Protecting American Labor by Raising Foreign Worker Standards

Labor Day seems like a good time to speak out on the subject of offshore outsourcing. We are seeing more and more of it. Just recently, Earthlink (a locally based company) announced they are laying off hundreds more American workers. They have been outsourcing much of their technical support to India for years. This is just the latest fallout from that. Numerous companies and even some state governments have been following this trend.

Why is the U.S. losing so many jobs to people in other countries? It is not because we lack the talent or the work ethic. The reason is virtually always to save labor costs. Corporations do this to improve their profits for their stock holders. Some state governments have been doing this because of budgetary constraints. They need to stretch the tax payer dollars.

Some of this job redistribution is inevitable in a global market. Advances in telecommunications and rapid shipping has made the entire rest of the world both our marketplace and our competitor for goods and services.

So, what is the best role for labor unions in today's world? I think it is still the same as the best role labor unions have had historically -- insuring fair and just treatment of workers. In a global market this means applying all the political pressure possible to our elected officials to require all trade agreements demand the same high standards of safety and reasonable treatment of laborers in the countries where the work is done as we require in the United States.

Why care about the safety and fair treatment of foreign laborers? Certainly it is moral and humane, but there is a more self-serving reason. Compliance with safety standards and treating workers fairly costs money. Raising the cost of foreign labor serves to level the playing field. This helps our domestic workers be more competitive than they are now.

There are additional ways we can help our workers become more competitive in the global marketplace, but that is a subject for another day. Today, we celebrate American labor and its accomplishments. Long live the American worker!

That's my two cents.

Wade Houston
September 3, 2007