FOLLOWING THE OFFSHORE MONEY TRAIL

Many of the foreign companies “that are capturing [white collar work from the United States] owe their existence and growth to American venture capital firms,” Philip Mattera, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Research Project, wrote in Capital Flight: How U.S. Investment Funds are Bankrolling Offshore Outsourcing.

“It is perhaps naive to expect venture capitalists … to think about the consequences of their portfolio decisions on the well-being of the U.S. workforce,” Mattera wrote. “Yet it is not unreasonable to make such a demand on some of these institutions that invest in private equity funds—namely, pension funds.”

Mattera says Citibank Private Equity was one of the earliest venture capital investors in India, dumping

$6 million in 2001 into Daksh eServices Ltd. “IBM recently agreed to acquire the firm for an amount reportedly in excess of $100 million,” he wrote.

Corporate Research Project (www.corp-research.org) is an affiliate of Good Jobs First (www.goodjobsfirst.org), which promotes accountability standards for economic development subsidies given to corporations by state and local governments.

UCONN POSTDOCS RATIFY CONTRACT

Postdoctoral fellows at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington ratified their first contract in March, just seven months after voting for representation by the University Health Professionals (UHP), an affiliate of AFT Public Employees.

The new contract addresses the issues that fueled their unionization campaign: pay, benefits, respect and equity. The contract guarantees wage increases worth about $1 million over two years—a 27 percent increase in the minimum postdoc salary and a 6.3 percent wage increase over two years. The contract also establishes a grievance procedure, and provides paid sick and vacation leave as well as state employee health and pension benefits.

NYSUT WELCOMES NEW UNIT OF WORKERS

By almost two-to-one, workers employed by the Resource Center, a nonprofit provider of assisted living and rehabilitative services for children and adults throughout Chautauqua County, N.Y., voted for AFT representation in March.

The New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) local, known as Resource Center United Employees, is made up of more than 600 employees working in a wide variety of jobs, including community living specialists, rehabilitation skills instructors and transportation aides.

NYSUT president Thomas Y. Hobart Jr., who also is an AFT vice president, said the successful organizing campaign was one of the largest in upstate New York in recent years. “More and more workers are coming to us seeking a stronger position with their employers,” Hobart said. “Job losses and general insecurity about the future are opening more New Yorkers’ eyes to the benefits of collective bargaining and unionization.”

The Resource Center, which operates at 56 different sites in Chautauqua County, is a state-funded institution.