Newspaper Chain CEO 'Pleased' To Announce IT Plan, Then Fires Tech Staff (computerworld.com)

dcblogs writes from a report on Computerworld: The McClatchy Company, which operates a major chain of newspapers in the U.S., is moving IT work overseas. The number of affected jobs, based on employee estimates, range from 120 to 150. The chain owns about 30 newspapers, including The Sacramento Bee, where McClatchy is based; The Fresno Bee, The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C., The State in Columbia, S.C. and the Miami Herald. In a letter sent to the chain's IT employees in late March, McClatchy CEO Patrick Talamantes detailed all the improvements a contract with the outsourcing firm, India-based Wipro, will bring, but buries, well down in the letter what should have been in its lead paragraph: There will be cutbacks of U.S. staff. The letter received by McClatchy's IT employees from Talamantes begins by telling them [the company] is "pleased to unveil our new IT Transformational Program, a program designed to provide improved service to all technology users, accelerated development and delivery of technology solutions and products, variable demand-based technology resources and access to modern and cutting-edge skills and platforms." Seven paragraphs down in the letter, he lowers the boom: "As we embark on the implementation phase, there will be a realignment of resources requiring a reduction in McClatchy technology staff." IT employees thought they were part of the solution to McClatchy's tech direction, not the problem. Said one IT employee: "This has taken us all by surprise. I'm not saying that we felt untouchable as they have been doing layoffs for the past 10 years, but being part of IT we felt that we had a big part in what happens" in the company. Employees are now training their replacements.

Comments

Re:This is why Trump is popular.

[MHz-Man]

Perhaps then he should lead by keeping jobs in the USA instead of having his ties (and possibly/probably other things) made in China:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Free Trade

[Ol Olsoc]

Should Americans be paid the same as the people that you outsource to

Why should they? Cost of living in the US is substantially higher than it is in, say, India.

Why should they have a job at all when someone in India is making say 10 percent of what an American worker demands? Doesn't capitalism demand the most money in from the least money paid out for the producers?

If the cost of living in India is low, and Americans making too much and now unemployed, they can move to India. The job creators are not responsible for keeping fat lazy overpaid Americans in money. Besides, the country will improve with them leaving, getting rid of those takers.

This is the kind of stuff that the free market handles and handles very well. Right? As American workers make kess and less, the cost of living will come down - it will have to, or they will starve.