A Vote for Miller is a Vote for Allen...

I'm alternately, amused, amazed and frustrated by people who either will not acknowledge or fail to understand that on issues of offshore outsourcing, worker replacement, economic fairness and Iraq war policy (to name but a few), Harris Miller and George Allen are indistinguishable -- regardless of Harris Miller's ever changing positions. The fact that Miller is an anti-American worker lobbyist with a record of anti-union activity isn't lost on Allen's campaign. Allen's supporters are savoring the thought of a Miller-Allen match-up.

Negativity? Oh, really...

I am very, very skeptical of reports which paint Jim Webb or his supporters in a negative light.

Harris Miller and his campaign team have proven time after time that they are adept at using proxies to slime Jim Webb and his campaign.

First, Miller hid behind Claudia Kennedy to allege some sort of sexism during his tenure as Navy Secretary about 20 years ago.

Next, Miller gathered together some African-American elected officials, who, offered up quotes out of context by the Miller campaign spoke of their concern re. Jim Webb's views on affirmative action.

Then, of course, Harris Miller has traversed Virginia claiming that Jim Webb is a Republican -- an outright LIE.

The entire thrust of the Miller campaign has been to obfuscate and evade direct questions re. Miller's recent and long-time activities as a pro-offshore outsourcing/anti-union business lobbyist. While these charges have often been made with considerable emotion and anger, the simple fact is that they have NOT been answered by Harris Miller or his campaign.

Now, as one of the originators of the "Harris Miller, Job Killer" slogan on my site, The Modern Patriot, I would like to hear Miller answer the charges and explain his more than 10 year career of helping corporations to offshore outsource American call-center, high tech and white collar backoffice jobs.

I would like to hear Miller respond to the charges that offshore outsourcing is based on lies that he helped perpetuate of some broad economic benefit of job outsouring to the American middle class.

I would like to hear Harris Miller respond to the charges that the "business visa" programs he has long championed are based on mythical/false "labor shortages" designed to allow in foreign replacement workers and to facilitate offshore outsourcing.

Of course, so long as the topic of blog discussion is fixated on allegations that Webb's supporters are engaging in "negativity", the Miller camp is not being grilled on the issues I've outlined.

It is clearly advantageous for the Miller campaign to encourage a campaign of disinformation that Jim Webb is "negative" because it takes attention away from the many misrepresentations made by Miller, his staff and his supporters.

Harris Miller can only win Democratic votes if the focus is shifted away from Miller's long-standing record of supporting anti-union and anti-American worker policies and legislation.

When Miller and his supporters successfully deflect honest criticism and evade tough questions with the charge of "negativity", they have succeeded in avoiding open and honest public debate. Those of us who desire real debate on substantive issues want to hear Miller defend his record.

Why is Harris Miller running away from his anti-worker/pro-offshore outsourcing record and attempting to recast himself as a "Technology Leader"? Why won't Miller answer the charge that he is deeply involved in supporting corporate worker replacement efforts? What does Harris Miller fear? What is Harris Miller hiding? Dodging these questions and hiding behind the claim that such questions are "negative" is a transparent attempt to evade and avoid critical substantive issues of importance to Democratic voters.

Harris Miller's Training, Re-training and Education Lies

Unable to view the video of the recent Webb-Miller debate, I cannot comment accurately on all that was actually said by Harris Miller and Jim Webb.

However, I’ve read that Miller has repeatedly emphasised the need for better education and training as if there is a widespread deficiency in American workers or a true “labor shortage”. Previously, Miller has gone so far as to claim that this is the cause of offshore outsourcing and widening use of skilled/highly educated NIV workers. I hope that the Webb campaign and Webb supporters jump on this claim hard. It is absolutely untrue.

In fact, we find that American students are avoiding fields considered “high tech” for fear of offshore outsourcing job loss – declining job opportunities. We find American workers leaving IT when possible because of offshore outsourcing and use of imported replacement workers. We find cases of underemployed and uncounted unemployed IT workers. Harris Miller should be held to account for this.

We now see that widening categories of white collar work are targeted for offshore outsourcing and NIV worker replacement using the model implemented by Miller’s ITAA corporate friends. The idea that training, retraining and education is the “solution” to the “cut throat” economic disaster unleashed on American middle class workers is absurd – a grotesque and despicable lie.

The reason why Harris Miller has occassionally been characterised as the “anti-christ” by IT workers is because he has been the “point man” for corporations anxious to use any means available to axe their more costly American workforce and replace them with cheap labor from nations such as China and India. Lies, distortions, phony "studies" and massive lobbying efforts aimed at politicians and the media have all been part of Miller's amazing bag of tricks in his long tenure as a hired gun for the pro-outsourcing "tech lobby".

It's tremendously hypocritical for the man so greatly responsible for the declining American middle class "information age" jobs to now spin lies about solving the problems he has done so much to create. Harris Miller is incredible; he is beyond belief.

Jim Webb criticises job losses, CEO pay, treatment of workers

Blogging today on the Daily Kos, Jim Webb offered the following comments which should reasonate with many of us looking for real change in the Senate.

I believe that the internationalization of our economy, plus out-sourcing, has caused a situation where the health of the financial sector no longer is an indication of the health of the economy. Along with this, such things as Corporate CEO compensation packages are totally out of control, and often are based on how badly the average worker has been ripped off.

I saw a set of charts about a week ago which show a startling reality. The first chart showed "after-tax corporate profits" as a percentage of our GDP, which are at an all-time historic high. The second showed wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP, which are at an all-time low. And in the middle, as we all know, are the good jobs that have gone overseas.

We must try to correct this very dangerous bifurcation in our society.

A new Harris Miller blog site

Harris Miller continues to inspire opposition and criticism... A new blog site entitled Harris Miller is Not a True Democrat has just appeared. The blogmeister seems to be a rather determined individual. Early this morning (according to the timestamps), "ShillerMiller" posted 10 reasons why he or she believes Harris Miller is not a true Democrat.

Harris Miller thinks Wage Compression is good

Harris Miller thinks "wage compression" is good for everyone except corporate bosses. Harris Miller's CEO friends are getting richer while they replace American workers with low wage foreign replacements. Harris Miller supports offshore outsourcing because he and his CEO buddies are getting rich at the expense of American workers and American society. Harris Miller doesn't sound much like a Democrat does he?

CWA union exposes Harris Miller

The Communications Workers of America (CWA), "WashTech" union is asking some hard questions about Harris Miller in an email. Here's what WashTech said:

Is Harris Miller who you want for your US Senator?

Consider his stand on the following issues:

EXPORTING U.S. JOBS - His organization, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), has been one of the loudest cheerleaders in support of the offshore outsourcing of American jobs.

LABOR LAW - The ITAA has supported business led efforts to eliminate overtime protections for U.S. workers.

GUEST WORKERS - The ITAA is the lead lobby urging Congress to allow in hundreds of thousands professional guest worker under the H-1B visa program that allow foreign workers to come in a take American jobs from highly skilled workers here in the U.S.

PRIVITIZATION - Under Miller, the ITAA has opposed efforts by labor?s congressional allies to prevent the privatization of federal jobs.

STATE FUNDING OF VITAL SERVICES - ITAA supports making permanent the temporary congressional ban prohibiting the states from applying state sales taxes to commodity sales over the internet.

For more, see the attached document, prepared by the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO. Also, see the Washington Post article from April 14th, "Labor Labels Senate Hopeful 'Anti-Worker'"

Get a Job...

It seems that my continued criticism of Harris Miller the longtime head of the pro-offshore outsourcing and anti-American worker ITAA business lobby has irritated at least one individual. (I'm sure that there are others but that's the nature of politics and free speech.)

I was tremendously amused upon receipt of an email entitled, "Please quit bitching and get a job". Whatever hopes I had that the email would include something more than the usual pro-outsourcing whine quickly disappeared upon reading the following:

If you keep blmaing Miller for your problems you are not going anywhere. Why do we want inexperienced unqualified workers in positions here in this country.

I think that regular readers of my postings here on The Modern Patriot and at other blogs will readily understand that I am indeed "going somewhere". I am attacking Harris Miller's pretensions that he is a real democrat. I am pointing out that Harris Miller is, in fact, very much like the most extreme Republican proponents of offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs. And, I have provided evidence that Harris Miller has taken positions at odds with the best interests of middle class American white collar workers (union and non-union).

Now, it's true that if I spent more of my time related to paying business projects, I could increase my personal income but this would, of course, reduce the amount of time I spent discussing Harris Miller's involvement with the offshore outsourcing and "insourcing" replacement of American workers. I'm quite pleased with the present arrangement and intend to continue discussing Mr. Miller's past in excruciating detail.

I'm not quite certain what my irate critic meant about "want[ing] unqualified workers in positions here in this country." I would guess that he/she is arguing the Miller lie that American business faces "desperate shortages" of "skilled labor" which can only be alleviated by the entrance of additional (low wage) foreign workers. Even a cursory reading of my postings should indicate that such a position is completely at odds with the view I present of a business sector pre-occupied with labor arbitrage -- American worker replacement programs. I believe that the wider facts support my view.

Harris Miller and the American job loss nightmare

Harris Miller has long been considered the "point man" for offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs by many of us in the anti-outsourcing movement.

More than just a mere "player" in the insider business lobbyist-political nexus, Miller has been one of the most influencial lobbyists for moving American white collar jobs offshore. While Miller's organization, the ITAA, is indeed a "tech lobby" the processes and excuses championed by Miller and used to move information technology jobs offshore or import low wage foreign workers are "dual use".

The effect is that largely through the efforts of Harris Miller, ALL American white collar jobs well beyond the information technology companies are under threat of moving offshore or being filled by imported low wage labor. The H-1b and L-1 visas which Miller and the ITAA have long supported are being used now to fill many more than just IT jobs.

For example, teaching positions in the U.S. public schools are now being filled with foreign nationals on H-1b visa. They are hired in preference to Americans. This is also true of health care jobs. I've even encountered H-1b workers employed as journalists in the U.S. by American newspapers where, in two instances I know of, these foreign workers actually misreported the nature of the H-1b program claiming that "American workers could not be replaced by an H-1b".

We know now that the offshore outsourcing of American engineering, technical, scientific and professional jobs could not be successfully accomplished if American employers were unable to bring in foreign workers and force their American employees to perform "knowledge tranfers". This is why the H-1b and L-1 non-immigrant visa programs are critical and why the ITAA, the business lobby and Harris Miller have fought H-1b reform attempts for years. They know that they can't offshore American jobs and replace Americans unless they can force Americans to train their replacements.

This scenario is now playing out in areas beyond IT. Automotive and industrial engineering work, architecture, accounting, stock market analysis, journalism, biotechnology, pharmaceutical research, and many, many other areas of work are now offshore, going offshore or being filled in the U.S. with imported replacement workers instead of Americans. The companies doing this are using the methodology implemented by Harris Miller's friends in the ITPAA lobby member companies.

The short of it is that Harris Miller is not merely accountable for the loss of thousands of thousands or tens of thousands of American jobs. Harris Miller and the ITAA are part of an offshore outsourcing and worker replacement paradigm which will eliminate MILLIONS of American jobs.

The loss of the white collar jobs to foreign replacement workers represents the bitter end of the free trade/offshore outsourcing lies which began in the early 1990s with NAFTA and GATT. Many Americans were lulled into a sense of complacency over the impending loss of millions of middle class blue collar industrial/manufacturing jobs. Business leaders, lobbyists, politicians and alleged "experts" in academia and journalism assured us that we were in the "post0industrial" era and that the knowledge age jobs of the "information age" would be better and more than replace the disappearing middle class industrial jobs.

Well, it's now 2006 and the industrial jobs are mostly gone offshore. And, now the final assault of the offshore outsourcing lobby is being made on the white collar workforce. It's clear that knowledge, skills and training are no protection for American workers. (Yes, white collar professionals are "workers" or "labor" in the minds of corporate leaders and Wall Street investors.) We can see that more than the mere low-level white collar jobs are moving offshore. Business journals, newspapers and Congressional hearings all give evidence that the leading edge information age jobs are going offshore or being created offshore by "American corporations" in preference to being created in the U.S. The cutting edge research and development work -- the innovation work is all going offshore or being filled with foreign workers in the U.S.

In the end, most of the American industrial middle class jobs will be largely offshore as well as most of the "white collar" professional, technical and scientific jobs. Of the remaining white collar jobs still in the U.S., corporations and government entities are using imported foreign workers. We don't know the exact numbers because the government does not make these figures available to us.

Offshore outsourcing and worker replacement programs championed by people like Harris Miller represent a form of class warfare waged against middle and working class Americans. The assault on the American middle and working class is without historic precedent. The very idea of a wide American middle class society is now not only under threat but facing destruction. The evidence is around us even if the apologists for these trends deny the danger we face or their complicity in these events.