Nielson layoff's draw Lou Dobbs' ire

[OhioChick]

Friday, June 27, 2008

OLDSMAR — When Lou Dobbs speaks, even extraterrestrials quake.

The host of the Lou Dobbs Tonight show on CNN covers national issues with an abundance of certitude.

So when Dobbs took up the Nielsen Co. layoffs in Oldsmar, with reports on Monday and Wednesday nights, many current and former Nielsen employees took heart.

They hoped Nielsen's outsourcing story would reach the national agenda.

"Exactly what needed to happen!!!" a current Nielsen employee, who asked not to be named, wrote in one of many e-mails to the Times. "The bigwigs have been meeting all day to discuss the ramifications of the news."

"I'm glad something is finally happening," said former Nielsen systems administrator Kristie Otto, who was seven months pregnant when she lost her job in October.

"What burns me up the most is that they are bringing all these people in from India at the same pay rate that we were getting paid," Otto said. "So where are the savings?"

Monday night, Dobbs and CNN correspondent Bill Tucker reported that Nielsen is laying off workers and outsourcing jobs at the company's Oldsmar facility and replacing them with workers from India on guest-worker visas. Tucker said council member Janice Miller was the only city official angry about it.

"I am incensed that our government would allow this to happen to the American people," Miller said on the show. "This is all about driving down wages in this country. It's un-American."

Oldsmar Mayor Jim Ronecker was pilloried by Dobbs, his smiling face superimposed over a photo of the Nielsen headquarters entrance.

"Well, maybe if we started outsourcing the mayor's job and those other City Council jobs and replacing them with … visa workers, maybe the people of Oldsmar would be getting more value," Dobbs said.

Ronecker said his e-mail in box was jammed with hate mail the next day — "a lot of four-letter language, short and sweet," he said.

Ronecker said the way he was portrayed Monday failed to mention that he led Nielsen to forgo government incentives that would have netted the company up to $3.1-million in future tax refunds for creating jobs.

On Wednesday night's report, Dobbs turned his focus to the federal government.

"Now, some communities are telling Washington they've had enough of seeing jobs in their communities shipped overseas or labor shipped overseas to their communities," he said.

Dobbs said Nielsen has a virtual monopoly in their market.

He suggested that people contact Florida's legislators, including U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis, and U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez.

"Because if they are going to just simply turn a blind eye to this kind of behavior, the country, the state of Florida, is lost," Dobbs said.

Several Oldsmar council members were interviewed, including Eric Seidel, who said, "I wish we had the authority to do something here."

Council member Suzanne Vale suggested people should contact presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.

Nielsen's response?

"Because of who we are, we can't comment on a client's program," said Gary Holmes, Nielsen spokesman. "Instead, we are moving forward, building a competitive facility that will continue making significant contributions to the local economy."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article646366.ece

Love or hate Dobbs, he's the only person in the M$M taking on the job loss of U.S. citizens.


Original Story:

Nielsen layoffs, tax breaks anger Oldsmar officials (TATA)

Published Tuesday, April 15, 2008 11:39 PM

OLDSMAR — City Council members expressed outrage Tuesday over the Nielsen Co.'s plans to eliminate 110 positions at their Oldsmar operation after accepting government money to create jobs.

"To think they have the gall to take taxpayers' money and then lay people off!" said council member Suzanne Vale. "I am so upset."

"It's just incomprehensible to me," agreed council member Janice Miller.

They were responding to news that Nielsen is outsourcing work to India-based Tata Consultancy Services after receiving at least $3.1-million in state and local subsidies mainly to create jobs in Oldsmar.

Tata, one of the world's largest providers of consulting and outsourcing services, has brought in its own workers from India.

And Nielsen, formerly known as Nielsen Media Research, says they have plans to restructure further.

The topic was raised by City Council members at the end of their regular Tuesday meeting.

Some members urged their colleagues to stay calm. Mayor Jim Ronecker reminded the council that outsourcing is a national trend.

"We can't tell them how to run their business," he said.

"No, but we can call a thief a thief when they take the taxpayers' money," said council member Greg Rublee.


http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article458509.ece

[Orrex]

1. Has he figured out how to blame Mexican immigrants yet?

Dobbs = :eyes:

[OhioChick]

2. Obviously you didn't read the article.

It has nothing to do w/illegal immigrants. :eyes:

[Orrex]

4. Oops--it was meant to be humorous

True story--I once ran into Dobbs at a coffee shop. He was genial enough, chatting as we walked to the exit, but then he happened to bump his elbow on the door frame, and he dropped his cup to the ground, where it splashed all over his thousand-dollar shoes. He was furious: "Darn these lousy illegal immigrants, who just happen to be overwhelmingly Mexican, not that I've noticed."

edited to change the subject line to something less personally snarky

[OhioChick]

5. Today is not the day to "humor"me...

The entire sales staff was recently given pink slips....and I know what's to come. With next to no jobs left in OH.....probably a foreclosure on my home.

[Orrex]

6. Holy shit, that sucks!

I was laid off (well, terminated) with no notice back at the end of March. You have my sympathy, and believe me when I say that I don't mean to be condescending; my zingers are meant only for Dobbs, and not for you.

Have you filed for unemployment yet? You should also look into food stamps and WIC (depending on eligibility, of course).

[OhioChick]

10. As of now

I'm still employed, as my current project ends at the end of July. After that....with the sales staff gone, there is no work being sought after. The company is very silent. Not good. :scared:

I'm sorry to hear of your situation, as well. Hopefully, you found something better.

I understand you didn't mean to sound condescending, sorry if I sounded snarky. It just seems as though all of the job loss is not being reported by anyone other than Dobbs.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

23. It's not. Unfortunately, Lou's reportage is tainted with racebaiting.

Thom Hartmann on Air America does about the best job of explaining the situation and advocating for working people, without perpetuating xenophobia. Even he gets accused of being a "nativist" by globalization enthusiasts, which is ridiculous. He just points out that the idea we have a "labor shortage" when wages are going down is absurd. Labor follows the same supply and demand laws as anything else. When the supply of labor goes down, the cost goes up. Unless, of course, you have an engineered glut of labor like we have here.

[truedelphi]

13. Orrex if you ever live in California and get put in a nursing home

After a surgery, and the help won't help you when you beg for water, saying
"no speak English" you'll see the other side of immigration.

[Orrex]

17. Is that true? I can't imagine why they'd be bitter...

[awoke_in_2003]

27. One thing the northern states have a hard time with

is the fact that a large portion of the ones who come hear illegally absolutely REFUSE to do anything to integrate into our society. When the German side of my family came here they strove to learn the language and insisted their children do well in school. If I got my wish, and got to emigrate to a European nation, should I expect them to adapt to me?

[babylonsister]

9. OhioChick...

:hug: That sucks big time.

[OhioChick]

11. Thanks....

I've made it this far...."something" will come along, if that's the case.

:hug:

[fasttense]

3. So you can hire a foreign company and bring them into the US

to do the work for you? Do you have to get HB1 visas for each individual? Is this why Bill Gates is such a rabid lobbyists for ever increasing numbers of HB1 visas? Make billion off of US citizens then turn the jobs and benefits over to foreign workers. Sounds about par for the course for the uber wealthy elite.

But don't worry, we still have all those service industry jobs. Toilet cleaning has to be done here in the US and HB1 visa workers are over-educated for those jobs.

[Doctor_J]

7. Dobbs is right on this, but he's basically just a Buchanan clone

I guess he's not overtly racist the way Pat is, but his "hire American" rants always seem to be tinged with anti-immigrant undertones. OTOH, maybe that's just part of the whole situation. :wtf:

[ihavenobias]

8. In defense of Dobbs, he's currently getting one big thing very right...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x151057

[OhioChick]

12. Thanks for posting...

I do appreciate Dobbs on certain issues, such as yours, what I posted, as well as how he seemed to go after Diebold and other voting machine companies in the past.

[truedelphi]

14. Buchanan was the ONLY person who spoke out on how the Clinton

Bailout to Mexico cost us taxpayers 20 billion dollars and assisted only the Banking Class. And that the average Mexican worker saw an immediate drop in wages from 87 cents an hour to 47 cents an hour. He was just as incensed over how badly it was going to hurt the average Mexican worker as he was about how it was hurting the middle income American here.

[Hydra]

15. And hiring Americans first is bad how?

I do all of those "jobs Americans won't do(for minimum wage)." I'm a cook, hotel worker, call center rat, landscaper, temp worker, janitor, housekeeper...

There is NOT a labor shortage- there is a shortage of will to pay the people here what the jobs are worth!

That would be assuming the people involved were LEGAL immigrants. I just had to say goodbye to one of my co-workers, because his G/F from Canada was being kicked out for playing by the rules.

[Doctor_J]

16. It's not bad. I just have the feeling that Dobbs is more anti-immigrant

than pro-labor.

[treestar]

18. Impossible

There are a very limited number of H-1B visas and the employer has to show the government they are paying the prevailing wage. The media does not, or chooses not, to understand this.

As for outsourcing, what can you do? Indians work hard and don't have to make as much to live well. They have not developed a society based on the automobile. We can expect outsourcing where possible as long as there is still a market here for whatever it is - and if so, we must be employed in order to be able to afford it. We are at a big disadvantage in the world market because we went along with the auto industry's ploys to make us dependent on individual autos for transportation, going as far back as the 50s. We need to work on that rather than sit around complaining about the results.

The effect of these things is exaggeraged by IT workers outraged that they are making $70,000 a year rather than $80,000 per year. Not something we really need to be worrying about. Democrats do not need to alienate any recent citizens over this. The repukes, at least, think that all newer citizens vote Democratic. That's why they cause a simple Naturalization to take 2 years in bureaucratic processing. (And why they accused the Clinton administration of speeding up that process).

[OhioChick]

19. .....

We would all be better off not to have to listen to your republican/corporate propaganda.

[sourmilk]

20. Anything that can be outsourced, WILL be outsourced.

This is the IT mantra.

I worked on H1-B visa for eight years in the USA. At the end of my tenure, I was so disgusted at the way the entire system is gamed by employers that I just left and came back to Canada.

There were 2400 US employees with average salaries between $40K and $55K when I started at a big Telecom in 1995, and only 12 of us working on visas. When I left in 2003, there were less than 400 US employees and some 1400 H1-B workers, primarily from Bangalore, working for Hughes and WiPro (under contract to the Telecom, who was receiving subsidy $$$ from State governments and the Federal government for "creating" H1-B positions), for $14.00 / hr.

You cannot fully appreciate how badly the ENTIRE visa system in the USA has been gamed by unscrupulous employers and how they fraudulently take advantage of the visa process, available job creation subsidies, and Indian employees until you participate in it. It's hopelessly f*cked, and US-born employees are SoL, period. What has begun in Manufacturing and IT will continue to steamroll the healthcare and services sectors. BE WARNED.

You clearly have not looked into this closely enough. If you believe it isn't possible, you have not been made aware of the specifics. I currently know only one IT professional making over $70K / year (and nearly all my friends wotk in IT), and he's been working for the same company for 22 years. He's getting laid off by Nortel Networks in two weeks, and is being replaced by an H1-B worker from India. I guess that he wwas getting too close to retirement...

It is getting worse, and will continue to do so until a law is passed, demanding corporate responsibility to more than just shareholders.

If you are not outraged, you have not been paying attention.

[ihavenobias]

22. Sources, sources, sources

I don't see any.

PS---Stating what employers are *supposed* to do is not exactly the same was they *actually* do.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

21. Yet my Dem congresscritter, Harry Mitchell, and his Tucson counterpart Gabby Giffords

Literally cannot make a speech anywhere without talking about the "need" for more H1B visas. They swear it's to address a "labor shortage" and no American jobs are being replaced. Yet, I keep reading stories like these and meeting people who tell me they had to train their H1B visa-holding replacement before they were laid off.

[OhioChick]

26. Thank goodness I have Dennis Kucinich....

"Against H1B program, wants to end it."

http://www.techcrunch.com/presidential/candidate.php?candidate=26

[oldskool]

24. He has a point

Although I don't agree with everything Lou says. He does
rattle the cages as should be. He isn't anti-immigrant, He's
anti-"ILLEGAL" immigrant. We have become a country
of consumption. NAFTA has taken a lot of good jobs and given
to other countries because of corporate greed even in US. When
I was a kid I was taught nothing is for free.I worked on
farms,pumped gas,etc... for minimum pay ,played outside even
at night catching lightning bugs,helped thy neighbor,and were
brought up to respect our elders, and do as you were told to.
I know everyone wants to give their children a better life.
But somewhere along the line we have lost our way trying to
have more than the other. I am as guilty as anyone else but
have worked for everything I have and had. I am in my mid
30's. So it wasn't that long ago.

[OhioChick]

25. A belated welcome to DU!

:hi:

[blue97keet]

28. This thread should be on the front page of DU

A company behaving in a disgusting manner like Nielsen AND having who knows what kind of power over the media since they control ratings. Shocking!

[OhioChick]

29. The article has since been updated and

recently posted in LBN.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3377450