Connect with other Boston region residents for political and/or legal action to recover our jobs and occupations.

email us:
contact at displacedtechies.com


Need to know the facts?

H-1B visa primer
L-1 visa primer
How-to search the DOL's LCA database


links

Techsunite
Zazona
Information Technology Professionals Association of America
CWA's Outsourcing Blog
T.O.R.A.W
NoSlaves.com
Lou Dobbs' List
F'ed Company
American Joblog
Rescue American Jobs
Metafilter
BoingBoing
Politech
Subterranean Homepage News
Big Blog Tool



HARRIS MILLER ALERT!!!



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Displaced Techies

allow american workers to participate in the global economy!


Tuesday September 28, 2004


More layoff rumours


All of these via f'edcompany:

Stuff Magazine (Dennis Publishing)

Rodale, publisher of Mens' Health, Scuba Diver, and the South Beach Diet book has laid off or outsourced its entire IT department

Another round of layoffs at Charles Schwab

Massive layoffs at Sun this week or next

Layoffs galore at HP.....this is the only one with a confirmed link

The guy at f'ed company is usually right...

08:34 pm
Tuesday September 28, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


IEEE - USA links


Legislative Action Center

IEEE-USA position on H1B and L1 visas

02:42 pm

posted by gmminks
link


*URGENT* CONTACT SEN KENNEDY


It is urgent that everyone contact Senator Kennedy's office immediately about the compromise proposal being presented on the issue of the H-1B visa cap.

In exchange for not raising the cap, any foreign student who graduates from a US institution of higher learning with a Master's or PhD will be exempt from the H1B visa cap.

This means that these individuals will be eligible for H-1B visas, no matter if the cap is met, no matter how many US citizens are without jobs.

To put this in perspective, in 2002 here were 220,743 noncitizens pursuing
masters or PhDs in the U.S. All of these students would be eligible for
H-1B visas under the proposed exemption. 49,380 of those students are engineers.

This compromise will be attached to the Chambliss bill. For more details, read this CNET article.

This bill will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee soon. Senator Kennedy is the ranking member of that Committee's Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship Subcomittee.

ESPECIALLY if you are a citizen of Massachusetts, contact Senator Kennedy's office immediately and let him know that this compromise is unacceptable. The unemployment rate is too high to continue to increase the H1B limits in any fashion.

Everyone should contact the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As always, the idea is to get the word across to our elected officials that the people that vote them into office oppose this compromise. Tell your personal story. If you call, http://kennedy.senate.gov/index_high.html

Call the Boston Office:
617-565-3170

Call the DC Office:
202-224-4543





02:27 pm

posted by gmminks
link

Monday September 27, 2004


vote KERRY!


VOTE KERRY!

05:05 pm
Monday September 27, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


Monster CEO can't answer direct questions


Today, I was a caller on the radio show Hire Frequencies on WBNW in Boston. The guest was Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor. I think he was really there to promote his book, but I had questions I wanted answered.


  1. Question one:
    If 8 million people in the US are out of work (his number), why are there jobs posted to Monster India that are not posted to the US Monster boards?

    His answer:

    There are alot of contract tech companies in India that are hiring people to interface with the US companies for which the companies in India are writing code.

    He even mentioned that Wipro has 500 US openings for positions to facilitate customer care with their US clients. Those openings must still be waiting for reqs, becuase the last US Monster entry for Wipro is August 6.

    I interrupted to say that those are entry-level positions, was ignored. I also wanted to tell him that hiring on US soil and making those jobs available to Americans are two very different things.

  2. Question Two
    When you were in India, why did indicate to the Indian press that you anticipated a huge increase in the number of H1B visas awarded to folks from India?

    He started to respond to this by asking if I was employed, to which I said yes. He then said that "some online group" had misconstrued his comments.

    No, Mr. Taylor, that is not the case. We simply spread the word to US techies about what you had to say to the people of India.

    To refresh your memory, you said...

    "India produces three times as many college graduates as the US. We need to educate people about the long-term benefits of a India-US relationship.

    "Over the next 10 years, call center jobs in the US are going to dry up because they cannot afford to keep these employees. The industry would have to tap India's tremendous cost advantage."

    "


    Don't try to marginalize the people that built your business, the people that you want to sell book to.



Let's be honest...Taylor is laying the groundwork to tap into the employment market in India. You see the jobs going over there, and instead of truly helping your countrymen who are being robbed of real employment opportunities, you have taken up the "if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em" mantra.

So, he never answered my questions. Since I have a feeling he may read this, please, Mr. Taylor, tell us:

  • Why do you support increasing the H1B visa limit when so many techies are in the US without work.
  • Why do you allow Monster India to publish US jobs [jobs done on US soil] to foreign audiences, without advertising the same jobs on the US Monster site.


I'll publish your response. If you have the courage to face the displacedtechies of America.


04:48 pm

posted by gmminks
link

Sunday September 26, 2004


Company in India aquires US cos delivers service from India


"We are looking to acquire small to medium BPO companies with revenues of $10-15 million in the collection space. Through acquisition, we want to deepen our expertise in our business and be a multi-location company," told chief operating officer of Epicenter Navnit.

"By acquiring a company in US or Canada we would get a front end in these countries while services would be delivered from India," Navnit said.

If you work for a company being courted by Epicenter (and they are in talks with 2 US companies) LOOK OUT! Your job is about to go to India.



06:36 am
Sunday September 26, 2004
posted by gmminks
link

Friday September 24, 2004


Were you laid off from Fleet/ BofA?


Guess what, they never planned on keeping people here in the Bay State. According to this article dated April reported:

Bank of America (BoA), the second largest US bank, has set up its business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in Hyderabad. For this, BoA has incorporated a subsidiary called Continuum Solutions to look after the operations of the BPO centre. This centre is likely to handle consumer, commercial, and corporate processing work.


05:01 am
Friday September 24, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


BM’s offshoring adventures during the year 2004,


The Outsourcing Blog has points to an article that talks about IBM's outsourcing activities this year.

They offer this quote from the article:

When future historians recount the swirl of controversy surrounding “offshoring,” 2004 undoubtedly will be noted as a watershed year, and IBM Corp. likely will be remembered as a major player. Whether that’s hero or villain, however, depends upon one’s point of view.

IBM’s management is unapologetic for its strategy of moving thousands of U.S.-based jobs offshore to lower-cost countries such as India and Brazil. This has rankled many people inside and outside the company who complain that corporate America has relegated employees to the status of commodities.


Read the original article here

04:58 am

posted by gmminks
link


Layoff Rumours


All of these are via f'ed company:

AOL San Francisco radio programming facilities laying off all Radio@AOL staffers come mid-November.

Rumor has it Lucent is about to layoff 3,000 to 5,000 this week.

Maytag is cutting 170 jobs from their Newton, Iowa plant.

Rumor has it Computer Associates is preparing to layoff around 20-25%. [Aren't they ramping up hiring in India?]

Rumor has it MusicMatch employees are getting laid off on news of acquisition.

Rumor has it La-Z-Boy just axed half their IT department, word is another 200 workers gone by November.

On top of 20% salary reduction, rumor has it 6,000 more United Aitlines employees will be canned starting next month -- with more salary reductions in store for remaining employees.

Match.com just laid off around 30 people.


Rumor has it EDS is about to layoff a whopping 20,000 employees.



04:54 am

posted by gmminks
link


Charter Communications call center will be losing 160 jobs


Charter Communications call center will be losing 160 cable TV support jobs, according to Contact Center Digest

If the tv call support center personnel qualify, they can go to high-speed support, as the company plans to add 250 suport jobs in that area.

According to the article, "Spokesman Dave Mack states that the video jobs are being moved out of Louiseville “just for efficiency’s sake. They want to concentrate that particular type of work at fewer centers.”
04:48 am

posted by gmminks
link

Thursday September 23, 2004


Cisco Systems to be a Chinese Comany


This blew me away. It's from Lou Dobbs Tonight, broadcast Thursday, 9/23/2004

From the transcript:

-------------------------

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, John Chambers is the CEO of Cisco Systems and he has lived the American dream. Raised in West Virginia, educated there, and Indiana, and now he says, he wants Cisco Systems to be a truly Chinese company.

He says, quote, "China will become the center of the information technology world." And he says "China will be the largest economy in the world."

Cisco founded by Stanford University students over 20-years-ago is investing $32 million in Shanghai, and the company is training tens of thousands of Chinese universities students.

Cisco's not alone. Captains of American industry are salivating at a chance for their Chinese dream. China now leads the world of foreign direct investment, unseeding the United States. And American consumers buy $150 billion more from China than China buys from us making this country even more dependent on China and Japan to finance our massive trade deficits.

Now, the CEOs who say they are investing in China and other cheap overseas markets, they can't blame the owner tax structure in this country. A new study shows 82 major American companies paid no federal income tax for at least one year from 2001 to 2003.

The average effective tax rates on American companies fell to just about 17 percent. That's less than half of what they're supposed to pay. At the same time, more American workers have exhausted their unemployment benefits than at any time since 1941, Lou.

DOBBS: Remarkable! And point in fact, corporate tax pays for about 6 percent of total government expenditures. Now, it's dropped that low.

ROMANS: Still shrinking.

-------------------------

In its most recent report to Congress, the U.S.-China Trade Commission found that, quote, "a number of the current trends in U.S.- China relations have negative implications for our long-term economic and national security interests, and therefore that U.S. policies are in need of urgent attention and course corrections."

Michael Wessel is a member of the commission joining me tonight as well from Akron. Michael, good to have you here.

You have obviously, as Bill Tucker just reported, learned something more about the personal pain that working men and women in this country are feeling, and in particular obviously in Ohio. What else have you learned as a result of being there?

MICHAEL WESSEL, U.S.-CHINA ECON. & SECURITY COMMISSION: Well, you learn firsthand the impact that the trade policies and the -- actually the inaction in Washington is having on them. And actually the betrayal that most of these people feel, not just the businesses but the workers as well in terms of a government that's not standing up for their interests.

DOBBS: When you say a government's not standing up for their interests, we're talking about a Democratic administration under Bill Clinton, a Republican administration under George Bush. And the effect has been so-called free trade and we have seen nothing but abject devastation of American jobs as a result of the so-called free trade policies. What do you think needs to be done? And your own commission found exactly the same thing. WESSEL: Found exactly the same thing. You've seen the trends accelerate in the last couple of years since China became a member of the WTO four years ago. You have seen a wholesale slashing and burning of corporate America as they take their jobs and move them over to China. And it's not just the manufacturing jobs now that we're seeing. We're seeing high-tech jobs all across the board.

DOBBS: What in the world are we going to do? Do you have a solution?

Because both parties frankly seem indifferent to the trade practices that have gotten us into this mess. Perhaps indifferent because they're simply writing off middle-class Americans who don't have representation in Washington.

WESSEL: Well, you know, there's no silver bullet to solve this problem. But the first thing that has to happen is trade enforcement. We heard virtually from every witness here today that they're frustrated by currency manipulation that the Chinese are engaged in, which the Bush administration last week said, they have no real intention of responding to. There were three cases, one of the witnesses today talked about where he went to the government, the FTC, the major arbiter of all of this, found unanimously that they had been injured. And the Bush White House turns their back on them. They're confused. They don't know what to do. They follow the law. They follow the rules. They work hard. And at the end of the day, their government, this administration is doing nothing for them.

---------------------------


This really makes me sad (and mad). It seems like many of our corporate citizens aren't citizens at all anymore. They're traitors, who are doing everything possible to stick it to American workers and to the US, all while avoiding paying their fair share of taxes.

Our government just turns the other way, and even encourages it. They do nothing about trade deficits with China (or anyone else), and continue to let US corporations evade taxes. They even give Goverment contracts to offshore tax evaders. They allow jobs to be shipped overseas while allowing a stream of cheap labor into the country as well. They say all this is good, and we should sign more Free Trade ageeements. When are they going to wake up? It's sickening.




08:16 pm
Thursday September 23, 2004
posted by rickrob
link


Venture capitalists not funding unless you outsource


Ramanan Raghavendran has an interesting idea about Adam Smith's "invisible hand".

According to an article in the Globe today, this gentleman told a group of venture capitalists and business executives the following:

Boston-based TH Lee is urging the companies it invests in to ''build offshoring into the business plan from day one." If management doesn't ''get it," Raghavendran said, ''venture firms need to drive the thinking" about hiring offshore.

Interestingly enough, Mr Raghavendran used to have a venture capital firm in India called Connect Capital, but has now come to the US to tell is that the invisible hand is guiding all work to India, and is telling other venture capitalists to hold back funding from startups who refuse to outsource.

Seems to me, folks like him are trying to force that hand to behave in a way that lines their own pockets.

The article also quotes Reynaldo Gil, the chief executive of Commendo Software Inc. in Fremont, Calif. (and happy outsourcer) as saying:

"People focus too much on lost jobs."


06:32 am

posted by gmminks
link

Wednesday September 22, 2004



Still haven't heard from the dude I didn't steal your job book guy.

But I did see this interesting chat session he was involved in to promote his book.

He does not see the big picture. He totes the master's line....that Americans are not trained, and that all they are doing is whining about losing jobs.

Here are some highlights from the chat:

williams123 asks What made you write a book when you could have easily fought the hate-campaign in blogs? Would have been the easiest thing to do.

Sivakumar says Hate blogs are read by those who hate us. not by those who care for us. I wanted the public to know the facts.
[yeah, we'll see about these "facts"]

williams123 asks Haven't the Americans got a point? You got to the US and steal all their jobs. What'll they do? YOu have jobs for them in India?

Sivakumar says They do have a point. But we never jumped into a vessel and land in the US illegally. American companies wanted us. They better get trained properly if they really want to compete in the global market place. Whinning won't help.

vamoose asks dude, outsourcing isn't the primary cause for job losses in the US, what is it then?

Sivakumar says OUtsourcing is the main cause. No qs there. Some companies are doing it for the sake of it to compete with their counter parts. That has to stop. I',m not supporting outsourcing totally. It has to be streamlined. I see lot of divorces and suicides becuase if outsourcing. But on the other hand, American workers should come oout of their web and get themselves trained in newer areas

kinetic_ashik asks have americans exgegurated the issue of outsourcing???

Sivakumar says I think the media did. specially CNN and Lou Dobbs. outsourcing is happenening for the last 20 years. Every 1 job than Microsoft shipped overseas they created 3 more in the US. Sometimes American media do strange things to attract viewers. This is one of them.

[uhhhh what happened to giving the facts>]

kvsridharan asks If Americans are the pioneers in promoting open market economy, why should they protect their own economy from developing nations?

Sivakumar says Again, that's the Qs many are failing to grasp. Outsourcing/ Free trade is as American as mom and apple pie. The protectionists want the money to flow, not the people and jobs. They want Indians to drink coke, but won't like if an Indian fills the bottle.

[this is the key point....when he says "Americans" he means business leaders. Not your average joe. Americans for the most part want everyone to have enough....in our country and overseas]

harsha35 asks how are the job prospects in the U.S now in IT

Sivakumar says Not bad as 2 yrs ago. I see lot of H-1Bs coming.

[notice, he is not talking about job prospects for Americans in the US]

vamoose asks Is the avg. american less qualified than an Indian in the US for jobs, say like, programming, business process/operations?

Sivakumar says If you take the population by number yes. but if if you take the population by percentage no. Indian illeteracy number is = US population.

[Which is one thing this blog has said all along....there are good, bad, and average techies in both countries. One does not have an advantage over the other in talent]

vamoose asks What does the word divinetree (your website) mean?
Sivakumar says Divinetree is Where Budda got his enlightment. I want my US collegues to get it.

[why does everything get back to religion? why? why? why? and this guy manages Americans in the US. sigh]





10:15 pm
Wednesday September 22, 2004
posted by gmminks
link

Tuesday September 21, 2004


Electoral Vote Tracker


If anyone is interested in a state by state election status, then check out this site. It has been tracking the electoral vote tally using poll results from Zogby, Mason-Dixon, Gallup and others. It is updated almost daily.

10:19 pm
Tuesday September 21, 2004
posted by rickrob
link

Monday September 20, 2004


HARRIS MILLER ALERT!!


Harris Miller, the presumptious bastard that he is, has issued a to-do list for Congress.

Here are other commentaries on Miller's silly proposal:

from Zazona:

2) Pull the Dodd Amendment out of the final version of the FSC/ETI
legislation.

COMMENT: The U.S. Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) and its successor,
the Extra-Territorial Income (ETI) bills provide lower tax rates on
U.S. manufacturing so companies can compete with the European Union
(EU) which imposes tariffs of 11% on more than 1,600 products valued at
$4 billion being imported to EU countries from the U.S. Senator Dodd's
amendment would prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to outsource
or take offshore work formerly done in the United States.

Dodd's ammendment was approved by the Senate but Harris Miller can kill
it if he can pressure the Senate to take it off the FSC/ETI bill.

3) Pull the Kaptur amendment - which prohibits federal funding of state
administration of food stamp programs when the work is done outside the
United States - from the final version of the Agriculture, Rural
Development, FDA and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY 2005
(H.R. 4766, Title VII, Section 804).

COMMENT: Harris Miller shows just how low he can go with this one. He
thinks it's "good for America" to outsource food stamp program
administration to foreign nations such as India, and he will fight any
attempts to stop this disgraceful practice. "The Shiller" truly has no
shame and will not compromise when it comes to exporting American jobs.



4) Exclude from the cap on H1B visas those individuals who have earned
PhD’s or Masters Degrees from US educational institutions to
encourage them to stay in this country and contribute to economic
growth.

COMMENT: Harris Miller wants to exempt foreign graduates from the H-1B
cap. This will allow at least 20,000 more H-1B visas to be issued per
year. See the previous newsletter on the Chambliss bill for more
information.



07:28 pm
Monday September 20, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


Andover MA Outsourcing Rally



Tuesday September 21, 2004
2:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Don't Outsource our Future!

Come join workers from Lucent and the Merrimack Valley as they stand up to corporate greed at Lucent.

Workers will be rallying to protect workers from lay-offs and demand fair severance packages.

Rally from 2:30 to 5:30 in front of the Lucent Plant 1627 Osgood St. in North Andover.

For more information or directions contact Jennifer Doe at 617-524-8778 or jennifer@massjwj.net
06:35 pm

posted by gmminks
link

Sunday September 19, 2004


Wherever I go, There it is.


I take courses on-line through the University of Massaschusetts and this was how another student introduced himself to the class this week.

"I am a continuing ed student at U Mass Lowell. I live with my wife in North Andover, MA.  After recently losing my position in software engineering (due to outsourcing/off shoring)
I decided to become a full time student and plan on finishing my degree by the end of the year. Just in time too as my wife and I are expecting our first child around December 20"

People in the last course I took had lost jobs to offshoring too. It seems like wherever I go, someone has lost their job to offshoring.

And this guy has a baby on the way too. Now he's out of a job.


04:35 pm
Sunday September 19, 2004
posted by rickrob
link


Dude, I ain't angry at you


Remember when I posted about the book Dude, I Did Not Take Your Job?

Well now the website divinetree.com is claiming "Displacedtechies.com is angry with the author."

umm....no. I'm not angry with the author. I don't even know the author. He is welcome to email me at any time.

I just am not happy with the flip, over-commericalized picture of computer workers that every press release for his book portrays.....I hated those dumbass dell commercials.

But most of all, this book is a continuation of workers being pitted against each other for the benefit of a few at the top.

Outsourcing as it is being done now, in combination with the misuse of H1B and L1 visas is screwing ALL techies....no matter what country the hail from.

Here are some of the ways that all techies are getting screwed:


  • The institutional knowledge and experience of US workers has been totally gutted. Losing this experience hurts the future of IT world-wide.
  • There is alot of evidence that immigrants brought here on temporary visas are getting totally screwed over by their employers. These immigrants are taken advantage of because they do not know their rights as workers in the US.
  • There is a general experience gap. Those of us still employed who have to talk to 1st level support in India can give numerous examples of this fact. Especially if you call Dell. And they make you go thru that stupid checklist with them.


So, let's not play this game of USA vs India. We are screwing ourselves over by not talking to each other as techies. We have to share the experiences of how we are all getting the shaft by employers. Your book just adds to our [US techies] image of the arrogance you [techies from India] have about your own skills and abilities. Enforcing these stereotypes does nothing to address real problems.

People from India have to really understand that the American techies are really hurting. Most techies did not earn a ton of money in the dot-com era. Most earned better than normal wages but worked 12-14 hours a day to get the digital age started. Many are people like myself, poor people who worked hard to get technical degrees so that we could feed our families working one job instead of three.

Americans need to hear the stories of how temporary visa holders are not being paid, being forced to live 6 or 7 to a 2br apt, having their their passports withheld until contracts are fulfilled. Or of call center workers in India required to work 14 hour days with no overtime, things that would not be allowed in the US. Or the call center workers who cannot neutralize their accents enough to remain employed (and as a Southerner, I totally understand how much it SUCKS to change the way you talk in order to hold a job. I hate talkin like a yankee!)

We techies need to help each other. Talk to each other, start some real sort of conversation about what can help us all as techies.

So, I am not mad at this author [who has never contacted me in any way, and who I don't know from Adam]. Besides "dude", I am a Southern woman....and in case you are not familiar with Southern culture, you would damn sure know without any mistake if I was mad at you.


09:46 am

posted by gmminks
link


Funny tech support movie


ok, it's a bit rude (language wise), but it's a great parody about "Smell" Computers.

Smell Support Call

08:41 am

posted by gmminks
link

Saturday September 18, 2004


What She Said


So, since this is my blog (although there are several contributors) when I found out about WhatSheSaid I had to get displacedtechies added.

WhatSheSaid is attempting to make a blogroll of women bloggers who cover liberal politics at least part-time and that have a feminist slant.

If you have read this blog for any length of time, I think it fits the bill. Don't make me go off on my LinuxWorld rant again to remind you about how hard it is for women techies.....

anyways go check out WhatSheSaid




07:44 pm
Saturday September 18, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


Talk Like a Pirate Day


Tomorrow is not a work day, and I really think that needs to be taken into consideration for next year, but tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day

aurghghghghghg


07:00 pm

posted by gmminks
link


Homesourcing?


Nick Eian, CEO of Endurant Business Solutions has written an editorial all about insourcing....which I think is outsourcing business functions to small US companies.

I think he gets the problem. He says:

".. international outsourcing is a flawed solution in three common business scenarios: when problems are not well defined or expectations are not articulated; when the "cheaper" solution has a negative impact on the "better" or "faster" components of a company's value proposition; or when executives forget past business lessons."

He definitely gets the idea of why chasing cheap labor is a bad business model:

Offshoring customer support might be cheaper, but it can be tremendously frustrating for customers. Challenges around language and culture frequently are compounded by a lack of understanding of the American buying experience. Since an expectation about good customer service was never established, no one measures the frequently negative impact this "cost-saving" measure is having on the relationship with the customer and eventually the bottom line.


06:33 pm

posted by gmminks
link


Weird story of sexual harrassment and code theft


According to a story in the Mercurynews.com, Sandeep Jolly, who founded a San Carlos company that makes bar-code labeling products, complained to police that a former employee stole some source code. The code that was stolen was the source code used to make identity cards for US armed forces, police, and some major US firms [including US Air Force, the Army, Navy, the US fire departments and the US police].

The woman, Suha Iyer, actually confesssed to stealing the code. On July 19, she uploaded and emailed zipped files containing the source code and other confidential company data to her Yahoo e-mail account. She said her branch manager made her do it, and that she has been threatened by the company over the phone (well duh, what did she expect?)

Jolly has filed a lawsuit against the police for negligence. The police didn't register the code theft as a crime, in part because the woman, Suha Iyer, has filed sexual harrassment charges against Sandeep Jolly.

Jolly says that the police are just getting back at him because he speculated publicly that the officials were waiting for a bribe before they would help him.

NASSCOM doesn't seem to be concerned about anything besides India's image. They issued a statement saying "the article recklessly raised fears about the standards of security in the software sector in India." They the code theft is Jolly Technology's fault because they did not follow "best practices" for security.

So, did this man actually harrass this woman, and now he is getting back at her? Did the woman steal the code and is covering her tracks with a harrassment charge? I wish I could write a movie, this is an awesome story.

Until you realize how little data protection is available in India...the country that wants to be the back office to the entire world. According to investigators, the Jolly Technologies' Mumbai facility "does not have a security policy, it has no log of the computer and network activity at the center, and passwords are known to all and sundry".

Or, until you understand that what we consider sexual harrassment and what they call sexual harrassment in India are quite different. According to the same article:

"The employee accused of the theft filed a complaint with the police alleging that she had been harassed at work, and mentioned advances such as invitations to dinner and the movies...There was no explicit reference to sexual harassment, but to what you would perhaps call 'soft advances' by Sandeep Jolly".

Ok, to recap:


  • A US-owned company outsourced development work for ID cards issued to US servicemen, firemen and policemen to India
  • An employee zipped up the code and emailed it to her yahoo account
  • Owner of the company goes to get help from the police, police say sorry there was no security plan in place you're SOL
  • Owner says the cops are waiting for a bribe
  • Woman who stole the code claims owner was sexually harrassing her
  • NASSCOM chides the owner for making India's IT security look bad


Should this not be investigated by homeland security or something? I know LOTS of people in the AF, this is scary.




05:59 am

posted by gmminks
link


Not enough money to retrain displaced workers


According to BostonWorks.com:

"Federal funding for retraining displaced workers is rising nationally but it still is not at the level needed to serve the thousands of people who have been laid off since 2000"......

"Federal funding for retraining dislocated workers in Massachusetts has increased from $8.4 million in fiscal 2002 to $25.3 million in fiscal 2004, according to the Department of Labor. From fiscal 2000 to 2002, 4,526 workers were retrained in Massachusetts."

What I find bizarre is this....in MA officials expect that $4,700 will cover re-training costs for displaced workers. Ok, now if you have a bachelor's degree (or master's degree) and you get laid off because the company decides to use cheap labor oversears, what the hell is $4K going to train you to do?

When I was laid off, I was told I didn't qualify for the funds because I already had a bachelor's degree.

India takes a much different view of training their citizenry. According to the Times of India:

"The Karnataka government plans to churn out over 1,00,000 ready-to-employ candidates from eight districts in the next 18 months to support the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry".

So, the labor is cheaper and the government makes sure they train their folks to handle the work. Makes you wonder, who is looking out for the citizens of the US?







05:07 am

posted by gmminks
link

Thursday September 16, 2004


Hurricane Ivan


Ok, this is way off topic....but I am from NorthWest Florida...the panhandle...where Ivan hit.

The pictures are FREAKING ME OUT!

All my family is ok and safe. It looks like the beach is gone. gone gone gone.

:(

here are some pics from the Pensacola News Journal...



This is I10, the water is really really high!


another bridge out

but my beaches are gone. so so sad.

07:15 pm
Thursday September 16, 2004
posted by gmminks
link

Wednesday September 15, 2004


New study from Washtech


WashTech has issued a a new report on high tech job loss.

Interesting stats for Boston IT jobs:







March 2001November 2001March 2002March 2003March 2004April 2004
71,20059,10055,50048,70046,70046,900


Of course, Harris Miller had to diss the findings:

Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, which does its own calculation of tech jobs, said the WashTech report counted only people who work in high-tech firms, rather than people who do high-tech work inside other companies.

"People who only count who's working at Oracle and Microsoft are missing most of the story,'' he said, citing a recently issued technology association survey.


What a jerk. Harris Miller is doing his damndest to get Indian consulting firms to win lucrative government IT contracts. He belittles the computer scientists warning the dangers of paperless e-voting machines. He is nothing but a pimp for the consulting companies that exploit workers from all countries, and people ought to take anything he says with a huge grain of salt.


06:07 pm
Wednesday September 15, 2004
posted by gmminks
link

Tuesday September 14, 2004


Action Alert for anyone in CA


Someone emailed this to us...

Congressman David Dreier is one of the biggest reasons techies are displaced. Check him out on the net.

He is opposed by Cynthia Matthews .

There is a volunteer meeting tonight at 687 East Foothill Blvd. Pomona, CA 91767 Ph: 909-268-3554.

If there are any techies in this area have them come.
01:27 pm
Tuesday September 14, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


E-voting discussion in Concord


GRASSROOTS ACTIONS FOR PEACE
MEETING
MONDAY SEPT. 20  7:00 PM

First Parish Church
20 Lexington Rd., Concord

Fairness in Voting in the Electronic Age
&.and what you can do to make the difference.

GEORGE PILLSBURY
Policy & Administrative Director
Boston VOTE and Mass VOTE

C. SCOTT ANANIAN
MIT Graduate Student
Experience Exposing Faults with Electronic Voting Machines

Moderated by
ROBERT PLOTKIN
Lawyer and Member Concord Civil Liberties Committee

Cosponsored by Grassroots Actions for Peace and Northbridge Alliance for
Democracy, Amnesty International Group 15, Chelmsford Alliance for
Racial Justice, Concord Civil Liberties Committee, Concord-Carlisle
Human Rights Council, First Parish Social Action-Education, Social
Responsibility Council of First Parish in Bedford and Veterans for Peace
Concord contingent.

NO ADMISSION CHARGE -- ALL ARE WELCOME  REFRESHMENTS 7:00-7:30


05:32 am

posted by gmminks
link

Monday September 13, 2004


Election Day tomorrow in MA


So get out there and get involved y'all!


09:33 pm
Monday September 13, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


Protest in N Andover 9/21


Tuesday September 21st, 2004

Don't Outsource our Future! Come join workers from Lucent and the Merrimack Valley as they stand up to corporate greed at Lucent. Workers will be rallying to protect workers from lay-offs and demand fair severance packages.

Rally from 2:30 to 5:30 in front of the Lucent Plant 1627 Osgood St. in North Andover.

For more information or directions contact Jennifer Doe at 617-524-8778 or jennifer@massjwj.net


09:31 pm

posted by gmminks
link

Friday September 10, 2004


Workers in China carry Puma on their backs


This article talks about what workers in China have to endure-- they are exploited for cheap labor while the companies they produce goods for rake in the cash. The workers don't even get a living wage and would be immediately fired if they spoke up.

"Puma's workers in China are forced to work up to 16.5 hours a day, from 7:30 a.m. to midnight, six or seven days a week, for wages of just 31 cents an hour."

"While Puma makes a net profit of $12.24 per hour on each worker in China making their sneakers. Annually, Puma is reaping a profit of $38,189 on each worker. In a single factory, Puma's profit from the workers can reach over $92 million a year."

I'm all for making a profit, but at least pay your workers a decent living wage.


10:49 pm
Friday September 10, 2004
posted by rickrob
link


Sovereign is hiring ex-Fleet workers


Some people knew BofA/Fleet was going to screw workers over in their big merger, and they have gone to work for other local and regional banks.

This probably is not how BofA wanted things to go...

"They're not only losing people, they're losing some of the best talent in the old Fleet organization," said Thomas K. Brown, manager of a hedge fund called Second Curve Capital, who has long been critical of Bank of America. "Clients follow their bankers. Bank of America is making the classic integration mistake: They're going to get their expense savings, but over time they will lose the revenues related to those clients."




07:12 am

posted by gmminks
link

Wednesday September 8, 2004


Layoff Rumours


From F'ed company is reporting that Vividence is going to cut jobs.

I heard on the morning news that Delta is going to have layoffs....how much ya wanna bet some US call center agents will get axed?


06:22 am
Wednesday September 8, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


Over 1,000 Service men and women have died in combat in Iraq


What is going on?


06:17 am

posted by gmminks
link


Coffee with Senator Moore


If you are one of Senator Moore's constituents, go have coffee with him and talk about the issues in Bellingham tomorrow.
According to the Milford Daily News:

"The event will be held at Centre Cafe on Mechanic St., Bellingham from 7-9 a.m. Constituents who arrive between these hours will receive a free cup of coffee courtesy of the senator."


06:16 am

posted by gmminks
link


What is the most censored story in the world?


According to Project Censored, the most censored story in the world for 2005 is Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy.

via Sheila Lennon's shenews on projo.com


06:13 am

posted by gmminks
link


Mass is losing high paying jobs, adding lots of low pay jobs


DUH!

The Boston Globe is reporting today that the Bay state is losing alot of high paying jobs, while at the same time adding alot of low paying jobs.

The article reports:

"The average wage paid by shrinking Massachusetts industries --such as manufacturing, software, and financial services --was $58,136 in 2002. Expanding industries -- hospitality, education, healthcare, and nonbusiness services -- on average paid $31,187"

And people wonder why there is a problem with the Commonwealth's budget?

Maybe this is what they talk about when they insourcing.
06:04 am

posted by gmminks
link

Friday September 3, 2004


Are Republican groups using call center in India?


Ok, we posted the link to an article in the Indian press about how the RNC is using call centers in India to raise funds to re-elect Bush.

So did the cease and desist from Charles R. Spies, Election Law Counsel at the Republican National Committee.

Of course, the RNC totally denies the claims that they can't even pay minimum wage to folks to call people to get funds to re-elect Bush.

But now, another article in the Indian press reports on how the Indian call center that was employed to the fundraising got busted:


Sources here said the India-based operation was exposed when one American who received a fund-raising phone call on behalf of the Republican Victory Committee wanted to know where the call was coming from.

“The Washington DC of Virginia,” the caller answered.
"


The article also reports that the RNC has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the Republican Victory Committee. The RNC is charging that the group is not a real Republican fund-raising group, and they are the ones responsible for giving the Republicans such bad press.

So, is this "Republican Victory Committee" a real Republican PAC or not? Or, is the RNC just trying to keep their image "squeaky clean"? [cough cough]

No, really, I want to know.



06:03 pm
Friday September 3, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


H1B visa cap for FY2005


First of all, just in case someone from the Indian press reads this, the H1-B quota reverted to the congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 LAST YEAR. Get yer damn facts straight.

Ok, that's off my chest.

Immigration has said that 40,000 H-1B petitions that would count toward the Fiscal Year 2005 (FY2005) cap have been received as of August 4, 2004. Of those petitions, 21,000 have been approved and the rest are 'in the pipeline'.

This article claims that IT companies from India that have a US presence are now [finally] being forced to rely on local American talent to fill positions in the US. Either that or bring people in from India on L-1 visas.




05:36 pm

posted by gmminks
link


Evoting insecure


The Diebold machines that are being used in many counties for voting are extremely insecure. They use a Microsoft Access Database to store votes, and in many cases these databases are not even password protected. Blackboxvoting.org reports that even if the Access software is removed, the voting data file can be opened in Wordpad and made writable by issuing a 6-line VBscript.

So, some counties secure the machine physically and require password authentication for access to the machine. BUT, if the county sends the results file via modem, all that is needed is the dial-in number to access the machine. Accoriding to Blackboxvoting:

The dial-in protocols are given to poll workers, many people in Diebold have them, lots of temps have them, and the configurations have been sitting on the Internet for several years.

There is actually no security for these machines at all.

November will be very interesting.


update

Found this link on whoseflorida.com. It outlines ITAA and Harris Miller's role in defending the E-voting industry.

Something is very very wrong with this entire picture.


05:11 pm

posted by gmminks
link

Wednesday September 1, 2004


Anti-Out Sourcing Ralley/informational picket September 21


As many of you may know, there has been significant job loss in the Merrimack Valley, which has resulted in Lawrence being one of the poorest cities in Massachusetts.

Lucent Technologies has outsourced 90% of its work force. The work has gone to other plants, some locally, which pay less than half of what these workers make and do not offer benefits.

Gary Nilsson went on a hunger strike as a result of a recent round of outsourcing, and was able to get the company to agree to arbitration.

But arbitration is still a long way off, and these workers are suffering now.

There will be a rally on September 21st to support these workers and kick off an anti-outsourcing campaign in the Merrimack Valley. Please distribute widely through your networks!

The next planning meeting will be September 8th at 10:00 AM at CWA Local 1365.



In Solidarity,

Jennifer Doe

Workers' Rights Organizer

Massachusetts Jobs With Justice

3353 Washingtion St

Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

Tele: (617) 524-8778

Fax: (617) 524-8996
10:42 pm
Wednesday September 1, 2004
posted by gmminks
link


Are call center employees that well educated?


Apparently, they are not "educated" enough to want to remain in dead-end call-center jobs. According to this article in the Pune Newsline:

"..the only criteria for selection [for a call center job] is language skill and preparedness to work in shifts, which has given rise to ill-equipped talent. Admitting that there are insufficient number of employable people, Karnik said: ‘‘The answer to stop extremely high attrition rates in BPO companies is to increase the supply of employable people"

So, there are not enough workers, they are not fully equipped for the job, and there is an extremely high attrition rate. How is this a good deal for US companies and ultimatly US consumers?

We already know what a bad idea it is for US workers.


05:28 am

posted by gmminks
link

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