Labor Uses Offshoring as Rally Point

A December 2003 Commerce Department report confirmed that increasing numbers of technology jobs are moving from the United States to offshore spots including India, Ireland, the Philippines and China. In July 2003, for instance, IBM acknowledged that it was speeding up its schedule to shift 3 million service jobs to China and India. Microsoft Senior Vice President Brian Valentine admitted in a July 2002 presentation that work could be had in India at "two heads for the price of one." AT&T Wireless and Boeing are among other large-scale operations known to be shifting IT labor pools from Washington State to India and other low-cost countries. Even state agencies, including the departments of corrections and social and health services, are outsourcing to offshore computer programmers.

With reports like this, unions are using the offshoring trend as a rallying point for their organizing activities. Go here to find out what WashTech and the Communications Workers of America are up to.