AT&T outsources jobs, then sours on the idea

April 03, 2008 09:51AM

JACKSON — In a reference to 5,000 customer-service jobs that his company was planning to return from India to the United States, Reuters recently quoted AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson as saying: "We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs."

To this quote I offer three observations. First, Mr. Stephenson should have added: "at the salary we are willing to pay." Second, Mr. Stephenson fails to understand why anyone would devote years of training for jobs that are almost all outsourced and therefore not available in the United States.

Finally, if outsourcing is so great, why is AT&T returning these jobs to the U.S.?

http://blog.mlive.com/citpat_opinion/2008/04/att_outsources_jobs_then_sours.html

Could you cross post this in the Labor Forum. (I don't want to steal your wind)

They never paid very well for CS jobs before they left the states but I'd be happy

if they move those jobs back here!

I have to get moving now. :hi:

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What a crock that they're having trouble finding skilled CS workers in the USA!

More like they're having trouble finding people to work for minimum wage and no benefits!

Bingo!

Serves 'em right

:shrug:

The only people getting screwed by this are the workers or the unemployed USA workers that AT&T isn't hiring
or that they left in the lurch and now the unemployment rate is at 5.1% and rising! :grr:

They ship the jobs out, and then discover that people in other countries can't do the jobs as well as Americans.


I really hate the H1-B visas. At my husband's last company -- he's a computer professional -- nearly all the IT people now come from India. People hired with these visas are supposed to get salaries equivalent to Americans, but the corporations always find loopholes such as slightly changing job descriptions, so they can pay these people far less.

This leaves American computer professionals, who invested tens of thousands of dollars on computer science degrees, with no jobs except Mall-Wart or McDonald's. Meanwhile those coming in on the H1-B visas usually get free college educations, so they're not stuck paying off huge student loans. I've also heard of Indian companies that put these H1-Bs up in large dormitories so they can live cheaply and go back to India with a large amount of savings.

Is it any wonder that so few college students are majoring in computer sciences now? What's the point? You rack up $45,000 or more in student loans, and the job goes to someone from overseas with a free education.


As I keep saying, any U.S. company that outsources or in-sources foreign workers while depriving Americans of jobs, should lose every property tax break, federal contract or taxpayer-funded research grant they may have. I do not want my tax dollars supporting corporations that put Americans out of work.