Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy:CHASE will not take our money and run

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/17/709650/-CHASE-will-not-take-our-money-and-run
by Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy

First, thank you to the Daily Kos community for bearing with us as we get this office up and running. My office will make sure our dialogue is two ways and my staff and I will read comments on our diaries carefully.

But today we need to talk about how outraged I am that another corporate titan has taken our money and is planning on outsourcing $400 million in work to India. Chase has over 7,500 employees in central Ohio and took $25 billion in taxpayer money through the bank bailout.

JP Morgan Chase or any other bank that received bailout funds should not be spending $400 million to stimulate the Indian economy when the America’s economy needs it more. We have plenty of out-of-work people in central Ohio that can do the jobs and need the jobs. Many of them are already trained in these jobs. I just do not know how many times the American people will tolerate this type of action by the same CEO’s they bailed out for bad decisions.

Read below for our full letter and the members of Congress that joined me in this fight.

March 17, 2009

Mr. Jamie Dimon
President/CEO
JP Morgan Chase Bank
2 Bowery
New York, NY 10013

Dear Mr. Dimon,

We are outraged by the potential actions of your company to outsource tens of thousands of U.S. jobs as well as your comments made to the United States Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. We would like to remind you that the taxpayers of the United States of America contributed $25 billion to your company to help stabilize our economy—not send jobs overseas.

Just yesterday you indicated that the "constant vilification of corporate America" by our public officials is what is hurting our country. This pronouncement comes less than 72 hours after reports surfaced that your institution plans to spend nearly $400 million on outsourcing of jobs to India—an increase of 25 percent. JP Morgan Chase is not a victim of constant vilification, but it will be viewed and criticized based on actions like this outsourcing policy.

651,000 Americans lost their jobs in February. 3.8 million Americans lost their jobs in the last 12 months. Every day an average of 21,000 men and women receive a pink slip and with it the fear of an uncertain economic future. How should these American workers, many of them your consumers, be expected to have hope for a better future when the very companies they contributed to through the Troubled Assets Relief Program outsource the jobs they desperately need?

In your testimony on Feb. 11, 2009 to the House Committee on Financial Services you said that you looked forward to working with the committee "to help find solutions to our current economic problems, to keep American families in their homes and to begin to restore confidence in our financial markets." There is no better way to make your words immediately ring hollow than taking actions to outsource thousands of jobs that Americans could perform.

In the coming days, we expect to hear more about your plans to invest $400 million in the workers of India and the impact your actions will have on communities across America including potential future layoffs.

One source from an article published in the Economic Times of India stated almost enthusiastically that "JP Morgan is one of the first banks in the U.S. to flesh out its outsourcing strategy ever since the banking meltdown..." This is one area where your institution should be ashamed of leading. Your actions will be watched—and possibly followed—by other institutions in the financial sector. Trends of this nature concern us and will be followed closely as well.

Sincerely,

Mary Jo Kilroy (OH), Barney Frank (MA), Loretta Sanchez (CA), Charlie Wilson(OH), Marcy Kaptur (OH), Betty Sutton (OH), Tom Perriello (VA), Joe Baca (CA), Diana Watson (CA), Peter Welch (VT), Charles Gonzalez (TX), Lynn Woolsey (CA), Al Green (TX), Luis Gutierrez (IL), Paul Hodes (NH), Tim Ryan (OH), Tim Bishop (NY), Paul Tonko (NY), Stephen Lynch (MA), Eric Massa (NY), Robert Brady (PA), Chellie Pingree (ME), Bobby Rush (IL), John Olver (MA), Chaka Fattah (PA), John Dingell (MI), Dennis Kucinich (OH), Rubén Hinojosa (TX), Jim McGovern (MA), Elijah Cummings (MD), Michael Michaud (ME), Emanuel Cleaver (MO), Linda Sánchez (CA), Christopher Carney (PA), Steve Rothman (NJ), Raul M. Grijalva (TX), Phil Hare (IL), Pete Stark (CA), Michael Capuano (MA), Dan Maffei (NY), Harry Teague (NM)