Diane Ziebarth worked 32 years at Samsonite, running riveters, welders and other assembly-line machines that made hard-sided suitcases.

Samsonite gave Ziebarth, 56, a camera to honor her three decades of service. But it did not guarantee her future.

In 2001, the company closed its Montbello manufacturing plant, shifting work to India and China. Ziebarth lost her job to someone who would make luggage for less on the other side of the ocean.

In search of new skills, Ziebarth went to school on the taxpayers’ tab, earning an associate’s degree in business technology from the Community College of Denver. Today, she still can’t find work.

“I’m not bilingual, and I don’t have three to five years of experience, so nobody is biting,” she said.

That’s just the way it goes in the globalization game, where investors demand performance, consumers clamor for lower prices, and multimillionaire CEOs dream up ways to grossly overpay themselves as they slash workers.

Earlier this week, Ziebarth testified in support of a state Senate bill that would prohibit service contractors from using offshore labor in state contract work.

“Don’t take my tax dollars and pay somebody in India or Pakistan or wherever,” she said. “I don’t want to see anybody lose their jobs and go through what I am going through.”

Neither does Sen. Deanna Hanna, a Lakewood Democrat who sponsored the Keep Jobs in America Act.

“We are spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about tax incentives to bring good jobs to Colorado,” she said. “Why would we use our tax dollars to send jobs out of Colorado?”

That question deserves an answer, which is why Hanna’s bill passed out of committee and will be discussed in the full Senate next week. Unfortunately, there’s been no audit to show what portion of our state government’s 10,000 service contracts involve offshore labor, so there’s a lot more rhetoric than data.

Many other states have considered proposals to limit offshore outsourcing, but some are more flexible. Tennessee last year adopted a law that does not ban offshore outsourcing, but gives preference to contractors who only use workers in the United States.

Keeping state contractors from using offshore labor is tricky. Hanna introduced a similar bill last year that cited supplies in addition to services. She found so many goods have foreign-made components that the bill would have made state procurement a nightmare.

This year, she may find the same is true of services. That’s because entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and global corporations have tentacles everywhere.

“Improving effectiveness of outsourcing engagements” was one of the topics at a Russian information technology conference at the Adam’s Mark Hotel on Thursday. At a Venture Capital in the Rockies conference in Beaver Creek two weeks ago, a repeated question for startup companies was “What’s your outsourcing strategy?”

Heidi Heltzel of the Colorado Association of Commerce & Industry, which opposes Hanna’s bill, said offshore labor is too prevalent to eradicate.

“A lot of things are inextricably linked,” she said. “If you buy a computer, it comes with a service contract. And when you need help, the chances of your call going overseas are enormous.”

Colorado’s biggest trading partner, Canada, is also bristling at the Keep Jobs In America Act.

“It’s completely unnecessary,” said Canadian General Consul Michael Fine, whose Denver office covers Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

Fine said Canadians annually buy $7.6 billion more in services from Americans than Americans buy from Canadians. Additionally, Canadian companies have invested more than $5 billion in Colorado over the past two years.

“These sorts of bills are seen as being anti-foreign,” said Fine, “They don’t weigh the fact that there is this very positive business environment that goes two ways between the two countries.”

Free trade is beautiful - but is it really free when taxpayers are the clients?

“If we’re going to spend tax dollars,” said Ziebarth, “let’s at least try to employ the taxpayers.”

from:
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~130~2731087,00.html