"Information technology workers displaced in Canada are being replaced not by cheap Indian workers but by better ones."So says CBC's Amanda Lang, senior business correspondent for CBC News and good cop to Kevin O'Leary's bad cop on the Lang and O'Leary Exchange, in yesterday's Globe and Mail.
She wonders if Canadians have returned to 1990 or perhaps to "campaign trail rhetoric in America" - so aghast is she that people are angry about the Royal Bank in-and-outsourcing of Canadian jobs to iGATE in India.
In her rousing paeon to globalization and "the natural forces of capitalism", she explains :
"a job moved from Canada to India creates a new kind of prosperity. It creates a job in a country we sell goods and services to, increasing the opportunity for our businesses to flourish even more."If you have $699.00 you can hear more of Amanda's thoughts when she gives the keynote address on April 23 at CORE-Outsourcing's 8th Annual Conference : Fast Forward - What's Next for Outsourcing? sponsored by IBM, HP, and iGATE :
"CORE's mandate is to help member organizations maximize the value of outsourcing by providing independent and unbiased information ... "
Also presenting will be
C.J. Ritchie, Asst Deputy Minister, Strategic Partnerships Office, Government of British Columbia, providing "leadership to BC’s $5.8-billion portfolio of outsourcing contracts".
A list of CORE's extensive corp members here,
In May, CORE is running a course focusing on "the transition from insourced service delivery to outsourced service delivery and through to steady-state operations".
About that...
Walkom : Former outsourcer describes how job destruction works.
Informative interview with a 10 year veteran of doing it in Canada.
But here's what I don't get, Amanda. If you bring in foreign workers in order to save money and drive down wages in Canada by paying those indentured foreign workers 15% less in a market that just lost 54,500 jobs last month, who is going to be able to to afford to buy the stuff and pay for the services you sent offshore?
And who is going to look into fixing this for us? The same guy who set it up for us.
Boycott the Royal Bank of Canada - Part 1.
Boycott the Royal Bank - Part 2
Boycott the Royal Bank - Part 3
Sunday update : Great post from Laura K @ wmtc on related issues :
Unpaid labour used to be called slavery. Now it's an internship
.
Wednesday update : CORE-outsourcing/Amanda Lang/ iGATE - on the milk carton
.
Thursday update :
Saskboy said : Ombudsman tweeted me that Lang is off the CORE event.
May 3, 2013 CBC Ombudsman
March 5, 2014 CBC issues no foul no harm report :
Conflict of Interest and CBC News coverage of RBC and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
.
34 comments:
I bet she'd change her tune when she gets replaced by a "better" business journalist - you know one that actually has a business education or substantial experience in running one and not just being a cheerleader on the sidelines.
RBC Financial Group is on the list.
Thanks! Corrected.
Thanks for following this issue so closely, Alison. The fact that Amanda lang is staunchly defending the bleeding off of Canadian jobs does not really surprise me, nor does it surprise me that hers is a voice given prominence on the CBC, which has capitulated to the forces of the right in a misbegotten effort at appeasement - all of course, under the rubric of 'balanced reporting.'
According to this, Lang gets as much as $20,000 for a speaking engagement so I would assume she's being paid for this one. I wonder how a senior business correspondent -- a journalist -- can do her job properly when she's being paid by the people she's supposed to report on. A question for the CBC, perhaps?
sponsored by IBM, HP, and iGATE
BURN ms. lang!
Excellent job once again, Alison. Glad to see you're not giving up even after RBC's "apology."
Notice how quiet stevie's been on this topic. Can't quite figure out how to spin it so he comes out looking like the Good Guy in the sweater vest, no doubt . . . .
"Information technology workers displaced in Canada are being replaced not by cheap Indian workers but by better ones."
She said that? That we're being replaced by people who are better at doing our jobs than we are? Why are we training two of them to do each of our jobs then?
Big surprise. The talentless corporate shill squawks that outsourcing is awesome.
What a dip-shit.
Step 1. Destroy a $50,000 a year job in Canada.
Step 2. Create a $15,000 a year job in India.
Step 3. Magic! Poof! Abracadabra! The Canadian economy benefits more from exporting a tiny bit more to India (allegedly) than it suffers from putting someone on unemployment in Canada.
WV = "asswould" as in "My ass would come up with a better argument than that!"
RBC is a drop in the ocean. Who is the enabler? Who has permitted China to set up shop on our Canadian soil, at the tar sands. China is permitted to bring over their, $800 per month resource workers. All the company's up there, want the cheap foreign labor.
Harper's Omnibus Bill gives China, the right to sue any Canadians, blocking China's invasion into Canada. China sued in BC, to take the BC mining jobs. 300 BC miners applied for the 200 mine jobs, Harper gave China. Rumor has it, there are 2000 Chinese miners on their way.
There are nine mines and mine expansions, going into Northern BC. Wonder who, Harper will give those jobs to?
Harper is bringing China, into the rich resources of, the High Arctic. Just who, will be given those jobs?
"who is going to be able to to afford to buy the stuff and pay for the services you sent offshore?"
My cynical bet is these people think that in the long term wealthy will rise so much in India (or other BRICs) that the wealthy in those countries will be the new market for outsourced services before wages drop so far here that we outcompete with them.
There's nothing 'Canadian' about Lang, RBC or any of these people and businesses, they've no affiliation with any particular place, their entire 'ethical' framework is government by where the most profitable ventures are, anywhere in the world. Transnational capital citizens. Lang will get a Senate appointment for her shilling.
CBC report today: Offshore outsourcing 'not always a negative thing': Returned profit can also lead to more Canadian jobs, entrepreneurs say
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2013/04/12/f-case-for-offshore-outsourcing.html
The top commenters don't seem to buy it.
I've noticed huge numbers of commenter votes on CBC stories ever since Idle No More was in the news. Interesting phenom.
One can argue that Amanda comes from priviledge, therefore she might be oblivious to issues affecting ordinary Canadians. She is also affected by CBC's right-wing shift to maintain federal government funding along with the osmosis created by having to contend with Mr. Evil himself, Kevin O'Leary.
O'Leary states that everyone can become extremely wealthy, if only they adhere to his mantra. Of course, if everyone is wealthy and we all share the resoucrces, which means O'Leary and his ilk will have to forgo some of their ill-gotten gains.
For a considerable period of time, CBC tried to provide a balance of view points. This is now long gone.
For example, on Thursday L & O had a panel to discuss the RBC debacle with Armine Yalnizyan from CCPA on the left, Goldie Hayer (sic), Robson from CD Howe, and O'Leary on the right. When Yallnizyan started to express her opinion Lang shouted her down. This political imbalance continues unabated. Private media only provides right-leaning perspectives and CBC is shifting further down that path.
"BC’s $5.8-billion portfolio of outsourcing contracts"
When the fuck did that happen?
I don't believe there is any excuse for what has happened to the CBC...it isn't just Amanda Lang although her billing as the senior business corrsepondence is tellingly ironic given her background in architecture; her privileged position (Otto Lang's daughter) and her obvious lack of understanding of the issues she talks about...Mansbridge has become a caricature and the National is, most days, little better than an ad reel for other CBC shows...
How she can call herself a journalist when discussing this story on the CBC and still accept cash as a keynote speaker from the group behind the foreign worker incident is incredible: I believe she is in a clear conflict of interest and she should recuse herself from any further comments as a CBC 'journalist' ...
Thanks so much for this Alison...RBC and its phony apology notwithstanding.
Alison, the following presentation reafirms the position our societies are in RIGHT NOW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0
Holly Stick : Thanks for your CBC link : Offshore outsourcing 'not always a negative thing'.
I'm sure it is sometimes even a necessary thing but that isn't what's going on here, is it?
The tone and majority of the quotes in the article come from, according to CBC : "Ron Babin, a professor of business at Ryerson University and the Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto."
Not mentioned is that Babin is an ex-partner at outsource corps Accenture and KPMG and is on CORE's board of directors.
A presentation he did for CORE in 2010 includes “What is bad for the economy may be good for outsourcing”, noting that the 2001 recession was followed by a 24% spike in outsourcing.
Anon : Thanks for great vid from David Harvey : Crises of Capitalism. I posted it up at Dawg's once; time to post it here again.
James : Don't watch TV so can't speak to the decline in CBC TV's coverage. Often exasperated by CBC radio's choice of topics - royals! again! - but they do great reporting and interviews sometimes. Owned Penashue, for instance.
To be fair to Lang - about whom I know nothing - we don't know what she intends to say in her keynote or do with her fee if she even gets one. Her G&M article doesn't make one hopeful though.
Developing, as they say.
Hey remember when it was ok if our manufacturing industries got outsourced because we were all going to be shifting over to IT jobs instead?
... good times, good times.
In following stories that illustrate the hollowing out of the economy, I do notice that these are often shown in a low key tone, no tough questions get asked and we move on to the next story as business as usual. I find it simply shocking that not a single member of parliament has tabled anything that would resemble a national manufacturing strategy or more simply put, how do we preserve the jobs we already have? The single biggest factor is that the Con PR machine has been able to make the "jobs and economy" lie stick to harper and he has been absolutely brilliant at deflecting criticism. The real story behind it though is maximizing profit for the well connected oil and gas barons and has nothing to do with prosperity of the middle class. Unfortunately, the PR machines of our opposition parties have been abysmal failures in bringing out the truth.
Who has sent a note to the CBC ombudsman with a link to this blog post?
http://www.cbc.ca/ombudsman/contact.html
Don't expect the Federal Government to do anything. There are Federal Finacial crowns that do this as well.
Well I guess that would've been you, Saskboy, given the twenty odd times CBC had a look-in here yesterday. ;-)
I find it simply shocking that not a single member of parliament has tabled anything that would resemble a national manufacturing strategy or more simply put, how do we preserve the jobs we already have?
Well put, bcwaterboy.
btw The CORE-outsourcing page for their conference has gone awol. See update.
Obmudsman tweeted me that Lang is off the CORE event.
Thanks, Saskboy - added to both posts with link to your tweet.
And thanks for kicking up a fuss!
Congrats, you appeared in CanadaLand.
Hi Alison, Holly Stick here
This post by you has been cited here:
http://canadalandshow.com/article/amanda-lang-tried-sabotage-cbc-story-scandalized-rbc-who-paid-her
Just in case you haven't been following Canadaland...
Interesting that it was the G&M which ran this piece by Lang defending the Royal Bank.
A week ago, John Stackhouse - editor-in-chief at the G&M for the past five years - took a job at the Royal Bank as the bank’s senior vice-president, office of the CEO.
Saskboy and HollyStick : Thanks for letting me know - hadn't seen it yet. Wow, that's quite the story.
An interesting thing about this old post written some 21 months ago - not a day has gone by since that at least one or two people from the media bigs - and also from the government - drops in to take a look at it.
Anon@2:59 : Huh. Developing, as they say.
Holly Stick: Well, it's getting tweeted some today. :)
"
If not, were any efforts made within the CBC by Lang or others to notify you of any of these potentials for conflict of interest?
No. The first anyone heard of it was when a blogger posted information about the upcoming speaking engagement sponsored by iGate.
"
http://canadalandshow.com/article/cbcs-kathy-tomlinson-speaks-record-about-amanda-lang
Canadaland: When you were on the conference call with Lang, were you aware of Lang's speaking engagement with iGate, Lang's speaking engagements at RBC-sponsored events, Lang's relationship with RBC Board Member Geoff Beattie or Gord Nixon's endorsement of the book Lang was promoting at the time?
Kathy Tomlinson: No. As far as I know, no one on the call was aware of any of that. It wasn't brought up.
Canadaland: If not, were any efforts made within the CBC by Lang or others to notify you of any of these potentials for conflict of interest?
Kathy Tomlinson: No. The first anyone heard of it was when a blogger posted information about the upcoming speaking engagement sponsored by iGate.
Yet Lang told The Star that she'd already cancelled her CORE outsourcing gig by the time Tomlinson heard about it:
"Lang said Tomlinson became aware of the speaking engagement after Lang had already cancelled. ... A note from CBC editor-in-chief McGuire on the CBC ombudsman’s website says that “once the story involving RBC Financial Group, a member of CORE, and iGate, one of the sponsors of the conference, was prominent news (Lang) withdrew from the event.”
Hmmm...
Thanks, Saskboy! And for your own actions on this info. I never asked you - was it you who notified the CBC Ombudsman as you suggested above?
Anon@1:01 : “once the story involving RBC Financial Group, a member of CORE, and iGate, one of the sponsors of the conference, was prominent news (Lang) withdrew from the event.”
Prominent news? That's a laugh. One blogpost from one blogger 21 months ago that was picked up by exactly zero pro media!
"Lang told The Star that she'd already cancelled her CORE outsourcing gig by the time Tomlinson heard about it"
That's possible, actually. The CORE page promoting Lang and all the wonderful benefits of outsourcing went down within two days of my posting about it, never to return.
Now, you're in the Guardian!
It seems my tweet did help alert the CBC Ombudsman to your blog post.
Holly Stick here:
Monbiot includes his references for the article on his own website:
http://www.monbiot.com/2015/01/20/messenger-of-the-gods/
Post a Comment