Citizen Action Launches Outsourced Wisconsin Tour Print
News - Articles for State & Local
Written by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Kevin Kane   
Saturday, 10 September 2016 14:14

walker-wedcWill travel Wisconsin to focus attention on corporate outsourcers who are taking public job creation dollars.


MILWAUKEE - Following last week’s revelation that over 11,000 Wisconsin jobs have been outsourced in the past five years, advocates for good jobs launched a statewide tour on Thursday of corporations who are outsourcing while taking public job creation dollars.

The first stop on the tour is the Rexnord Corporation in Milwaukee. At a news event today community leaders detailed how Rexnord outsourced Wisconsin jobs at the same time it took millions in public job creation dollars from Governor Walker’s scandal plagued Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).

Community leaders and advocates for good jobs wore hard hats emblazoned with a decal which plays off WEDC’s “In Wisconsin” logo changed to “Outsourced Wisconsin.” Speakers included AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Stephanie Bloomingdale, WISDOM President Rev. Willie Brisco, former radio host Earl Ingram, and State. Rep. Daniel Riemer.

WEDC has for years refused to close loopholes that allow corporations to take public jobs money while outsourcing more jobs than they create.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor and WEDC, Rexnord has actually outsourced more jobs than it has been paid with public dollars to create. The company 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).

robert_kraig“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 event 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 in coming days.

For Spanish language media, Citizen Action Organizer Luz Sosa is available for comment.

Last Updated on Saturday, 10 September 2016 14:46