Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 16:27:02 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave-AT-eco.utexas.edu>
Subject: Re: AUT: Good Leaflelts????


On Sat, 10 Apr 2004, Thomas Seay wrote:

<snip>
> Yes, your students are typical in this regard.  From
> what I understand, engineering, and esp. computer
> science enrollment is plummeting among American
> students. What once seemed like "the way" to ensure
> making a good wage, with job security, has evaporated
> with the offshoring phenomenon.

aye

> I think being "for" or "against" outsourcing is the
> wrong way to frame the debate.  It's a trap.
> Outsourcing is a "Necessary" reorganization of capital
> (from the perspective of capital) and the point needs
> to be made not to be for or against outsourcing but to
> go beyond the goddamn system that creates such
> dilemmas, such choices as being for or against.

For sure.

> Let's be clear on our terms. There is "outsourcing"
> and "offshoring.  In outsourcing certain functions of
> the company are delegated to a third party.  For
> example, many companies have outsourced part (like
> their ERP) or all of their IIT to third parties like
> EDS (the company built by your fellow texan Ross Perot
> ;)  Outsourcing may go to a company in or out of the
> United States.  "Off Shoring" means that jobs will be
> sent overseas, to India or elsewhere.  Sometimes that
> means that the jobs will be done by employees in a
> foreign subsidiary of the company or foreign workers
> who belong to a third party company.

Yes, I include "runaway shops" in "outsourcing" even tho the "outside"
in "offshore outsourcing" is geographical rather than being constituted by
another firm.

>
> Now sometimes company X will outsource a project to,
> say, EDS and you as an employee will be given the
> option to go work at the same job for EDS...however,
> you will give up your severance package if you do so.
> Once you go to EDS, you are their employee...any
> seniority you had in the old company (allowing you
> more vacation time, etc) disappears.  Of course, often
> you dont have even that option...you are just laid
> off.
> Some companies off-shore jobs, say to India, and give
> American workers the option of going to India to work,
> using the Indian scale of pay.
>
> -Thomas

Yes, to all the above. The variations are touched on in the presentation.
I'll send you the slides. They are, typically, sketchy, just to help the
audience keep track of the main points of the argument.

H.


............................................................................
Snail-mail:
Harry Cleaver
University of Texas at Austin
Department of Economics
BRB 1.116
1 University Station, C3100
Austin, Texas 78712-0301  USA

Phone Numbers:
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(off) (512) 475-8535
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Cleaver homepage:
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Chiapas95 homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/facstaff/Cleaver/chiapas95.html
............................................................................



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