High-tech employees who once shunned unions while they earned top salaries are turning to organized labor in an effort to keep their jobs from being taken by foreign workers, according to union recruiters.
Corporations say they save money by sending the jobs to less-expensive countries, like India, or bringing in foreign engineers who work for half the salary of their American counterparts. Meanwhile, their U.S. employees feel betrayed but powerless to stop the economic trend.
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During the strike by the Communications Workers' 102,000 members, thousands of picketers throughout the country hoisted anti-offshoring signs saying "SBC Unpatriotic" and "Keep Jobs in America."
Recruiting high-tech workers into unions would be welcome relief for organized labor. Fewer than 10 percent of the nation's private-sector workers now are unionized, down from a peak of 37 percent in 1960, according to federal statistics.
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20040609-093622-1358r.htm