Senator wants disclosure for foreign call centers

[SocialistLez]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100530/pl_nm/us_usa_outsourcing

"In a bid to reduce outsourcing of U.S. jobs, a Democratic senator said on Sunday he will push legislation to make companies inform customers when their calls were being transferred outside the United States and charge companies for those transferred calls.

"This bill will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back," Senator Charles Schumer said in statement.

Customers calling 800 numbers are often transferred overseas, and in such cases the bill would mandate that callers be told where their calls were rerouted.

Companies would also be required to certify to the Federal Trade Commission annually that they were complying with the requirement, and face penalties if they did not certify.

Schumer's bill would also impose a $0.25 excise tax on any customer service call placed inside the United States which is transferred to an agent in a foreign location. The fee would be assessed on the company that transferred the call."

What are your thoughts about this bill?
I don't think it has a chance but hey, it's worth a shot.

[yourout]

1. Sounds good to me.

[rpannier]

2. I like it

I doubt the republikkans would let it happen, as well as a few of 'our' senators

I mean, we have to let big business handle their affairs because they do it so much better -- like BP and Wall Street and Bank of America, Chase, etc

[Cass]

3. I like it and think it is about time we started doing something like this.

Sad to say that I agree with you that it likely won't get too far but I sure hope it does.

[bluestateguy]

4. Sign me up as a co-sponsor

Private citizens should be allowed to co-sponsor legislation, BTW, and speak on the floor of the House of Representatives (but not the Senate).

[SocialistLez]

6. Wouldn't that be cool? SO many bills would be passed if

we could co-sponsor the bills.

NAFTA probably wouldn't have passed if private citizens had a say in it.

[msongs]

5. it is TRUTH IN ADVERTISING...so many of these foreign call centers lie big time nt

[tilsammans]

7. Love it!

It's about time!

:kick:

[RKP5637]

8. Makes sense to me! If things such as this don't start happening the US will

eventually find itself completely outsourced by corporate gangsters. This place isn't a country anymore, it's a corporate P&L asset/liability.

[hlthe2b]

9. I don't think they should legally be able to share confidential

information outside the US... where our laws will not protect us, in the event of identity theft. Not that we have much in the way of protections in the US, but still...

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

10. I'm all for this.

I have even asked if the person I was talking to was in the US. They refused to answer the question. Yesterday, I talked to someone who could barely speak English.

[CrispyQ]

31. But I'll bet his name was "Brian."

;)

I love when they identify themselves with a western name that they can hardly pronounce.

[laughingliberal]

11. Excellent! Truth in advertising and extracting a price for shipping our jobs overseas. nt

[WeDidIt]

12. Should charge double for incoming calls from foreign call centers

doing sales and bill collection.

A $0.50 excise tax for incoming calls from foreign call centers.

[Greyhound]

17. Good idea, why not?

Call center gigs suck, but no gig sucks worse.

[scentopine]

13. Thanks for posting this. -nt

[MyNameGoesHere]

14. I don't think so.

this will just be passed on to the consumer. Why do we have to suffer every time someone wants to reform? Calls go to other countries call center because it's cheaper, excise tax pissing contests are not going to do anything. And trust me the other countries will retaliate with some tax of their own.

[K8-EEE]

22. Well they can just take the difference from the executive pay & bonuses then...

I don't buy that "we need foreign slave labor" thing. When I was a kid in the 70s almost everything we bought was made in the USA and people had a better standard of living than they do now. What happened is that the difference between the worker and the exex has gotten so ridiculous, we need a little "correction" on that. Besides if we have no jobs we will all bear the burden of having so many unemployed in our society. Think of the TRUE and LASTING costs of outsourcing jobs and killing the wage in the US economy.

[Greyhound]

23. You mean India is going to stop buying tech from us?

How is that a problem?

[MyNameGoesHere]

24. I figured most people here would go right to the India card.

You should research what countries we outsource to and what are imports/exports are to those countries. Xenophobia will destroya ya. Oh wait that's not the lyrics.

[Greyhound]

30. I'm quite familiar with where and more importantly what we export.

And except for the parasites that make their living destroying this nation it is not to our benefit.

[Scuba]

15. How about a $1M tax on every job outsourced out of the country?

[moondust]

16. Good.

May this be only the beginning of the fight against offshoring/massive domestic unemployment/the return to feudalism.

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Festivito]

18. I would love to see a story about the lobbying around this.

Even if it just has photos of them walking into offices.

[davidinalameda]

19. not a bad idea

maybe some of those jobs would come back

[SalviaBlue]

20. I like it.

[laughingliberal]

21. K & R nt

[HopeHoops]

25. Excellent idea! But 25 cents is way too low for the excise tax.

Make it about $5 and maybe they would START to see a leveling of the cost per call.

[SocialistLez]

28. I agree 25 cents is too low. NT

[lonestarnot]

26. Yes!

[OhioChick]

27. Good. It's a start. n/t

[femrap]

29. Yes, let's

keep a few of those $10 to $12/hour jobs here.

I've worked in some of them....after I come home, I don't want to talk to anyone.

Maybe I've used up all of my 'people are nice' skills.

[JCMach1]

32. They will get around this through VOIP... doesn't really count as a call, see

the law will be worthless in short order.

[Ruby the Liberal]

33. Sweet!!