[Marxism] Re: Cyber coolies

[Marla Vijaya kumar <marlavk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Comrade Rubnelli,

Your reaction is very preplexing. To put it mildly, it
lacks class consciousness.
The very reason for the emergence and thriving of
off-shore call centres is exploitation of labour, both
in the third world and and in the developed West.

The following two paragraphs of the Observer's report
tell it all:
"Union activists have welcomed the study. 'Employers
are looking for two kinds of people. People who are
completely brain dead, who accept commands and carry
them out. And then they want a smaller number of
believers in who will become managers and trainers,'
Gautam Mody, a labour activist working to introduce
call centre unions, said. 'There is no modicum of
labour law in this sector. Offshoring is linked to low
wages, so the question is: how can one do it cheaper
and cheaper?'

Industry leaders have rejected the need for unions,
although they are working on minimum standards for
working conditions. Nasscom President Kiran Karnik
claimed there was no demand for worker representation.
'In this industry every youngster wants to be the CEO
after a year or two,' he said. 'I don't know, with
that kind of mindset, they would want to join unions.'

The reason for panic and the rush to cover up the call
center exploitation is the recent call of the
communists to the IT employees to form unions. India
will do better if it employs its IT manpower for
India's own needs than to hanker for dog biscuts from
the West. India's own IT needs are so huge that all
the IT grads can be gainfully employed to cater to its
own needs. No private IT operator in India is
interested in meeting India's IT requirement, as it
will not shower tax-free dollars. And as it is rightly
reported, the drive is single minded - to reduce
costs; and they are prepared to go to any lenghts.
Today, a fresh computer science Post-graduate is
offered eqivalent of less than 2000 US Dollarsper
anum. That to he should be a top performer to get such
an offer. Mind you, this is just double of what a
daily unskilled labourer gets for doing physical work
like carrying lads on his back. The normal government
salary for a fresh engineering graduate in a
government owned company (Public Sector Company - as
it is called in India) is eqivalent of 6800 US dollars
per anum. Private IT companies that pay this level of
salaries are only a handful and they employ a
miniscule part of the total IT workforce. Even an
annual salary of 7000 USD is only about 1/7 of what
they have to pay in the west. So the exploitation will
continue to thrive.
Vijaya Kumar Marla



                
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