Textile Workers?

[Onyxpurr]

I was reading an article in Time recently about the wage erosion happening across the country because of the state of the economy. Within it was the case of a programmer who was being paid around $87k a year, was laid off, had a hard time finding work (alhtough before he never had a problem in the past), and then eventually had to settle for a $40k salary. Also, he mentioned his concern with businesses hiring overseas programmers for about $20k a year and said, "Programmers are the future textile workers in America."

How do you feel about this?

 

[CajunCenturion]

I don't think the statement is all that accurate, although I do understand the position. And I also accept that we may not be at the bottom of curve yet either. But I do believe there is a fundamental difference between the textile worker and the IT professional, that being the necessity of training and skill development (whether self-taught or formal schooling) required before being a productive member of the workforce. IT is not an unskilled labor position, even thought some IT jobs require less skills than others. If and when people realize they risk becoming a "textile" worker if they choose to learn the required IT skills, then they will most likely choose not to learn those skills, but rather position themselves towards a more enjoyable career path. This will drastically affect the relationship between supply and demand, which will invalidate the traditional "textile worker" model.

Also, and this has been discussed in these fora as well, then is the concept of unionization. If the business environment swings to close to a "textile" model, I fully expect (and support) that the trend will be repelled and controlled by unionization.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[chiph]

Also, he mentioned his concern with businesses hiring overseas programmers for about $20k a year and said, "Programmers are the future textile workers in America."

The original quote is from Richard Holcomb, president of StrikeIron Software. He's the former CEO of Haht Commerce, and came from Q+E Software before that.

See:

http://www.nasvf.org/web/allpress.nsf/pages/6605

The deal with StrikeIron is they plan to outsource all development overseas. Design will still happen here in the US, and specs will be sent to programmers in Vietnam.

This quote is now all over the Internet, and is frequently quoted by doom + gloomers. I have no doubt that Holcomb and his partners will be able to create a business -- it's just that I have doubts about their ability to get to market in a timely fashion with a high-quality product.

Chip H.

 

[AIXSPadmin]

More doom and gloom. Gee, do you believe everything that you read. Also, if that is the case, then I see an education as being more valuable, and in fact, invaluable. Go back to school and further your education. If you have a bachelor's, get a master's. If you have a master's, get a doctorate.

 

[chiph]

User Friendly (userfriendly.org) weighs in on the subject:

http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/03jul/xuf005758.gif

Chip H.

 

[dilettante]

I see the ITAA is still at it.

In case you haven't heard of them, they're a major U.S. lobby group working for legislation protecting offshoring of IT work as well as the raising of H1-B and L1 Visa caps.

In this eWeek opinion piece they try to draw parallels between U.S. IT workers and the U.S. auto industry of the 60s through 80s:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1191818,00.asp

To begin with I can't see how the failings of U.S. auto companies have any bearing on any problems IT workers may have. The auto companies made the poor decisions that cost them market share, as Harris Miller states himself in this article. IT workers don't make strategic marketing and business decisions.

To compare apples to apples, one might contrast auto workers with IT workers I suppose.

Mr. Miller doesn't venture in this direction, but many blamed U.S. auto industry woes on organized labor. Auto labor's critics often said organized labor drove up costs through inflated pay and benefit packages, excessive worker protection and job protection, and a general non-competitiveness.

Well I've only been involved in the IT field as a student and a worker for 30 years myself. My knowledge of events in the field before the early '70s may be dim. But I don't recall any massive efforts by organized IT workers, nor any industry-crippling strikes, nor any violence at all being used to extort pay, benefits, job protection, or easy living out of IT employers.

What I do recall about General Motors (currently pushing hard to move all their IT jobs offshore):

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1133176,00.asp

... was the way they moved a lot of their auto production overseas and then "dumped" their displaced staff into the IT field. Being in a GM town it was hard to miss the way they pulled stunts like running their workers through the local community college for some superficial IT training. Or the way they gave these people several generations of computers from C64s through IBM ATs. And of course wrote it all off their corporate taxes as worker retraining expense. Suddenly the local IT labor market was flooded with these "IT Professionals."

Mr. Miller offers little hope. Basically he asks U.S. IT workers to "suck it up" and make the corporate IT dollar go further. He apparently thinks we should help him serve his corporate masters in lobbying to open foreign markets to U.S. IT offerings. I assume these offerings are things like the CRM suites and Microsoft and Oracle products being developed overseas. It appears they want more federal support for their excellent IT training programs too. Maybe they'll pass out free PlayStations this time?