The U.S. lost 5.6 million jobs to outsourcing in 2007 alone. Last week, SEIU President Andy Stern called on U.S. Chamber President Tom Donohue to explain why his organization supports outsourcing of American jobs.

"It's unconscionable that, at a time when most Americans are consumed with fear of losing their jobs, their healthcare and their homes, the nation's top advocate for corporate lobbyists is actively working to make those fears become reality," said Stern. "It sounds like a nightmare, but it's true: Tom Donohue and his lobbyist buddies are working overtime to kill legislation to help workers, like the Employee Free Choice Act, while trying to hide his support for sending their jobs overseas."

U.S. CHAMBER PRESIDENT TOM DONOHUE'S SHAMEFUL RECORD ON OUTSOURCING

U.S. Chamber President Defended Outsourcing of U.S. Jobs, Arguing That Americans Are "Short of Skills." Defending outsourcing in 2004, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said, "The big fundamental issue that we need to understand is we are short of skills in this country. Five years from now we'll have 10 million skilled jobs and we haven't got the people to fill." [CNNFN, 5/3/04]

U.S. Chamber President: "There Are Legitimate Values in Outsourcing." In 2004, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said, "there are legitimate values in outsourcing -- not only jobs, but work -- to gain technical experience and benefit we don't have here, to lower the price of products, which means more and more of them are brought into the United States, used, for example, I.T., much broader use than it was 10 years ago, create more and more jobs. But the bottom line is that we outsource very few jobs in relation to the size of our economy. We employ -- American companies employ 140 million Americans. They provide health care for 160 million Americans. They provide training in terms of 40 billion a year. The outsourcing deal over three or four or five years and the two or three sets of numbers are only going to be, you know, maybe two, maybe three million jobs, maybe four." [CNNFN, 2/10/04]

U.S. Chamber President Suggested More Jobs Were Brought In to the U.S. Than Outsourced to Other Countries. In 2004, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said, "nobody knows where Lou got 2.2 outsourced jobs. Maybe we've got 300,000 in the last couple of years. The most interesting thing is that if you take an annual basis, we insource in the very same categories of work $16 billion more than we outsourced, which is 2 million jobs." [CNNFN, 9/2/04]

In 2007 Alone, the U.S. Lost 5.6 Million jobs to Outsourcing. According to a study from the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. lost 5.6 million jobs as a result of the U.S. non-oil trade deficit in 2007 alone. 70% of these jobs were in the manufacturing sector. [EPI, 10/2/08]

The U.S. Chamber has led the fight against the Employee Free Choice Act, launching a deep-pocketed misinformation campaign. In 2008, the Chamber and other corporate lobbying groups spent $50 million opposing Employee Free Choice, while the anti-union front group, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, has committed $200 million overall to defeat the bill. Chamber Vice President Randel Johnson called the bill's passage "Armageddon."

In fact, according to a study by the Center for American Progress, the legislation that could pump as much as $49 billion annually into state and local economies at a time when they need it most. Forty of the nation's leading economists, including 4 Nobel laureates, have come out in favor of the legislation, arguing that it would help the economy.

Below is the text of a message we sent out today. Please take a moment to write Sen. Nelson and Sen. Martinez and tell them to listen to what Floridians need:

It could be worse. It's hard to imagine how things
could be worse these days: between unemployment, the financial crisis,
and the state of healthcare, it's no secret that Florida is hurting.



But if you can believe it, there's a group that continues to fight ways
to improve the lives of Floridians.  For years, the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce has done all it can to stop working people in Florida from
getting ahead.

Click here to write to Senator Nelson and Senator Martinez and tell them to listen to the needs of working people, not the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

For more than 18 months, SEIU Local 1000 has been suggesting alternatives to Schwarzenegger's draconian cuts--promoting budget-balancing proposals worth billions of dollars, including the elimination of costly private vendor contracts. Instead, Gov. Schwarzenegger has fought to reduce the budget deficit by laying off 5,000 state workers from agencies supported by the General Fund, along with a 5 percent across-the-board pay cut for state workers. "Why in a time of crisis, [...] wouldn't the governor and the Legislature cut wasteful spending first, especially when state workers can do the work for one-third or even one half less?" questioned Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker.

Finally...Schwarzenegger Agrees with SEIU: Use of Government Vendors needs Revamping
Yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order calling for all unfulfilled state department vendor contracts to be canceled through the end of the fiscal year, retroactive to March 1, and to cut outside contracts by 15 percent. Schwarzenegger's recognition of the vendor waste is just the tip of the iceberg. SEIU Local 1000 believes the California government is hiding $34.7 billion in some 13,600 vendor contracts.

Read the study prepared by SEIU Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state government workers, showing California's "hidden branch of government."

Thousands of school food service workers in New Jersey are living at or near poverty, according to a new report commissioned by SEIU Local 32BJ. The report found that the average hourly wage for food preparation workers in educational services was only $8.15, and revealed that many of these jobs pay no more than the NJ state minimum wage of $7.15.

The report, prepared by the Rutgers University Center for Women and Work/School of Management, ascertained that 64 percent of NJ K-12 school districts contract their food service to an outside company and that those private sector cafeteria jobs are largely part-time and typical offer with no affordable health benefits. As a result, most workers are uninsured or forced to turn to the state's public health insurance programs-- a result that contributes largely to the school food service industry acting as one of the biggest drains on New Jersey FamilyCare, as over 6,300 employees and their children covered by the taxpayer-funded state health assistance plan.

While the US taxpayer has been more than generous towards Bank of America, giving the bank up to $199.2 billion in federal assistance, CEO Ken Lewis hasn't exactly returned the favor.

The New York Post is now reporting that Bank of America has "expanded its India-based payroll to 5 percent of its 301,000 employees" this year - a total of around 15,000 people.

While expanding operations in India, Bank of America continues to lay off its American workers. Since 2004, the bank has cut over 34,000 American jobs, and recently announced plans to eliminate up to 35,000 additional jobs over the next three years. These cuts will amount to 12% of the company's workforce, and would be one of the largest rounds of layoffs in the history of the financial services industry.

"I feel bad about firing people, but at least I have the courage to do it." -Ken Lewis, Bank of America CEO