Workers to Stage Labor Day Protest at Site of Worker's Suicide

In a Labor Day action to searchlight worker replacement practices contributing to the suicide of Bank of America technology worker Kevin Flanagan, members of a coalition of technology organizations will picket at the site of Kevins death; the Bank of America Concord Technology Center in Concord, CA on Monday, September 1 from 9 a.m. to noon.

(PRWEB) August 25, 2003 -- FROM: Lee Perry (925) 947-6671 llperry@earthlink.net collaborating with Hire American Citizens, No More H-1B, National Association for the Employment of Americans, The Organization for Rights of American Workers, and The Programmer's Guild

TO: News Editors, Assignment Editors, Labor Writers, Financial Page Editors

SUBJECT: Workers to Stage Labor Day Protest at Site of Worker's Suicide

In a Labor Day action to searchlight worker replacement practices contributing to the suicide of Bank of America technology worker Kevin Flanagan, members of a coalition of technology organizations will picket at the site of Kevins death; the Bank of America Concord Technology Center in Concord, CA on Monday, September 1 from 9 a.m. to noon.

The picketers represent hundreds of thousands of technology service sector workers laid off and replaced by imported workers through the H-1B and L1 nonimmigrant visa program and offshore outsourcing. The group considers the huge multi-national to be a major offender.

Flanagan Took Own Life After Firing

"The pressure to reduce workers' wages and rights due to government subsidized labor creates terrible desperation in the work force," said protest organizer Lee Perry, "expressed to its ultimate degree by Kevin Flanagan, who took his own life earlier this year after training H-1B replacements for his work group and then getting a pink slip.

"The 'Great American Job Giveaway' is one of the main reasons for the record income tax shortfalls, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and continuing recession," Perry stated. "It is destroying the US technology sector and creating national security issues.

"We must educate the public on the impact of these practices. Labor Day, celebrating the contribution of working people, particularly the immigrants who adopted the American dream, is the right time to do it."

Statistics Show Outsourcing a National Emergency

There are over 1 million American IT workers on the street looking for work or underemployed; meanwhile there are over 1.5 million foreign H-1B and L-1 IT workers in the U.S. H-1B and L-1 visa holders are temporary non-immigrant foreign workers working in the U.S. Last year, 9 out of 10 American IT jobs went to H-1B and L-1 workers. In the next 18 months, 1 out of 10 American technology jobs will be moved offshore. Off-shoring is a combination of H-1B and L-1 workers here and / or foreign workers abroad. The H-1B and L-1 visa holders are trained by Americans and replace them on the job when the Americans are laid off. The Indian off-shoring firms have stated publicly that off-shoring depends crucially on H-1B and L-1 visas. These jobs will never come back. We must act now to save the future of American technology jobs.

"When manufacturing jobs were sold abroad we were told Information Technology service jobs would replace them. Now that the IT jobs are on the auction block, it is spreading to other services such as teaching, nursing, radiology, accounting, law, architecture and the service jobs that account for 75% of our income tax revenue", Perry continued. "If we don't stop this unlimited labor importation and the outflow of jobs from outsourcing, our children will be forced to compete for their jobs against a third world used to a lower standard of living. Congress, the Courts, and the White House are selling our future by supplying cheap labor to the multinational corporations who are their major campaign contributors. If the corporatists succeed in bringing the American economy down to the level of Asia, our sovereignty as a nation may be but a dim memory. We encourage everyone to join us to send the message to Washington that this must stop now."
                                                        
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(For anyone planning to attend the protest, please contact llperry@earthlink.net, or call (925) 947-6671. Participants will meet at the corner of Grant Street and Concord Blvd. in Concord, CA at 9:00 a.m. The organizers will be available there at 8:00 a.m. For additional information contact Pete Bennett, (925) 855-1241.)

The protest is being sponsored by a coalition of organizations including: Hire American Citizens (http://www.hireamericancitizens.org), No More H-1B (http://www.Nomoreh1b.com), National Association for the Employment of Americans (http://www.naea.us), The Organization for Rights of American Workers (http://www.toraw.org), and The Programmer's Guild (http://www.programmersguild.org), all of which, and more, may be found on www.American-Champions.org (http://www.American-Champions.org) .