From Working America: AFL-CIO Releases Database That Tracks Outsourcing, Safety Violations, Discrimination

The AFL-CIO and Working America released Oct. 7 a searchable database detailing outsourcing numbers, safety violations, and discrimination cases for more than 400,000 corporations and subsidiaries.

The groups’ Job Tracker searches for information by zip code, company name, and industry.

“Because of Job Tracker, corporations who have taken advantage of lax trade policies in America and abroad will no longer be able to hide behind the veils of bureaucracy,” said Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America. “Every night on our neighborhood canvasses, we hear from people who want to know which companies are profiting off the loss of their jobs. Corporations have created a global race to the bottom and working people won’t stand for it.”

The interactive database uses data from dozens of public sources to allow visitors to find out which companies have exported jobs overseas, violated health and safety codes or engaged in discriminatory or other illegal practices, Nussbaum said.
On a conference call to release the database, speakers noted that both experts and the general public now will be able to easily search through a huge compilation of data on corporate outsourcing.

Drawn From Several Sources

Detailed results are drawn from sources including the Labor Department’s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) records, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, Occupational Safety and Health Administration records, and other agencies.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka noted the impact of trade and tax policies that make it even easier for corporations to outsource jobs. Trumka pointed to the benefits of the tool for workers as they rebuild the economy.

“We must demand that our leaders show that they stand with working families—fighting to create jobs, rejecting unfair trade deals and putting us on a path to make things in America again,” Trumka said. “For the first time, working people have one place to see the real impact of the failed policies of the past that gave corporations the ability to ship American jobs overseas. With this new data as a benchmark, working people will have the ability to separate the economic patriots from the corporate traitors at the ballot box.”

Trumka said it has “been excruciating” to find information about what companies are outsourcing and to what extent. “This allows anyone to see who is a bad actor in their community,” he said.

Nussbaum said that six researchers spent three months developing the database…