergys spokeswoman Melanie Brunson said Friday the May 1 layoffs at
the Tucson location are solely due to a "reduction in call volume," not
the outsourcing of jobs to India and Canada. But employees said there
has been no such reduction, and that the company had told employees two
years ago that their jobs would eventually be outsourced to another
country.
The elimination of a project at a local call center that will affect
60 workers has nothing to do with a decline in call volume -- as
company officials have said -- and everything to do with overseas
outsourcing , say seven employees who work on the project.
Last week, Convergys Corp. told 60 workers at its call center in
Tucson, who provide technical support for Microsoft's Windows XP
software, that the project would cease May 1, said employee Scott Van
Dell. The company said lower-paying jobs would be available for
customer support of two other clients.
"Transfer? Hell no, I won't go," said the 41-year-old Van Dell. "Those
are not even tech jobs. That's just being a phone monkey. Anybody can
do that."
Affected employees who choose not to transfer will not receive
severance packages, unemployment compensation or county-sponsored job
training, employees said.
Convergys spokeswoman Melanie Brunson said Friday the May 1 layoffs at
the Tucson location are solely due to a "reduction in call volume," not
the outsourcing of jobs to India and Canada.
But employees said there has been no such reduction, and that the
company had told employees two years ago that their jobs would
eventually be outsourced to another country.
"There is no downward trend. We don't have any available time," said
Justin Myers, 29. "We take one call after another after another, all
day, every day."
U.S. call centers have been outsourcing -- Van Dell said he and his
peers use the term "offshoring" -- technical support jobs to countries
such as India to take advantage of cheaper English-speaking labor. The
issue was an important one in last year's presidential campaign.
"Our jobs have been on the line for two years," Van Dell said. "We were
notified the same time as the people who did Windows 98 tech support ,
which offshored first."
Convergys, which at one time had a second Tucson location, has gone
from 1,457 employees in 2002 to "about 600," Brunson said.
The 60 affected workers help callers with topics ranging from how to
right-click a mouse to how to set up a network, said worker Darold
Gardina, 48.
The transfers they've been offered are for customer support jobs, which
include 20 positions for FedEx and an undisclosed number for Chrysler
Financial Services, Van Dell said. The jobs pay a maximum of about $11
an hour, a rate $1 to $4 less than what most workers on the XP project
make, said employee Ellen Hudson, 36. They also require a six-day
workweek.
Workers who choose not to take the customer support jobs are "basically
being forced to resign" and forfeit all benefits, Hudson said.
"The paperwork they gave us said that if we don't apply for FedEx or
Chrysler, that we're voluntarily terminating ourselves May 1, and we
get no severance, can't go on unemployment, and can't even get
re-training from the county's One Stop Center," she said.
On Tuesday, the company declined to confirm whether the project to be
ended involved technical support for Microsoft but reiterated that the
change was due to decreased call volume.
"We stand by the statement that this is simply a matter of a decrease
in growth in customer call volume at various locations," said Kim
Waddell, senior manager of human resources at the Tucson call center.
"One of the things that is important to keep in mind is employees are
basing opinions on limited information and don't necessarily have the
big picture."
Tammy Iman said she now realizes the logic behind Convergys' maneuver
to reclassify workers when it purchased Keane Inc. in February 2001.
"They changed our titles from technical support to customer support
right after they took over just so they could offer us another position
and say it was just a transfer, that it was lateral," said Iman, 45.
"We do technical support, not customer support. We're not 'how can we
help you pay your bill?' We're 'your operating system is broken.'"
Waddell declined to confirm the clients involved in any of Convergys
projects, citing company policy, and also said she could not confirm
any "salary or internal business strategies" related to job transfers.
Michael Harris said he has enjoyed his job providing technical support
but will leave it with a bitter taste in his mouth.
"I'm very appreciative of the opportunity I've been given here, but the
lack of candor with how they're publicly describing what's going on,
the failure to accurately say things upfront, is pretty distressing,"
said Harris, 43. "They've been very disingenuous about some things."
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_15/b3928076.htm
APRIL 11, 2005
ASIAN BUSINESS
How Google Searches -- For Talent
At the India Code Jam, only the hottest software writers need apply
Mar. 26 heralds the opening of the spring season in India, a day
celebrated with riotous color and revelry. But in one corner of
Bangalore, India's info tech hub, the sunny Saturday is heavy with
tension. At an Internet cafe, a group of engineers and math majors, all
in their 20s, hunch over terminals, ready to write some killer code --
and, with luck, launch careers with one of the world's premier tech
companies, Google Inc. (GOOG )
It's the Google India Code Jam, a contest to find the most brilliant
coder in South and Southeast Asia. The fastest will win $6,900 -- and
more important, the offer of a coveted job at one of Google's research
and development centers. At the stroke of 10:30 a.m., the contestants
begin, emerging exhausted three hours later. "It's been incredibly
difficult and awesome," says Nitin Gupta, a computer science undergrad
at the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay.
Google has staged Code Jams in the U.S., but this is its first such
bakeoff in Asia, and the response is huge. Some 14,000 aspirants
registered from all over South and Southeast Asia for the first round
in February. The top 50 were selected for the finals in Bangalore: 39
from India, 8 from Singapore, and 3 from Indonesia. "It's a dog-eat-dog
world," says Robert Hughes, president of TopCoder Inc., the Glastonbury
(Conn.) testing company that runs the Code Jams. "Wherever the best
talent is, Google wants them."
And the winner is...one of these clever IIT grads from India, right?
Surprisingly, no. Ardian Poernomo, a third-year undergrad computer
engineering student at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University,
lands in first place. The No. 2 finisher, Pascal Alfadian, a
second-year student at the Universitas Katolik Parahyangan in West
Java, is Indonesian, too. Poernomo didn't commit to taking a job with
Google, however: He may go for a PhD in computer science in the U.S.
Still, Google now has a new pool of Asian talent to choose from.
According to Krishna Bharat, head of Google's India R&D center, all the
finalists will be offered jobs. And Google needs them. The search
company has been frustrated by its inability to find top-notch
engineers for its year-old Indian center, according to industry
insiders. Its Bangalore staff now totals 25, but it was hoping to have
signed up at least 100 engineers by last December. Bharat refuses to
discuss the company's difficulty in filling its ranks, except to say:
"It has been a challenging year."
WAR GAMES
Google's frustrations in India stem from two factors. One is the
red-hot job market in Indian tech. Engineering students are assured a
job a year before they graduate. But Google makes things hard for
itself by having some of the most exacting hiring standards going. The
contest is an example. Participants are tested on aptitude in problem
solving, on designing and writing code, and on testing peer-written
work. Finalists are asked to create and test software for unique Web
searches and to get from point A to B in a city with a minimum number
of turns. The final challenge is programming a war-based board game, a
task so complex that only winner Poernomo completes it.
For Google, the Code Jam will serve as a short cut through its hiring
regime. Candidates normally go through a seven-stage process that can
last months -- and, at the end of it, they're more likely to be
rejected than hired. Much of that screening can be set aside for Code
Jam winners.
For Wunderkinder like Poernomo, Google can be patient. Stanford grad
Jon McAlister was the 2001 winner of TopCoder's U.S. Collegiate Code
Jam, but didn't sign up with Google until 2004. He eventually rejected
competing offers from Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS ) and Microsoft Corp.
(MSFT ) "Google is the genuine engineering company," says McAlister.
Google hopes its India finalists think so, too.
By Josey Puliyenthuruthel in Bangalore
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/regstate/articles/1467217.html
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Textile workers protest job losses
The San Francisco march highlights a trend in the garment industry of
shipping work overseas, mostly to China.
By Terence Chea
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO -- Chinese immigrant workers marched through the streets
of downtown San Francisco on Tuesday, shouting slogans and waving signs
to protest the loss of garment jobs they say are being outsourced to
China.
Former employees of San Francisco-based apparel maker Nova Knits Inc.
claim they were laid off last month without prior notice, severance pay
or benefits in violation of state labor laws. And the workers -- mostly
middle-aged Chinese women who speak little English -- believe their
jobs are being shipped to China, the world's largest clothing
manufacturer.
"We believe they continue to have business, but they plan to outsource
it overseas," said protest organizer Leon Chow, who heads the Chinese
Progressive Association. "All the workers ask for is a little respect."
Nova Knits officials did not respond to multiple calls seeking comment.
Analysts say the end of textile quotas worldwide Jan. 1 accelerated the
loss of garment jobs in the United States and other countries, as
apparel makers shift more production to low-wage China, which already
exports more than $60 billion in textiles and clothing each year.
For more than three decades, industrialized nations maintained textile
import quotas to protect their domestic industries from foreign
competition. But starting in 1995, the World Trade Organization started
phasing out those quotas, eliminating them altogether this year.
The United States, which once had 2.5 million garment workers, now only
has about 500,000, mostly in California, New York and the South, Rivoli
said. She expects the number of jobs to drop even further now that
American retailers can purchase almost all their clothing and textiles
from China.
While consumers benefit from lower prices, domestic producers complain
that unfair competition has forced them to lay off thousands of
workers.
Poor countries like Bangladesh and Morocco, which rely on textile
quotas to bolster their struggling economies, are expected to be hit
even harder as their jobs migrate to China, which already has the
largest share of the $350 billion global market.
"Chinese workers are terribly, terribly exploited," said Mark Levinson,
chief economist for the labor union UNITE HERE. "It creates a race to
the bottom in terms of wages and working conditions, as well as job
loss."
In the first 90 days of this year, 17,200 American textile workers have
lost their jobs, despite the improving U.S. economy, he said.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.decaturdailydemocrat.com/articles/2005/04/11/news/opinion/editorial02.txt
Immigration reform needed
By MORTON KONDRACKE
Despite massive agitation for a restrictionist immigration policy, a
new poll shows surprising support for proposals to allow foreigners and
illegal immigrants to obtain work permits and earn their way to
citizenship.
The poll, by GOP pollster Ed Goeas and Democrat Celinda Lake, ought to
encourage President Bush to push for immigration reform against
concerted opposition from radio talk show hosts and some GOP
conservatives who denounce his work-permit proposals as "amnesty for
law-breakers."
The poll, conducted for the pro-reform National Immigration Forum and
the American Immigration Lawyers Association, shows that Americans
would support reforms even more liberal than Bush's -- the kind
expected to be jointly proposed soon by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Bush has proposed that foreigners and illegal immigrants be allowed to
obtain permits to work legally in the United States, but has left it
unclear whether they would have to return to their home countries when
the permits expired.
Kennedy and McCain are proposing that, after six years of legal work,
law-abiding immigrants who pay a "fine" and undergo a background check
would be eligible for permanent resident status (a "green card") and
eventual citizenship.
Their proposal also speeds up processing of the huge backlog of
applications for normal immigration so that work-permit holders
(including former "illegals") would not gain an advantage over those
waiting in line.
The Goeas-Lake poll showed that, even after hearing strong arguments
against the Kennedy-McCain reforms, 77 percent of likely voters would
favor their proposal.
At the moment, political momentum on the immigration issue seems to lie
with GOP restrictionists, led by Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and those
who think that stricter enforcement should precede any reform.
On Feb. 10, the House voted 261-161 to pass a measure (now part of the
Iraq supplemental appropriation) that establishes federal standards for
state drivers' licenses that are designed to deny them to illegal
immigrants.
The measure, backed by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner,
R-Wis., also, in the name of homeland security, restricts the ability
of foreigners to gain humanitarian asylum in the United States.
Bush has been gratifyingly and even eloquently pro-immigration in his
public statements, but he also needs conservative support to pass
Social Security reform, which may delay or even stop his push for
immigration reform.
Part of the equation, too, is a loud claque of radio and TV talk show
hosts who rail against an "invasion" of foreigners flooding across
"porous" U.S. borders in flagrant violation of the law. The agitation
is accompanied by extensive publicity for the Arizona "Minuteman"
movement, which was launched to block immigrants from Mexico. Bush has
denounced such "vigilante" activity.
Actually, anti-immigrationists have a point: There is an invasion of
illegal immigration across the U.S. borders, estimated at about 400,000
people a year. Roughly 11 million illegals live in the United States.
And the U.S. government, despite bolstered border security and
increases in the number of immigration agents, has been unable to stem
the tide.
The question becomes: What should we do about it, especially when
immigrants overwhelmingly arrive to take menial jobs that Americans
won't do and which employers are willing to hire them for?
The Bush approach, so far not spelled out in actual legislation, is to
allow foreigners and illegals in the United States to obtain temporary
work permits.
At a press conference with Mexican President Vicente Fox on March 8,
Bush went out of his way to say, "I oppose amnesty, placing
undocumented workers on the automatic path to citizenship."
McCain and Kennedy are drafting legislation that McCain hopes the
administration will back and that employer groups and labor unions will
endorse, creating a powerful counterweight to the restrictionists.
The bill will contain enhanced enforcement measures, including an
electronic verification system for work permits, a limit on the number
of worker permits that matches current flows of illegals, labor
protections and provisions for workers to obtain green cards if they
pay a fine likely to be more than $1,500.
According to the Goeas-Lake poll, immigration is not among the top
concerns of the public. While only 9 percent of voters favor increasing
the number of legal immigrants in the United States, 86 percent also
agree that immigrants who work, pay taxes and learn English should have
a way to become citizens.
In addition, 91 percent agreed that "we need a controlled immigration
system that would replace illegal immigration flow with a legal
immigration flow."
Significant majorities said they'd be less likely to support a
McCain-Kennedy-style bill if told it was an "amnesty," if it lowered
U.S. wages or if it encouraged more illegal immigration. Still, after
hearing arguments on both sides, 77 percent favored the reforms.
One other argument favors regularizing immigration: It would free up
police and immigration authorities to hunt criminals and terrorists,
instead of chasing millions of workers who are ready, willing and able.
Morton Kondracke is executive editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of
Capitol Hill.
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/041205I.shtml
In Spite of Growth, American Industry Continues to Decline
By Eric Leser
Le Monde
12 April 2005
The United States logged a record trade deficit of 617 billion dollars
in 2004.
Faced with massive imports, auto, textile, and numerous other
traditional sectors have seen their workforce and market share melt
away over the last ten years.
The American economy has taken off over the last two years. Doped
up by monetary and fiscal stimulants, it overcame the 2001 recession,
the September 11 attacks, the bursting of the Internet bubble, two
wars, bankruptcies, and other Wall Street scandals. Average growth has
been over 4% since July 2003 and should be sustained over the coming
months. Yet, one sector remains that has not emerged from the crisis
and continues to drop jobs: traditional industry.
For sometimes different reasons, the auto, steel, metallurgical,
machinery (apart from information technology), plastics, textiles,
paper, furniture, mass electronics, and toy industries ... seem like
the lost and forsaken of the American economy. De-industrialization
continues to accelerate, and some of these activities seem doomed to
disappear.
In spite of a favorable economic climate and the strong drop in the
dollar against the Euro and the Yen in the last three years, American
industry keeps losing market share in the export market and even in the
domestic United States markets.
The trade deficit reached a record level of 617 billion dollars
(475.6 billion Euros) in 2004. It is even higher for manufactured goods
alone. "It grew to 666 billion dollars in 2004, versus 547 billion in
2003 and 483 billion in 2002. And we're looking at more than 700
billion dollars for the end of this year," estimates the economist and
head of the American Economics Group, Michael Evans. "The difference
between exports and imports today is such that exports would have to
grow twice as fast as imports to maintain the deficit at a constant
level," writes the JP Morgan bank.
Traditional industry's malady is profound and goes back to the
nineteen-nineties. It was partially masked at that time by the euphoria
over the new economy.
For a decade, the growth in demand for manufactured products in the
United States has been satisfied by imports and not by national
production. The reasons include prices, but also quality and a better
fit with consumers' needs.
"Not a Single Pair Left"
The situation is deteriorating all the more quickly because aging
industries are entering a vicious cycle. They have slim to non-existent
margins and high costs, notably for pensions and medical coverage for
employees whose average age keeps rising. They don't invest any more
and their productivity is stagnant. Their only chance is to innovate
and manufacture different products, but they have neither the means,
nor the will.
"People are beginning to wonder whether there will still be any
jobs in the United States in twenty years. During the last four years,
we've lost close to 3 million industrial jobs," storms Democratic
Representative Peter DeFazio. "A little more than 85% of our bicycles
are made in China," he adds. "Almost all the magnets for our famous
Cruise missiles come from that country. And American flags? Since
September 11, 2001, Chinese companies have sold us ten million of them!
Levi's jeans? So sorry, there's not a single pair still made on
American soil. Even Microsoft game consoles are manufactured over
there."
Economist Paul Craig Roberts, former adviser to President Ronald
Reagan, fears the American economy will become like a developing
country economy: selling raw material and buying finished goods. "We
export scrap metal and import machines; we export leather and import
shoes; we export cotton and import clothes," he emphasizes.
The example of textiles, a sector which has lost 374,000 jobs (or
over a third of its industrial workforce) between 2001 and 2004, is the
one most often cited. And it is more threatened than ever since the
December 31, 2004 termination of the Multi-Fiber Agreement, which had
limited Chinese imports.
In the automobile sector, the domestic market share of the historic
big three national manufacturers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler
(now controlled by Daimler), keeps on declining. And yet, this industry
is the one that resists the best. In real terms, vehicle imports have
"only" grown 19% the last three years, versus 40% for consumer products
and 38% for machinery.
"It's Inevitable"
Everything happens as though, whether consciously or not, the
United States were renouncing its traditional manufacturing industry
and agreeing to become an almost exclusively service economy.
Industrial employment, apart from information technology,
represented 11% of total employment in 1996 and less than 8 % in 2004.
"In the coming decades, the only industrial employment to survive will
be in high tech industries," Mr. Evans deems. "No company head will
agree to pay a worker 10 dollars or more an hour when the same work can
be done abroad for one dollar. It's inevitable, whatever the trade
deficit or dollar value. We won't necessarily be worse off for it."
"A service economy has positive effects," explains John Mauldin,
President of the consulting company Millennium Wave Advisors. "The last
two recessions were the mildest in history. One explanation is that the
industry that lays off massively during crises no longer represents but
a small share of economic activity."
This same school of thought considers that the trade deficit has
become an inappropriate instrument for judging the strength or weakness
of an economy. When Apple imports billions of dollars worth of iPods,
it increases the trade deficit, but recoups 90% of the profits related
to the sale of these machines. What represents the surplus value? Apple
or the Chinese factory that manufactures the iPods ?
Journalist and economist Lou Dobbs, a committed opponent of
outsourcing, does not make the same observation. "Many worry about our
oil dependency," he analyzes. "But we are just as dependent for our
clothes, our food, our computers. Free Trade proponents answer that
we're a technology economy. But we don't even produce the components
that are the heart of our technology any more."
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39194554,00.htm
Arrests made in offshoring theft case
Dinesh C. Sharma
CNET News.com
April 11, 2005, 09:20 BST
Police have arrested former employees of an Indian call centre that
handles US customer accounts for allegedly stealing consumers' funds.
The suspected gang members arrested by police in Pune included three
ex-workers of Mphasis BPO.
Police said the employees allegedly stole customers' personal account
information and transferred just under #200,000 to fake accounts in
Pune. Sanjay Jadhav, the assistant commissioner of police, said about
one million rupees (#12,000) of the fraud money has already been
recovered. The call centre workers left their jobs last December.
"The detection systems worked, and there was swift, coordinated
information exchange between the affected parties," an Mphasis
representative told ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com. "We are in
close contact with the police and are working with them in their
efforts towards law enforcement."
Security issues have been a growing concern for companies that
outsource work overseas. In particular, companies have become concerned
about the leakage and misuse of consumers' personal financial
information in offshore call centres. The National Association of
Software and Service Companies, an Indian trade group, has set up an
Indo-US security forum to make its members aware of security and
privacy issues when they handle sensitive information from foreign
companies.
"India is fast becoming the outsourcing capital of the world, and this
kind of incident, while unfortunate in itself, when successfully dealt
with highlights and reaffirms the existence of an effective framework
of laws and a commitment to enforcing them in India," Nasscom President
Kiran Karnik said in a statement.
Nasscom recently launched a security initiative in Pune with local IT
companies and police.
"Distressing as this incident has been, it is a sad but realistic fact
that no system can be 100 percent foolproof. The deterrence of prompt
action is, therefore, critical," Karnik noted. "In this context, the
proactive efficiency and the prompt success of the police reinforces
the reputation of India as a country with a strong legal and
enforcement framework."
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=30989&printerfriendlyVers=1&
April 13, 2005
Voice of America to move part of news division to Hong Kong
By Shane Harris
sharris@govexec.com
Voice of America, the international broadcasting service funded by the
U.S. government, is shutting down the overnight shift of its central
news division in Washington and replacing it with a new workforce in
Hong Kong, which will be comprised partly of contractors.
News division employees were informed of the decision last Thursday and
learned that overnight employees would take new jobs on the daytime and
evening rotations, with a considerable decrease in salary, said Ted
Iliff, the agency's associate director for central programming.
Iliff, who oversees VOA's news operations, said the move was prompted
in part by budgetary concerns, and he bristled at the notion that the
agency was "outsourcing" jobs to China, as the America Federation of
Government Employees, the union that represents VOA, has charged.
"Outsourcing means a loss of jobs," Iliff said. "Nobody [on the news
staff] is losing a job." He said the agency was eyeing a plan to hire
10 new reporters in Hong Kong, half of whom would be contractors and
would receive no federal benefits. The remaining five would have the
status of VOA employees, but would receive fewer benefits than
full-time workers.
VOA could save at least $300,000 annually by moving the night shift to
Hong Kong, where the agency has a news center, Iliff said. The
transition also would place a contingent of reporters in an area of the
world where VOA devotes significant news coverage now, Iliff added.
The move will likely prove unpopular with U.S.-based employees on the
night shift and others in the VOA news division. The night shift is
considered one of the toughest and least desirable slots, because of
its unusual schedule, but employees are paid a bonus of approximately
10 percent of their regular salary, Iliff said.
VOA employees are reacting "with anger," said one news division
staffer, who asked not to be identified. Of the 10 employees who will
now have to adjust to lower pay and different hours, the staffer said,
"They feel like their world has been turned upside down."
Iliff emphasized that the Hong Kong move would free up money for the
agency to invest elsewhere, perhaps to beef up VOA's online reporting
and television broadcasting. And, he said, the move was motivated in
part by the difficulty of filling slots on the overnight shift.
But the decision also has exposed the cantankerous relationship between
VOA management and employees, some of whom suspect that officials want
to scale back the agency's English news operations in favor of other
initiatives, the VOA staffer said.
"There's a perception here, and it's constantly being denied...that the
present management at VOA is trying to do away with the English
section," the staffer said. "This really shows me that nothing is
sacred."
Moving a decades-old and renowned institution such as VOA to a country
with no history of a free press and a state-run media is likely to
raise questions. "The irony of transferring our operation to a
communist country is not lost on anyone," the staffer said.
VOA is widely credited as a key instrument in the demise of communism
in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Its programs brought news and
Western entertainment to millions behind the Iron Curtain during the
Cold War. "We're concerned about the credentials of the people who will
be hired" in Hong Kong, the staffer said.
The Hong Kong writers to be hired must speak English and pass language
and writing tests to qualify for the jobs, Iliff said. Their
professional backgrounds will also figure prominently in any hiring
decisions. "They have to be experienced, talented journalists," he
said.
While he hadn't ruled out hiring Chinese journalists, Iliff said they
likely would not meet VOA's hiring standards if they'd worked only for
state-run news organizations. He suggested that a network of British,
American and Australian expatriates in China would comprise a likely
hiring pool, and he added the agency has already spoken to one of its
regular freelance reporters who is interested in working for VOA in
Hong Kong. All risumis and writing tests would be reviewed by
management in Washington, he said.
The Hong Kong staff would be supervised by two American editors, Iliff
said. One would be based in the news center and the other would work
from VOA headquarters and be present during nighttime hours, he said.
That editor would have final say on news content. VOA's "very strict
standards...will not in any way be diluted or compromised," Iliff said.
Barring any obstacles, Iliff expects to have the new Hong Kong group
operational in July.
Regarding the animosity between management and the news division, Iliff
said he wasn't surprised by the negative reaction to the Hong Kong
move. "Any change [in VOA operations] is denounced by a core of VOA
diaspora without them knowing the details of what's being planned and
without them understanding contemporary media and business
circumstances," Iliff said.
Iliff didn't know what the reaction of the Chinese government, which
regularly jams VOA broadcasts and Internet traffic, would be to the
increased VOA presence. He said he presumed that the Chinese would
learn about VOA's new plans through the news media.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0504/15/ldt.01.html
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT
Aired April 15, 2005 - 18:00 ET
DOBBS: And as you note, though, this is really about the higher courts,
the appellate level. And the average there is considerably less. Thank
you very much, Ed Henry, reporting from Washington.
We've reported here for more than two years on the thousands of
American jobs being exported to cheap overseas labor markets. Tonight,
a simply stunning example of your taxpayer dollars being used to ship
American dollars to cheap foreign labor markets.
This time it's the voice of America. A broadcaster funded by you, the
American taxpayer, moving its Washington-based overnight shift to Hong
Kong. That's right, Hong Kong, China.
In an effort to cut costs, eight highly-skilled English news- writing
positions funded by the United States government -- that is you and me
-- are being moved to communist China. All to save $300,000 each year.
Coming up next, tax deadline. President Bush has promised to reform the
tax code in his second term. On this April 15, many Americans say
they're more than ready for a little reform. We'll have that story for
you.
And then the battle over which parts of this country need the most
money to protect against terrorism. The chairman of the House Homeland
Security Committee has the answer. And he's our guest next.
Stay with us.
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://prorev.com/2005/04/voice-of-america-to-become-voice-of.htm
Friday, April 08, 2005
VOICE OF AMERICA TO BECOME VOICE OF HONG KONG AS U.S. EVEN OUTSOURCES
ITS PROPAGANDA
DCRTV - VOA To Outsource Overnight Shift - 4/8 - DCRTV hears that the
DC-based Voice Of America is planning to "outsource" its overnight
shift to a Hong Kong facility. Currently, the international
broadcaster's shift is staffed by a half-dozen news writers, plus an
editor. They provide stories for VOA newscasts in English and for Asian
language services. We hear that the affected employees, which include
salaried employees and freelancers, will be offered jobs on other VOA
shifts.....
11. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55134-2005Apr14.html
Voice of America by Way of Hong Kong
By Al Kamen
Friday, April 15, 2005; Page A23
American corporations, fleeing high labor costs, often head overseas.
Turns out, some federal agencies may be doing the same.
The Voice of America, working with ever-tightening budgets, is planning
a little outsourcing itself -- to Communist China -- to save some
taxpayer dollars.
Ted Iliff, central news division chief, said the plan, announced at a
recent staff meeting, is to take about eight news writer jobs -- the
slots of people who work the graveyard shift from around midnight to
the morning -- and move those tasks to Hong Kong. (The people will move
to other shifts.) These folks handle the late news writing, then send
their stories to be translated by VOA language services into Swahili,
Spanish and so on.
VOA says the move could save at least $300,000 in salaries and benefits
each year, and would relieve people burdened by working those hours --
though we hear most of those affected like their hours and enhanced
night pay.
The idea is to use contract employees -- expatriate English-speakers in
Hong Kong, who would be supervised by a senior editor in Washington.
This didn't sit well with the rank and file, who argued that a Serbian
or Mideast or U.S. political story, for example, would be written from
Hong Kong when the expertise is in this country.
And then, of course, there's the question of what will be written if
the Chicoms invade Taiwan. Will there be a story saying, "One million
brave Chinese volunteers, responding to desperate pleas for help from
their cousins in Taipei, crossed the Taiwan Strait this morning"?
There's also the question of making sure everyone in Hong Kong has the
requisite security clearances.
Tim Shamble, president of the American Federation of Government
Employees local, notes it doesn't seem to make sense that "English news
broadcasts by the Voice of America should be written by non-Americans
in a foreign country." Then there's the notion, he said, of American
taxpayer dollars providing jobs for noncitizens overseas.
"This is all a tempest in a teapot," VOA chief David Jackson said
yesterday. "We have operated out of Hong Kong for decades" -- though,
of course, the Brits were in charge in earlier decades -- and "Radio
Free Asia has operated out of there . . . with no problem." What's
more, Hong Kong "is filled with ex-pats and good journalists" [not to
mention exceptional restaurants], and they'll be "supervised and edited
by people here." This is not the beginning of an outsourcing policy but
a "unique situation" and a very important news story. "There are no
plans to do this anywhere else," he said.
Well, as they say, trust but verify.
12. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=4906
April 2, 2005
WashTech News
Washington Mutual Faces Criticism from Outsourced Indian Call Center
Workers
By Michael Cooke
Seattle-based Washington Mutual (WaMu) is the largest savings and loan
institution in the United States, and is recognized as a leader in
customer service and corporate social responsibility, as well as a
being a very good place to work.
According to its website, WaMus "strong track record of community
support" inspired an ambitious ten-year, $375 billion program aimed
mainly at providing home and small business loans to low and
middle-income communities.
Other WaMu social responsibility initiatives include a community
donation and grants program equivalent to two percent of its pre-tax
earnings and a program to improve housing on Native American tribal
trust lands.
WaMu also has strong business acumen, which, since its early days in
the 1890s, has seen it build up a $300 billion asset base and a
2,500-strong national branch network.
It was with this keen business sense that WaMu, like many of its peers,
made an agreement in early 2004 to offshore some of its IT call center
work. The idea was that about 35 outsourced staff could help
troubleshoot WaMus IT problems from the New Delhi offices of leading
Indian outsourcer Wipro Spectramind.
However, according to former staff working on the contract, WaMus
mission statement to "ensure that every human interaction is caring,
courteous and respectful" was not often in evidence in the Wipros
New Delhi offices, particularly to Wipros employees working on the
WaMu account.
Wipro Spectramind makes few bones about forcing staff to take on
Western names. According to chief operating officer, Devashish Ghosh,
employees working on several processes [contracts] are required to take
on Western aliases.
Singling out finance companies as particularly insistent on the
practice, Ghosh says: "Here you are working for a customer. The
customer prefers that there is a name given which comforts their
customer. And if that is the need of the process, the need of the
customer -- one will have to do it. And these people [staff] are
sensitized to it. [They are told they] will have to work under a
different name and lets be clear its the requirement of the
customer."
But it is not only names. Wipro Spectramind also often strives for the
"Americanization" of U.S. business processes, including intensive
linguistic training designed to obliterate all traces of local accent.
Indeed, some experienced call workers have such strong American
accents, it is difficult to believe they have never been out of India.
One of them is Rohit Kharbanda*, a former Wipro employee who worked on
the 35-strong WaMu Indian team last year.
He says the linguistics training and cultural impact of the job was so
strong even now he occasionally finds it difficult to pronounce some
words in his native language. This, he says, has caused problems with
friends who think he is aping American culture and has left him
questioning his own cultural identity.
According to his former Wipro colleague Gagan Sameer, who also worked
on the WaMu account, there was constant dialogue between offshore
Indian staff and WaMus U.S. staff even as the jobs were transferred,
an indication of how closely decisions on one continent impact the
other.
He says, "Every time we got three new people, three people would get
fired in the Seattle office. We were always updated. [U.S. colleagues]
used to tell us in advance: 'You know you are getting three new guys
today.' Initially our reaction was How do you know? And the U.S.
colleague would say, You just let me know when these new guys come
and Ill tell you why. And when the new guys would come, I would
say to the Seattle office, Yes they are here; how did you know?
And he [U.S. WaMu employee] would say, Because three guys [here]
lost their jobs today."
Despite the obvious potential for tensions between the two groups of
workers, there was, Sameer says, an underlying sense of respect and
co-operation that transcended racial and cultural barriers.
"Its not culture or white or Indian or whatever -- they were helping
us on each call -- . It is difficult for me to understand....the person
was helping me in spite of knowing that he might lose his job."
Like many of his colleagues, Sameer was, he says, acutely conscious of
the differences in working conditions between the two locations,
especially when it came to working hours. Long hours and forced, unpaid
overtime are, say Sameer and Kharbanda, a regular feature of working
life at Wipro.
Officially, shifts are 9.5 hours including a half-hour break for lunch
and two 15-minute breaks. Additionally, an unpaid 15-minute team
"huddle" usually precedes and follows every shift. But Sameer says that
local managers often "stretch" shifts by up to two hours, with short
notice, no overtime pay and no option to refuse.
And due to long commuting and waiting time resulting from the
ubiquitous shared taxi system, staff can often spend 13 or 14 hours a
day away from home, he says.
It is a similar story with breaks. According to Sameer and Kharbanda,
employees were sometimes forced to work for over six hours with no
break. They say that although managers did not actually deny staff
breaks, employees were constantly pressured into taking "one more call"
and that team leaders would not be around to sanction breaks.
It was in late July 2004 when things really came to a head, however.
Sameer, Kharbanda, and about ten other colleagues had been e-mailing
Wipros Human Resources department in Bangalore, complaining about
heavy-handed management, extended shifts and lack of breaks.
During a site visit in August by the Human Resources department,
prompted by the e-mails, Sameer claims he was physically manhandled by
local managers, who attempted to force him to resign. He refused, but
was fired a few weeks later.
Kharbanda says he had a similar experience in September but cracked
under the pressure. He says: "I used to tell my team leader things were
wrong. Nothing happened. So there was a time when I said, Enough is
enough. Do what you have to, but I am not taking the next call until
and unless all the issues are solved. They said they would take care
of it, and I went back and took my calls.
"And then one fine day, I get the news that I have to go off calls.
Go home stay for a few days, you are going to be retrained. They
call me back and it is the same sequence [as with Sameer]. They forced
me to resign. He [Sameer] was strong enough to say, No. I
wasnt and signed the papers. It was a case of: Wipro is big
enough to rip your career apart."
No one knows how common this kind of experience is within Wipro or the
offshore call industry in general. There may be many contented Indian
call center workers, not least within Wipro itself. This is likely
because each "process" has its own working rules, or agreements,
between the client corporation and the outsourcer. Likewise, workers
attitudes often depend on their relationship with their line manager.
This seems to not be the case for the WaMu account.
However, as far as Sameer and Kharbanda are concerned, the problems are
symptomatic of the lack of control Indian call center workers have over
their working environment. Take for instance, phone rage.
Sameer says: "Why do clients want us to be extra polite even when the
customer is shouting at me? I should be given the right to say, Sir,
you are shouting at me, and I am not saying anything impolite to you.
Can you stop that or should I disconnect the call? I want that
right! But if I do that the client will tell my manager You have a
rude agent." And this they say can land them in big trouble.
Both Sameer and Kharbanda clearly see the need for a principled
effective trade union as a way of winning workers rights. Many of
the issues, from working hours, breaks, and pay discrepancies, are
collective grievances, prompting a collective response.
But very few Indian IT outsourcing companies recognize unions, partly
due to client hostility, but also because many young Indian workers see
established Indian unions as self-serving and powerless.
Consequently, the Union Network International, UNI, is working to bring
Indian call center workers together. Under this initiative, the
brainchild of UNI Asia regional secretary Chris Ng, a nucleus of
activists are placing weekly advertisements in the call center job
sections of the New Delhi press, urging call workers to come forward
and discuss their issues.
The idea is to build for a conference later this year to found a New
Delhi chapter of UNIs Centre for BPO Professionals, the UNI-led
staff association already functioning in Hyderabad and Bangalore. CBPOP
aims to counsel, support and represent individual call center workers
in the short term and secure negotiating rights with major employers in
the long run.
But according to Chris Ng, international support is crucial. Urging
unions in the U.K. and U.S. to come on board, he says: "An effective
Indian call center workers union would not just benefit Indian
workers; it would also boost the rights of call center workers in the
West."
A spokesperson for Wipro said the companys policy was not to discuss
the details of individual company agreements and processes. However, he
said that Sameer was asked to leave the company for "acting against the
integrity" of Wipro. Washington Mutual was not available for comment.
Meanwhile, six months later, Sameer and Kharbanda are both trying to
build new lives. Kharbanda is still looking for call center work,
though not in the New Delhi area. For Sameer it is different. Because
he refused to resign and was fired, he cannot get a reference letter
and without that, he says, it is impossible to get a new job. He says:
"It is part of the fear. They are using fear to keep people quiet. But
it has gone too far now. We have to speak out, or it will never
change."
*Rohit Kharbanda is a pseudonym.
For more information on Union Network International (UNI), visit
www.union-network.org or contact Chris Ng at
uni-asiapacific@union-network.org
Michael Cooke is a freelance reporter based in the U.K., who met with
Sameer and Kharbanda in New Delhi, India, and reported for WashTech
News. Another article written by Cooke on this subject appeared in the
London Guardian, April 2, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/. He
may be reached at: Michael.Cooke@unifi.org.uk
13. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.careerjournal.com/salaryhiring/industries/engineers/20050331-grimes.html
Even Tech Execs Can't Get
Kids to Be Engineers
By Ann Grimes
From The Wall Street Journal Online
Vinod Dham is among a growing number of technology executives warning
that the U.S. faces an engineer shortage. To stay globally competitive,
he says, the nation must do better at steering its youth toward
engineering careers. Mr. Dham knows how hard that is: He can't persuade
his own kids to go into engineering.
The 54-year-old Mr. Dham would seem to be a prime role model. His
engineering degree lifted him from his humble origins in India into a
16-year career at Intel Corp., where he became well-known for helping
create the Pentium chip. His older son, 22-year-old Ankush, is studying
economics, and that's fine with Mr. Dham, who says he couldn't get him
interested enough to develop the rigor required for engineering. But
ever since his younger son, 19-year-old Rajeev, was a boy, Mr. Dham has
been urging him to pursue engineering -- and he, too, is going into
economics. Rajeev "doesn't want to do electrical engineering," the
elder Mr. Dham laments. "He tells me the job will be outsourced."
Silicon Valley is doing a lot of hand-wringing these days about a
coming engineer shortage. Tech leaders such as Cisco Systems Inc.'s
John Chambers and Stanford University President John Hennessey warn
that the U.S. will lose its edge without homegrown talent. The U.S. now
ranks 17th world-wide in the number of undergraduate engineers and
natural scientists it produces, they point out; that's down from 1975,
when the U.S. was No. 3 (after Japan and Finland).
But some of the nation's tech elite -- including many immigrants who
benefited greatly from engineering careers -- are finding even their
own children shun engineering. One oft-cited reason: concern that dad
and his contemporaries will ship such jobs overseas.
Venture capitalist Promod Haque, for example, is in an ironic bind when
it comes to advising his own kids. Like many other Silicon Valley
financiers, Mr. Haque has recently begun funding tech start-ups in
India and urging U.S. tech entrepreneurs to outsource from the start by
forming companies that split operations between the U.S. and India. Mr.
Haque chuckles about a recent dinner conversation with his college-age
daughter, who he hoped would go into engineering just as he did. "She
said, 'Dad, I'm not going to take any more computer-science classes,' "
he recalls. "I asked her why. She looked at me straight and said, 'I
don't want to go to India to get a job.' "
Experts cite a variety of other reasons for the U.S.'s engineer
shortage, including poor math and science curricula in public schools.
And there is also a persistent image problem. A recent study of 2,800
of Silicon Valley's youth by consultants A.T. Kearney found that 73%
were familiar with high-tech careers but only 32% wanted to pursue
them. In describing tech careers, students in the study used a variety
of unflattering terms, including "intimidating" and "uninteresting."
Others said they considered engineers to be "socially awkward" or
"obsessed with work." Some female respondents linked computer
engineering with work that is "tedious" or "antisocial."
That was the case for Susan Mason's two stepdaughters, Alexandra and
Joanna. Ms. Mason, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with a
background in computer engineering, says she urged the girls to
consider engineering when they were in high school. They ignored her
advice: Alexandra became an audiologist and Joanna went into nursing.
"They felt that engineering was too solitary, even if they were working
in a team environment," Ms. Mason recalls. "They wanted to have more
interactions with people on a 'human' level," she says.
Ms. Mason recalls one talk where she and her husband warned the girls:
"You understand you are taking the vow of poverty here? You know there
is a big money delta here." The irony, she says, is that many young
people in the Valley can opt for less lucrative professions because
their engineering parents have done so well.
C.L. Max Nikias, dean of the University of Southern California's
engineering school, says another problem is that colleges aren't able
to keep students in the field who show initial interest: About 120,000
students start off in engineering in U.S. colleges and universities,
but only half ever earn an engineering degree. Mr. Nikias has set up
programs at USC -- including an updated curriculum and a
career-oriented speakers program -- that are helping to retain
students, he says.
But things haven't worked as well at home. Mr. Nikias's daughter, now a
20-year-old junior at USC, initially appeared to heed her father's
advice that she become an engineer. Georgiana Nikias is good at math
and science. Early in college she took six core classes that
engineering students take at USC.
But then she ditched engineering for an English major. "In engineering,
you truly have a chance to invent something or push society forward
technologically," she says, but "I didn't love it enough to make a huge
difference in that field." She wants to write science fiction, instead,
or maybe go into law.
Mr. Nikias strongly supports women who pursue engineering degrees. So
he felt that "if she trained in this profession, the sky would be the
limit in terms of opportunities." he says. "I did try. [But] I'm not a
good example of farming my own kids into the profession."
Kanwal Rekhi, a graduate of India's Institute of Technology and former
chief technology officer at Novell Inc., says he very much wanted his
son to become an engineer. But his son ignored his urgings, saying he
thought the work would be too tedious. He graduated from film school
instead. Mr. Rekhi says he also tried to persuade his 16 nieces and
nephews to go into engineering. He even offered to tutor some of them
in math. Not one took him up on that. "They said it was too hard," he
says.
For Mr. Dham's younger son, the California lifestyle that an
engineering career brought the family is one reason he is spurning
engineering. Rajeev Dham worries that an engineering career these days
might take him out of the state as outsourcing erodes engineering jobs
there. "One of my older cousins is an engineer, and he was shipped out
to Cleveland, where it's snowing and stuff," he says. "Obviously that
factors into people's decisions. People who live in California want to
stay in California, you know."
-- March 31, 2005
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