Exclusive–American Verizon Workers Win Better Deal in Corporation’s Outsourcing Scheme

Employees of Infosys Technologies Limited walk in the campus of the company's headquarters
MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty Images

One thousand American Verizon workers have won a better deal than originally planned in the multinational corporation’s plan to eventually outsource American jobs to India.

As Breitbart News has chronicled, American Verizon workers had exclusively detailed that mass layoffs were coming at the corporation in an effort to shift all IT work over to Infosys, one of the biggest multi-billion dollar outsourcing firms in the U.S. that has been accused of undercutting American workers and discriminating against black and white Americans in favor of Indian nationals.

Originally, Verizon was offering two deals:

  • An offer to 44,000 U.S. workers that essentially forced them to resign and take a hefty severance package or stay on at the corporation until they are eventually laid off and not eligible to receive the severance.
  • And an offer to at least 1,500 U.S. workers where they would be offered jobs to switch to Infosys to take jobs that were only guaranteed for a year. The workers were not allowed to take other jobs at Verizon and were not eligible for the hefty severance package.

Today — after Breitbart News’s reporting and complaints to the CEO and executives from the American workers at Verizon — those 1,500 Americans workers were told that they will now be eligible for the hefty severance package.

In an email to the U.S. workers, they were told that they can either move over to Infosys with a guarantee of a job for two years and a signing bonus or accept the severance package. Many of the workers are of retirement age.

Attorney Sara Blackwell, who fights for American workers in offshoring cases, told Breitbart News the American workers are ecstatic about the news that they have at least been given more options, as their jobs are eventually expected to be offshored to India.

“For me, after doing this for four years fighting this [outsourcing and offshoring] business model, I’m so grateful for at least this kind of win,” Blackwell said. “This is a victory in some ways.”

“They’re just so excited right now,” Blackwell said of the American workers. “This is a win in the sense that the workers got a better offer.”

The outsourcing-offshoring business model used by multinational corporations begins by laying off American workers in high-paying, white-collar industries and forcing them to train their foreign replacements, who often arrive in the U.S. on the H-1B visa. Those H-1B visa workers generally work in the country for about a year until the job is moved overseas to developing countries like India, where foreign workers are cheaper.

In the case of Verizon, American workers say their jobs are first being moved over to Infosys, where they will eventually be offshored to India altogether.

“The Infosys executive said their goal is to have us train the employees in India and then we would send the jobs there to India,” one American worker previously told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview.

Verizon’s outsourcing scheme is likely to be similar to AT&T’s outsourcing-offshoring business model, which has left thousands of Americans laid off while their jobs move overseas.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder

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