Computers, Unions, Multinational Companies, and Workers

"Perspective"

03/14/2008

Paul Munnis


American companies, from large to small, depend almost entirely on computers. From the backroom where marketing, advertising, and accounting, are done to the front room where customer services are delivered computers are playing a vital role. So is the software that drives business applications.

The huge American worker productivity gain that we tout in America can be attributed directly to the use of computers in business. For a small investment in a desktop computer a company can get access to e-mail, online websites, distributors, suppliers, service representatives, and the list just goes on and on. In some ways it calls together the old image of a one man band in the smaller shops and it really leverages workers in the bigger businesses.

It takes skilled and competent people to run these computer systems, especially the backbone servers and networks that people use. Network maintenance and backup, server wiring and safety, security, virus protection, policies for computer use, proper software licensing, disaster recovery planning, information retrieval, legal data storage requirements, the issues associated with implementing the Sorbanes-Oxley Act, and many other factors enter onto the agenda of a competent computer staff. And they are challenged by the rapidly changing technology too. In the computer world you either keep up or you become obsolete. The departure of a guy who runs a key component of a computer department is a danger to the entire enterprise. Yet some employers treat their computer staff like trash.

With such high demand for competent workers and with such a demand for specialists in various aspects of computing, the job market is always under pressure. Employers say they need to go off-shore and to bring in foreign workers with needed skills on H1B work Visa permits. When a company hires computer workers they want people who can land on their feet and immediately be productive.

American workers say that H1B recruiting efforts and demands for an increase in the number of H1B foreign worker visas is just a cover story for chronically underpaying American workers and is a cover for sending work off-shore.

So as we go into the spring of 2008 there is about to be a burst of activity for more H1B workers and it will not be well received by the American workforce. Bill Gates of Microsoft fame is expected to make a plea to Congress for more H1B workers. That plea will come just as news is breaking that America is now officially in recession. The counter argument will be to hire Americans first.

As our troops come home from Iraq and Afghanistan and reenter the American workforce they will need jobs. Many have plenty of military experience in the use of computers. If the jobs are going to India and elsewhere on outsourcing then unemployment will be high for our returning troops and they will not be happy to see the jobs are all offshore in India.

Hard feelings lay ahead on this subject. You can bet Congress will have its hands full.

American workers might see more Union organization efforts and if Democrats win in the 2008 election then labor laws may be revised to make it easier for that to happen. Mostly computer workers are inclined to ally with the Communications Workers of America which is a large union representing telephone and other wire services employees.

Unionization will have a lot to offer to computer workers including negotiated wages and benefits, union training modules to assure union workers are competent, unemployment assistance and job placement, and of course a valid way to register complaints with an employer. Today computer workers have none of that but are quickly learning that it’s a lonesome world out there when you have to do it all by yourself and have little leverage with employers wanting nothing but more and more profit for themselves and often it comes at the expense of the workforce who are treated not as business partners but as disposable workers. Here in Minnesota for example we can expect pressure on a concept we have called: “At Will Employment,” a concept with legal overtones that permits employers to fire and separate workers without a just or proven cause.

Another notion is that Democrats could decide to tax the use of outsourcing services that are located off-shore. Thus a call center providing help desk support to the State of Minnesota might have to pay a federal excise tax for every phone call that they answer for the State. There are a lot of proven ways to do this but generally the method is to levy excise taxes on those wanting to permit the use of the offshore services by American companies. That in turn means that the cost of goods ands services will rise to cover the tax and that could well mean bringing the jobs back to the U.S. if its cheaper to do so.

When you boil it all down the challenge that faces Congress is how to govern multi-national companies. They are big, powerful, and they command a lot of jobs, money, and influence. A nation needs good jobs and the multi-nationals provide such jobs but workers need a fair shake too and the government needs workers to pay taxes. So we all need one another and the trick of good government is to craft a win-win solution for all parties.

We don’t have a win-win solution now. The Bush Administration has left a lot to be desired. Democrats will be challenged to fill the gap with workable programs. I sense that many Republicans are beginning to see the need for better government programs and that we could possibly find that the GOP, in order to remake and reinvent itself, will need to be less destructive and to join in the construction of America.

I sure hope so.