I'm going to be laid off and most of the people I have worked with and loved for 20 years have either already been laid off or soon will be and mostly all of the jobs are being outsourced (IT and customer service positions) to India, Pakistan and Mexico.
We spent years honing our skills and making the company we worked for a finely oiled machine and now people in other countries who know nothing about our company and could care less and can't speak English well enough to be understood are going to be given our jobs. We're all just standing, watching from the wings and predicting that the company will fail miserably within the next year or sooner.
Had the company asked most of us to take a cut in pay or even work from home to save office space they could have held on to a highly dedicated, highly trained staff of professionals who really gave a damn about this company and were proud to be employed by it. We loved our jobs!
We would have worked in dimly lit offices, put up with flucuations in air conditioning or heat or anything to keep our jobs if the company would have just made us an offer. We would have put on our game faces and pitched in to keep the business growing and maintain our jobs. In return the company could have still managed to turn out quality product while maintaining a highly motivated and dedicated staff.
I saw this coming. Everybody I talked to saw it coming. Why didn't we do something before now? I've finally woke up and I'm trying to find ways to help stop this madness.
As of this writing I only know a couple of things to do to take an active stance.
Stop purchasing anything but American Made products. Find US Made.
When contacting service and are confronted with a foreigner on the other end of the phone demand that you speak with an American.
Write your Congressmen or even the President.
Speak up and let all of our friends, family, social website contacts know and try to get them involved in the activism necessary to have our voice heard.
I can soooo relate to the words of this song by U2.
"Give Me Back My Job"
I don't want your millions, mister
I can't use no diamond ring
I want the right just to live, mister
Give me back my job again
I don't want your Rolls Royce, mister
I can't use your pleasure yacht
I want some food for these children
Give me back my job again
We work to build this country, mister
While you enjoy your life of ease
And you steal all that we build, mister
See them folks, they starve and freeze
I don't want your millions, mister
I can't use no diamond ring
I want the right to live, mister
Give me back my job again
No I don't want your millions, mister
I can't use no diamond ring
I want the right to live, mister
Give me back my job again
I don't want your foodstamps, mister
And that welfare line don't interest me
Give me a chance to earn my wages
And give me back my old job please
(This track can be found on the Carl Perkins album Go Cat Go, and features Bono, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Tom Petty)
