Outsourcing: Let's Slow it Down!

Outsourcing: Service Expectation Disclosure Act for Companies Operating in the United States

American companies are outsourcing jobs outside of the United States by the hundreds of thousands. Manufacturing was the first hard hit industry and it was thought that that was the only sector that would be impacted by N.A.F.T.A. However, M.I.S. and I.T., which are computer and programming intensive fields, have lost thousand of jobs to India in the last five years as well. I.B.M. recently announced that they would be outsourcing 5,000 jobs outside of the country. But it doesnt end there. Any job that is 90\% computer related or phone related can be outsourced.

Products sold in the United States require a tag disclosing their country of origin. It is now time to extend this idea to service related products.

If you dial a hotel in New York using a New York area code to make reservations you should expect to speak to a person on the property. If your call is rerouted to a Canadain call center you should have the right to know this. If you call A.O.L. or chat on line with A.O.L. support you have the expectation that you are speaking to someone at A.O.L. who is located in the United States. If you are speaking to someone in India you should have the right to know this. I am sure we can think of many more instances in which consumers are being duped and misdirected.

Of course there may be nothing illegal about these corporate practices but it seems just a tad bit Un-American. If Americans are sending their money out of the country they should be made aware of this. This being the case the following proposition is submitted:

We the undersigned request that the United States Congress enact the following legislation: The Service Expectation Disclosure Act: S.E.D.A.

Companies that provide any service or product sold in the United States must disclose to the public the location of their service personnel if they are not located where a customer would expect them to be.

1) Companies that solicit customers on the internet must disclose to the public on their websites the percentage of their workforce by country if their workforce is more then 10\% outside of the United States.
2) Companies must disclose to the public upon contact, by phone, email or instant message, where the service personnel is located if they are not located within the United States or within the local where the consumer expects them to be. Example: Thank you for contacting DELL support, my name is John and I am in Montreal, Canada. How may I help you.?
3) Contracts between Businesses or Consumers must fully disclose the personnel location involved in contract fulfillment if they are not located within the State in which the contract was signed.
4) Companies trading on the New York Stock exchange and NASDAQ must disclose to their stock holders the percentage of their workforce, by country, if more than 10\% is located outside of the United States.