Offshoring Legislation In Action

Congressional Bills

HR3228: Sponsored by Congressman Bernie Sanders; will revoke Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with the People's Republic of China.
S.1925/HR3619: The Employee Free Choice Act. This is a major initiative by the AFL-CIO and the CWA to begin to restore the right of workers to join a union. CWA is vigorously pursuing passage of this bill. This landmark legislation would allow for certification of a union as the bargaining representative if the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finds that a majority of workers in a bargaining unit have signed authorizations designating the union as its bargaining representative.
Defending American Jobs Act: Being proposed by Congressman Bernie Sanders. There is the possibility that we can get Congressman Hinchey to co-sponsor. The purpose of this draft bill is to prohibit companies that lay off a greater percentage of their U.S. workers than workers in other countries from receiving any grants, loans or loan guarantees from the U.S. federal government.

HR1677: Introduced by Congressman Tierney, the Pensions Benefit Protection Act, which would require companies to allow employees to chose whether or not to convert to a cash-balance plan, provide increased disclosure about the differences between cash-balance plan and traditional pension plans, and direct the IRS to withdraw the proposed regulations that violate current age discrimination laws.

State Legislation

HB0176f: Introduced in the Maryland legislature by Representative Pauline Menes; would ban state agencies and contractors from exporting white-collar jobs (computer techs, data processing, engineering and the like) to other countries. We need to get versions of this introduced in our own state legislatures.

Other Proposals

HR2702: The Non-Immigrant Reform Act, introduced by Rep. DeLauro (Bernie Sanders is listed among the co-sponsors). The purpose of this bill is “To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to the admission of L-1 intra-company transferee nonimmigrants”.
S1873: Sponsored by Senator John Kerry; will require each employee in any call center to disclose their physical location at the beginning of each telephone call initiated or received (aka Call Center Consumer’s Right to Know Act).
HR2688: Introduced by Rep. Tancredo “To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to repeal authorities relating to H1-B visas for temporary workers”. Final wording is being worked out prior to lining up co-sponsors.

IT Disclosure: Homeland security goes beyond fighting terrorist attacks. It also entails keeping our country’s data and our citizens’ data secure. Under the Freedom of Information Act, consumers have the right to know who is viewing and managing their personal information. Consumers also have the right to move their assets to another institution if they feel their personal data is at risk or can be compromised. When an institution relinquishes support of its information technology (IT) processing or other operations offshore to foreign nationals, it should be mandatory to inform the consumer of this action.

Job Bank: This proposal would require companies to go to a State Job bank first to find a qualified American or Green Card holder for any position being opened. Companies would have to show who they’ve interviewed and to show just cause why they can’t find a ‘qualified’ citizen.

Employer Accountability: Requires companies in a State to report monthly all ‘Non-Immigrant Visa’ (NIV) temp workers who are working onsite.

Host Company Responsibilities: Requires that companies directly hiring ‘Non-Immigrant Visa’ (NIV) temp workers be liable for any costs incurred by Local or State communities for the NIV or the NIV’s spouse or dependents and will reimburse the Local or State community for these costs (health care, education, etc.).

Employer Tax Incentives/Penalties: Allows States to reward companies that keep, hire or retrain American and perm Card employees for any posted positions within said Company(s) instead of going outside or off-shoring. Also requires companies to report job postings and who fills those openings, and provides penalties for off-shoring jobs.