[biztech-discussion] Report on NWU Meeting with WashTech
- From: Al Weinrub <Allen.Weinrub@xxxxxxx>
- To: biztech-discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 22:20:41 -0700
Folks,
This is a brief, somewhat belated report on our meeting with WashTech a
few weeks ago. Check it out.
Al Weinrub
Kenya Briggs (NWU staffperson)
PS: If you want to reach Kenya, it is best to call her on Tuesdays and
Fridays at 510-839-6092 or by emailing her directly at <hotline@xxxxxxx>.
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Summary of Kenya and Al's meeting with WashTech
On June 30th Al Weinrub and Kenya Briggs met with the leadership of
WashTech in Seattle as part of NWU's efforts to forge alliances with
other groups opposing the offshoring of hi-tech and professional jobs.
WashTech is one of the first labor groups to begin organizing hi-tech
workers and pressuring lawmakers on the issue of the offshoring of white
collar jobs. WashTech is affiliated with the Communications Workers of
America (CWA), and has about 450 dues-paying members (half in the state
of Washington) and a national subscriber email list of 17,000. Check out
their website at www.washtech.org.
An immediate bonus of this meeting was the chance to talk in-person with
NWU offshoring campaign participant Roberta Wilson, who attended the
meeting in her capacity as a WashTech officer and Planning Counsel member.
The meeting agenda included an overview of WashTech's role in advancing
the issue of hi-tech offshoring within CWA, the AFL-CIO, and the labor
movement, as well as a presentation of the proposed NWU Offshoring
Campaign and a discussion of opportunities for collaboration between our
two organizations.
The meeting was very productive. WashTech and the NWU agreed to find
ways to develop and swap content and to coordinate action alerts among
our memberships. WashTech was interested in our Offshoring Campaign
plan and in using our background papers on privacy, government support
of offshoring, and "Frequently Stated Misconceptions." WashTech has
amassed a very impressive body of research on the impact of offshoring
on hi-tech workers and pending offshoring-related legislation and has
offered to share this valuable information with our campaign. There was
a general consensus that we should try to work together on lobbying and
other anti-offshoring activities.
WashTech shared a lot of excellent information with us at the meeting,
including the following resources and happenings:
- A major WashTech report on the "state of states" and their offshoring
activities, including a state-by-state list of approved vendors who
offshore work. This report will be released on July 16, and is
scheduled to coincide with the National Governor's Association
Convention and the State Legislature Conference (see Note below).
- A WashTech-commissioned analysis of hi-tech centers to see how the job
market has been effected by the dot-com crash.
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi's "American Jobs Plan Roadshow," scheduled for
mid-August.
We would like to thank the WashTech leadership for meeting with us. We
look forward to working with WashTech to build opposition to the
offshoring trend and its effects on our combined memberships and
constituencies.
-----------------------
Note: The report on state offshoring was noted on this discussion list
by Mike Bradley a little over a week ago. WashTech has launched a
letter-writing campaign targeted to state governors at the following
URL: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/stateoffshoring. Add your voice.
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