OUTSOURCE THIS? AMERICAN WORKERS, THE JOBS DEFICIT, AND THE FAIR GLOBALIZATION SOLUTION

This paper argues that the outsourcing of service and technical jobs represents a new phase in globalization. For the first time, the majority of American workers are now being forced to grapple with outsourcing as a threat to their own livelihood and the future prospects of their children.

The current debate over outsourcing is trapped in a centuries-old debate between “free trade,” “fair trade” and protectionism. None of these positions is adequate to understand—or to fix—the contemporary jobs problem. Today’s global economy can no longer be understood as a system of national economies trading with each other. Rather, it is a system of global markets, corporations, and institutions that cut across national boundaries.

Fair trade is not enough, fair globalization is needed.

Outsourcing would not be a problem if there were enough decent jobs. But a global jobs deficit allows companies to move work wherever labor is cheapest—and where governments are most desperate and therefore will provide the highest subsidies with the lowest environmental and social protections.

The task is to address the jobs deficit with strategies to create enough decent jobs for everyone.

A new alternative, “fair globalization,” that puts job creation and economic security at the center of economic planning is emerging. It includes action at the local, national, and global levels.

In the US, the current jobless recovery—and the anxiety produced by accelerating outsourcing of manufacturing and service jobs—may provide an opportunity for unions and other worker organizations, progressive political organizations, and social movements to change the direction of globalization. The paper proposes a series of steps that could be taken to begin to create a fair globalization alternative.  Read More….