The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Ex-Prez of ATA Donohue Endorses Outsourcing

I know this doesn’t directly affect trucking, but I thought it was a typical comment from a past president of the “American” Trucking Association. The ATA has never claimed to be a voice for the driver (OOIDA is our only political voice), just the voice for the industry. I’ve heard this argument before. Outsourcing is good for America. It’s good for American companies, which means it’s good for CEO’s and shareholders, not for the workers.

Yahoo! News - Donohue Endorses Outsourcing of Jobs

Donohue, 66, past president of the American Trucking Associations and regional assistant postmaster general in San Francisco and New York, likes to say that “business should stop apologizing” for perceived abuses.
Donohue, speaking Wednesday night to the Commonwealth Club of California, said he believes exporting high-paid tech jobs to low-cost countries such as India, China and Russia saves companies money that they may use to create new jobs for Americans.

What new jobs?

In early June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics downwardly revised projections for white-collar job growth for 2002-2012, based on accelerated job migration. The agency reported that seven of the 10 occupations expected to gain the most ground are low-wage occupations that do not require a college degree.

The jobs that Americans don’t want and are used for the excuse for the legalization of illegal immigrants. The people that will do the jobs that Americans don’t want to do. Then what’s left for the unemployed, college educated, white collar worker to do?

Donohue acknowledged the pain for people who have lost jobs to offshoring — an estimated 250,000 a year, according to government estimates. But pockets of unemployment shouldn’t lead to “anecdotal politics and policies,” he said, and people affected by offshoring should “stop whining.”

“One job sent overseas, if it happens to be my job, is one too many,” Donohue said. “But the benefits of offshoring jobs outweighs the cost.”

I’m sure that makes everyone feel better. Their unemployment is for the good of the country!

But some experts are urging politicians and lobbyists to move away from rhetoric and start talking about what to do with jobless white-collar workers in tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, Boston, Seattle and Austin, Texas.

“Endlessly debating whether offshoring is good or bad is pointless — like debating whether you’ve had a good trip on the Titanic while the iceberg comes into view,” Forrester Research Inc. analyst John McCarthy said Wednesday. “The jobs go offshore today and the economic benefits don’t come around for years. For the unemployed guy to accept business leaders’ position is like believing Dick Nixon saying, `Trust me, I’ll take care of it all. Things will be fine.’”

This talks about white collar computer jobs, but this is the same mind set everywhere, including trucking. If trucking can import cheaper drivers through H1b programs and visas inorder to fill the jobs that, “Americans don’t want to do”, they will.

This article also lists several companies and their numbers and plans for overseas.