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Associate Member Program Calls upon State of Minnesota to Bring Jobs Back!

February 2, 2004

The Honorable Tim Pawlenty
Governor
State of Minnesota
State Capitol, Room 130
St. Paul, MN 55155

Dear Governor Pawlenty:

I was shocked and outraged to learn from media reports over the weekend that the State of Minnesota's Human Services Department has reportedly signed multi-million consulting contracts with firms that send white-collar office work overseas. 

I call upon you to bring these jobs back to Minnesota as quickly as possible. 

It is unconscionable for our state government to participate in a scheme to export jobs overseas.  It is especially upsetting to see state leaders do so right after our state has lost thousands of jobs in the steel, taconite, manufacturing and other industries.  

One of the offshore contracts established a call center in Mumbai, India to assist Minnesotans with lost or stolen food stamp cards.  Under the second contract, low-cost software programmers in India are building a new Web-based system to process eligibility for health-care aid for low-income Minnesotans. 

Unfortunately, losing good-paying jobs due to global trade is something we Steelworkers know all too well.  In the past couple of years, 1,400 Minnesota steelworkers have lost their jobs at LTV and 1,000 lost employment at Honeywell/Advanced Circuits. 

I urge you to cancel these contracts and move these jobs back to Minnesotan as quickly as possible so laid off steelworkers and other Minnesotans can benefit from them.  Further, I would call upon you and the Legislature to assess whether other State agencies are sending jobs offshore.  If so, you should bring those jobs back to our state as well.   

We take great pride in the investments we have made in the skills and intellect of our state's workforce.  Minnesota has hard-working, smart, capable people who can do these jobs.  In fact, give us a chance to recruit and train laid off steelworkers and their family members to fill the jobs.   

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
David Foster, Director
USW District 11

cc:    Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson
 Senate Minority Leader Dick Day
 Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum
 House Minority Leader Matt Entenza