Wednesday, September 20, 2006

This will be my last one today...

Jordan Barab relates the tale of a North Carolina United Steel Workers union member whose bosses wanted to send something very important to India.

Not his job.

His gall bladder. To be operated on. It's apparently cheaper to do it there.

The union stepped in, and got management to back off. As Jordan notes, the guy was willing to go. What the hell choice did he have really? To say no would forever seal off any future coverage he could get through his employer. Might even result in his dismissal from his job.

It's the ultimate outsourcing, and it's sick.

1 comment:

Mark said...

I've heard of this new trend, but as I understand it, it's not a bad deal. They have high quality health care in India, but it's far cheaper. It is cheaper for employers, but alot of times they share these savings with the employee. (they get $, first class ticket, etc.) Calling it the ultimate outsourcing doesn't make sense to me. We're not sending his job overseas, we're purchasing a service/product from a foreign company. I would say it's similar to switching from Chevy to Honda. (yes I know that Honda has local plants but alot of your money goes to Japan) I'm not opposed to purchasing services abroad.