http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/wausau_kohls_outsourcing-s5.jpgTour traveling Wisconsin to focus attention on corporate outsourcers who are taking public job creation dollars.

NEENAH & WAUSAU, WI - Advocates for good jobs continued their statewide tour of corporations which are outsourcing while taking public job creation dollars today in Northeast and Northcentral Wisconsin. Over 11,000 Wisconsin jobs have been outsourced over the last 5 years.

The first stop on the “Outsourced Wisconsin” tour today was the Plexus Corporation in Neenah. Plexus has been paid or promised $17 million by the Walker Administration's troubled jobs agency, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). Plexus has created 74 jobs to date, but outsourced 116 jobs. This means Plexus has outsourced 42 more jobs than the public has paid it to create. Citizen Action members were joined at the Neenah event by State Rep. Amanda Stuck and Fox Valley Labor Council President Mark Westphal. (More information on the Plexus outsourcing record here)

The second stop on the “Outsourced Wisconsin” tour today was Kohl’s retail store location in Wausau. Kohl’s has been awarded $62.5 million in job creation tax credits by WEDC, but outsourced 67 accounts payable and sales audit jobs to India. Citizen Action was joined by local economic justice activists and Nancy Stencil, candidate for the 86th Assembly district. (More information on the Kohl’s outsourcing record here).

Earlier this month the “Outsourced Wisconsin” tour visited the Rexnord Corporation in Milwaukee. Rexnord has received $2.75 million in WEDC funds, but has so far outsourced 130 more jobs than it is has created. Even if it fulfills all of its future commitments to WEDC, Rexnord will have created fewer jobs than it has outsourced since WEDC was created in 2011. (Find more details on Rexnord’s outsourcing record here).

The leverage of the large public tax subsidies Walker’s jobs agency has doled out to these companies could have been used to prevent the outsourcing of Wisconsin jobs. Instead WEDC has for years refused to close loopholes that allow corporations to take public jobs money while outsourcing more jobs than they create. Governor Walker’s expensive manufacturer's tax credit does not have any standards that discourage outsourcing.

“Outsourcing is the smoking gun of the rigged economy,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “It would stun most Wisconsin workers to learn that state leaders are aiding and abetting economic treason by giving public dollars to corporations who are outsourcing more jobs than they create. It’s long overdue for federal and state government to side with workers by using it leverage to build an economy where everyone who wants a good job can get one.”

According to Citizen Action of Wisconsin research, the threat of outsourcing is one of the reasons wages are plummeting for manufacturing jobs that remain in Wisconsin.

The “Outsourced Wisconsin” tour follows Citizen Action’s disclosure in late August that WEDC falsely claimed to create jobs in Milwaukee’s economically depressed Sherman Park neighborhood which have been devastated by corporate outsourcing.

Future “Outsourced Wisconsin” tour stops will be announced soon.