Wednesday, October 29, 2003

3.3 Million 'Knowledge Jobs' Head Offshore article in Union Label, published by the Union Label and Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO September/October 2003 full article at http://www.unionlabel.org/current_letter.pdf A good analysis of the increase on U.S. jobs being sent overseas and the consequences for American workers. 2:59:18 PM    comment []

Bank of America to send tech work, data to India    by David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, October 29, 2003   complete story at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/29/BUGL42L7N91.DTL "Bank of America snagged a lot of headlines when it announced this  week that it will create the second-biggest U.S. bank by acquiring FleetBoston  Financial for about $47 billion. But virtually no attention was paid just days earlier when BofA said it will move more operations abroad by setting up a subsidiary in India next year  to handle key tech functions, many involving sensitive customer information. Bank of America, along with other U.S. financial-services giants, has been steadily boosting its bottom line by outsourcing costly tech work. For  customers, that means an ever-increasing risk of personal data slipping beyond  the bank's grasp. BofA says there's no reason to worry and sufficient measures have been taken to protect customers' information. But the danger of "offshoring," as I reported last week, is now readily apparent after a woman in Pakistan doing cut-rate clerical work for UCSF Medical Center threatened to post patients' confidential files on the Internet." Tip on this story provided by Steve Zeltzer, Labortech 2:50:57 PM    comment []

A technology workers’ labor union takes root in Portland By Aliza Earnshaw THE BUSINESS JOURNAL OF PORTLAND PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 27 complete story at http://www.msnbc.com/news/985657.asp?0si=-&cp1=1%20<http://www.msnbc.com/news/985657.asp?0si=-&amp;cp1=1>&cp1=1 "The very notion of a labor union for software developers and other information-technology workers may strike some as paradoxical, or even ridiculous. After all, techies are thought of as well-compensated, highly skilled workers. So the beginnings of a techie labor union here in the Portland area, called ORTech, may come as a surprise to many who work with or are themselves high-tech workers." Tip on this story provided by Steve Zeltzer, Labortech 2:45:28 PM    comment []

Oil! Theatrical performance based on the work of Upton Sinclair Directed by Delia MacDougall The Magic Theater, Fort Mason Center, Building D, San Francisco November 7 - December 7, 2003 San Francisco Bay Area theater group Word For Word brings back its hit show, OIL!, (Chapter One: "The Ride"), the first chapter of Upton Sinclair's sweeping California epic chronicling the tumultuous oil boom and how it altered the course of California history. OIL! - Chapter One: "The Ride" barrels the viewer into a thrilling drive across the California terrain, mined with Sinclair's prescient observations of the political as well as geographic clime of California a century ago. The set for OIL! is an award-winning metal sculpture based upon a 1912 Stearns automobile, and built as an interactive kinetic piece by sculptor Oliver DiCicco. For more information, see http://www.zspace.org/zspace/index.jsp 9:14:04 AM    comment []

Copyright 2003 Lincoln Cushing