Senator overwhelmed by IT support for outsourcing ban
A New Jersey Senator backing a Bill to halt the export of US public sector jobs has received support from thousands of jobless IT professionals.
Bill S1349 - backed by Senator Shirley K. Turner - requires that only US citizens and legal permanent residents, such as green card holders, can perform state contract work.
Senator Turner became the primary sponsor of the Bill after learning a US company entrusted with a seven-year, $326,000 per month state contract to process electronic welfare for New Jersey residents had outsourced its customer service centre to Bombay where workers were paid $2 an hour.
US workers employed at the previous service centre in Green Bay, Wisconsin had been paid $10-$12 per hour.
Senator Turner told UKTECH: "I was incensed upon learning of this practice and outraged that a company could take our tax dollars to pay workers in another country. It is wrong for Government to fund this flight of jobs overseas to workers who are not paying federal, state, sales, or Social Security taxes or spending money to stimulate our stagnant economy."
She added that security and privacy issues also arose when Government information and citizens' records were sent abroad for processing.
The level of support took the Senator by surprise.
"My office has been deluged by phone calls, letters, and emails from unemployed workers in support of this Bill," she said.
"I found the majority (if not all) of these calls were from jobless IT workers from all over the United States. Until I introduced this Bill, I had no idea how huge foreign outsourcing is and how it has almost single-handedly crippled employment opportunities for American IT workers."
Senator Turner said she had not originally intended the Bill to address outsourcing in the private sector, but that it had nonetheless become a "cause célèbre" for disaffected workers who had been replaced with cheap foreign labour.
She said: "I believe it is outrageous for companies to overlook prime opportunities to invest in and employ American workers when our national unemployment rate is at six per cent.
"These companies are outsourcing work in search of tax cuts and monetary incentives which, in the long run, will undermine our economy. Many of America's skilled workers are getting squeezed out."
Senator Turner said she would like to address "the problems caused by the H1-B visa", which has seen the mass-import of skilled foreign IT workers, but added she had no authority over federal matters as a State senator.
"While we may not be able to ban foreign outsourcing outright, I believe banning such practices where taxpayer money is concerned is a step in the right direction and I hope other States will consider similar measures," she added.