Offshoring 29 November 2004 Testimony of Shiwaz

Example One

The company that employed me, a multinational oil company, had about seventy IT specialists in its information systems department in France as of 1 December 2003 and will have only 6 left as of 1 December 2004.

The difference (-64) does not reflect a plane crash, but the fact that the Indian governor of Andhra Pradesh convinced (easily) the North American entrepreneurs that their IT would cost them five times less in India than in the various developed countries where they are accustomed to doing business, and that this more than compensated for the inevitable problems that must be expected from such a different organization.
The shareholders will be able to rub their hands, in theory at least, because I fear that the dividends of the operation will in fact end up in the personal accounts of the company's decision-makers rather than in their dividends; they have not yet measured the degree of corruption of the men to whom they have granted their trust. This is not idle slander: the former boss-founder of a company (a telecommunications operator) for whom I also worked had pocketed at least $800 M from his own company's coffers for his fake expenses, which is why he is today being prosecuted by American justice, also for a few forgeries and accounting cover-ups, trifles that these are. And he must not be the worst member of his club (he was ranked seventh among the bold businessmen of the USA by a major economic magazine, three places ahead of Bill Gates, which is quite something for a former gym teacher from a small Canadian school).

And the unions? Their coffers are filled by the boss through the Works Council; they would be very ungrateful to voice even a shadow of protest that could pass for indiscipline. In any case, the union representatives in France are protected workers; they are safe from unfair dismissals, the Labour Inspectorate sees to that, and to think that some people complain.

Example Two

A friend of my parents had taken over the small saddlery business created by his father and had maintained and developed its reputation for quality. Six qualified saddler workers worked for him and seven families lived honestly and comfortably from the profits generated. He was able to raise his only daughter in comfort, and everyone was satisfied with this state of affairs.

The good man bequeathed the business to his daughter and son-in-law, who appreciated its profitability but found it insufficient. Logically, he got rid of the French staff and had unqualified but eager-to-learn farm workers work for him, in Morocco. Thanks to this, he made a fortune, still with a small business producing a few dozen racehorse saddles per month, and the lady sank into luxury and, let us say it plainly, greed and ostentatious vanity, her main concern being the color of her next Jaguar, which must not be the same as everyone else's. For the good Dr. Pangloss, all is always for the best in the best of all possible worlds, but the world is no longer the same as before, and too bad for those whom that displeases.

Provisional conclusion

I can only share your fears when I see the French political class so disdainful of dealing with this kind of small problem other than by saying they are aware of it to the highest degree (while folding their arms), at best, or by once again affirming the "necessity of modernizations" in the purest clear-sighted and prophetic neoliberal style (total abandonment of the politician to the force of circumstances, pure French Vichy government style without even having to move).

Another file: "The Chinese and me"

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