AT&T Wireless outsourcing jobs overseas

[Boreas]

AT&T Wireless Services has begun plans to outsource some of information technology work to lower-cost operations overseas, according to people familiar with the situation and documents obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"The marching orders are that we are going to do it," said one employee who expects to receive his layoff notice in January. "Now we are just trying to figure out the mechanics of how to do it." He said as many as 70 percent of the IT staff could lose their jobs.

Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, outsourcing companies with large operations in India, have consultants working on the AT&T Wireless campus in Bothell, said the employee, who requested that his name not be used. That is creating an awkward situation for some AT&T Wireless employees who believe that they are essentially training their replacements.

AT&T Wireless has initiated a plan called "Project Pinnacle," a companywide effort to cut costs while boosting profit margins to as high as 40 percent. Part of that plan includes 1,900 job cuts, which were disclosed last week in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Those cuts will occur throughout the company. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that an additional 3,000 jobs could be cut, with the work being sent overseas.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/149035_outsource20.html

[ramapo]

1. Welcome to the Corpocracy!

It is more evident everyday...

It is obvious that there is no stopping the offshore trend. The savings on salaries/benefits are hugh and go right to the corporate bottom line.

Corporate profits are everything and since the media is controlled by the corporations you won't get much protest from these quarters.

The energy bill? Full of corporate gifts.

The prescription bill? Gifts to the HMOs, pharmicuticals, etc. with a convoluted benefit thrown to the people in return for giving up choice.

I think we're watching a revolution in progress but it certainly isn't of, by, or for the people.

[mhr]

2. Thanks For The Post, The Article Has Been Forwarded To Republicans

eom

[alchemilla]

3. This is happening everywhere!

I imagine other people have been discussing it, but it's the first time I have noticed it addressed here. I've just gone through a couple of weeks of tech-support hell with Dell, because they have farmed out their jobs to India. They must pay these people pennies for it to be profitable for them, because it is so bloody inefficient! The local techs who had to come to me to fix the computer mess created by the disjointed and confusing phone help both told me that they've had friends lose jobs to this.
It's tough to address the issue with a company without sounding like a racist or a xenophobe, but there are so many odious things about this trend that it makes my head explode.
I spoke recently with a young man who is in business school here at UVA (Darden) and he is from India. The cultural implications on that end are really upsetting. It's like a whole new wave of imperialism. For example, a physician in a smaller city will move away to take a job with one of these companies, say, answering phones for people like me who can't get a CDROM drive to work. Doesn't sound very rewarding, does it? And the village loses their doctor, and the system encourages Anglicization (sp? maybe Americanization is the more appropriate term) above all. This young MBA student was so distraught by the whole thing, that he is actually considering quitting the degree program and returning to a very simple life in India. His original intention was to get the education in order to do some good, through non-profits. But this trend is so overwhelming--the corporatization, the Westernization, the overall devaluing of human beings.
It reminds me of the experiment with the frogs in hot water--you know, if you put one in hot water it will jump out, but if you heat the water slowly they don't notice and get cooked to death.
Priorities and perspective need to change. What to do? I complained to Dell, but the complaint probably went to some guy on the other side of the planet who isn't too thrilled about the whole thing either.

"Project Pinnacle" that's rich--I bet the marketing guys took a page from the Repub. misinformation department guidebook.

[newyawker99]

4. Hi alchemilla!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Boreas]

6. I Sympathize

Globalization is paying third world wages and charging first world prices. Is it supposed to all level out? Somehow I doubt it when greed and fear are the driving motives. Who would want a happy medium between them? Why do they want forty percent profit? I know, they're not greedy, they don't want sixty percent.

[alfredo]

5. I was considering AT&T wireless, but if they do not want American workers

they do not want my business.