[lbo-talk] outsourcing and furriners

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Tue Mar 23 13:12:32 PST 2004


From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>

John Lacny wrote:


>When did the term "outsourcing" come to refer exclusively to
>outsourcing jobs out of the country? I thought it was a general term
>for the corporate practice of moving functions from in-house to
>outside firms. Basically, I thought it was a synonym for
>subcontracting, a money-saving measure for a company that was
>generally not good for workers, whether it was done outside the
>country or in. Lately, given telecommunications outsourcing to
>India, it has acquired the connotation of moving jobs outside the
>country, but it seems that that has not always been the case. Am I
>wrong?

No, you're right. "Offshoring" is the more precise term for doing IT and call center work in India, but some people find the word ugly.

Doug

^^^^^^ CB: A big taint of "outsourcing" as originally used is moving jobs from union to non-union shops. Similarly, privatization is outsourcing from government jobs which are more likely to be unionized and "benefitized".



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