Reasons for the Boycott

My reasons for a self-imposed boycott are many:

1) I seem to be a natural protester. My earliest memory of an organized protest was in third grade when I was outraged that my teacher humiliated a student in front of the entire class by telling him that he was stupid and not going to amount to much. Horrified, I organized three or four of the girls in my small class to sign a petition to have Mrs. A. fired. Unfortunately, some older girl walked in on this official meeting, which took place in the girls bathroom. I was reported to the principal. The meeting was immediately disbanded, my petition confiscated and I had to tell my mom what I did and fight against being expelled from school for a few days. Of course, I was indignant that I should be in trouble, after all, I was just standing up for a human rights violation! The rest of third grade was rough!

Despite this early, seemingly unsuccessful protest, I have been campaigning, boycotting and protesting ever since. Sometimes I think it gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

2) While I would not consider myself to be incredibly patriotic, I am growing increasingly concerned about the growing rift between what we manufacture in America versus what we import from other countries. This was highlighted for me about two years ago when the manufacturing company my aunt worked for ceased to exist, due in part, to the "cost effective" trend of outsourcing everything overseas. My aunt started working for this company in high school and was able, without a college degree, to earn a place as head of human resources. Seeing the misery and angst she went through as she helped orchestrate the eventual layoffs of the entire employee roster, of people who had worked there for twenty and thirty years, maybe more, was difficult and I only saw my aunt a few times during the plant closure. This second hand experience jarred something loose in my head and forced me to look at the concept of "job stability" in a whole new light.

Now, I grew up in the AT&T era, as my mom calls it, and I've never known, other than through mythical tales passed down from older generations, what this "job stability" thing was. Sure, it sounds grand in many ways to work for a company or two for most of your working life and have things like health care, a pension, career advancement, promotions and recognition. I haven't known most of that though and I speculate that most people in my generation will hear stories of this way of life and see it either as a pipe dream or as Alzheimer's induced lies.

I do recognize that I am overly simplifying some aspects of the workforce and that my innate desire to travel instead of working some predictable job has colored my viewpoints. Nevertheless, I do believe there is more validity to my observations than I am given credit for.

3) The most recent job I had only highlighted the barrage of news in the media about jobs being outsourced overseas and the terrible impacts we are just beginning to acknowledge in this country.

My good friend in grad school, Lori, was the first person my age to fall victim to outsourcing. I guess she was fortunate in some ways that it entitled her, in Pennsylvania at least, to extended unemployment and paid job training. She went back to school to get her second Masters degree and become an English teacher. I'll venture a guess that it still stings to have been outsourced.

When I moved to Chicago in October of 2005, I had a nightmare of a time trying to find a job. I never thought that would be the case in a major city. Desperation set in and by the end of January I was at a temp agency. My first interview was for a company employed by a huge international bank. The job I was vying for had some fancy title and crappy pay, and in a nutshell I was supposed to be the lackey who ensured the cooperation of the bank staff who had just been notified that they were being "downsized" . I was to be the point person for having company property returned and then re-issued to the new staff arriving from India. In many cases, the very people who were being let go were the ones who were supposed to help me transition in the staff from India.

I was appalled! Fortunately, my Bachelor's degree in Psychology and my non-profit work experience labeled me as unfit for the job after the second interview.

Two days later I was temping at a large import company in Chicago's south loop (which, if you've never been there, is a bit of a dive despite its imminent gentrification.). It was supposed to be a week long assignment and I was broke, so I took it. That week lasted ten painful months.

Accepting this job was the final straw for me in this boycott. The essence of my job was to be a gopher, a gopher who always felt like she was helping people to lose their jobs. This company, despite the known problems with producing goods almost exclusively in China, was rapidly headed towards a bare bones staff in Chicago, with everything else being sent to China.

People who had worked in this company for over twenty years were losing their jobs overnight. It was devastating to those who were let go, as well as to those who were left behind in destruction.

4) I'm sure that there are many more reasons for my decision, many of which I don't even realize right now. I will try to explore all of my reasons throughout the course of this boycott.

Luke's reasons for the boycott:

1) Concern for the huge trade deficit with China. He is concerned that the vast sums of money leaving America for China will, and are, causing a decay in our economy.

2) The quality of goods imported from China are often of an inferior, cheap quality, however we continue to buy them because they are inexpensive.

3) He sees this as a step towards focusing more on buying American made products. His ideal goal is that this will help bolster American manufacturing.

4) Luke is also joining the boycott to support me. We have discussed, fought about and disagreed on all of the above reasons throughout most of our ten year friendship. When we moved in together, we consumed more goods and together began to pay attention to the quality, cost and origin of what we were buying.

The longer I sold my soul to my job, the more I focused on the problems of outsourcing. To say that outsourcing affected our relationship is an understatement!

In joining my protest, Luke is keenly aware that this will most likely directly affect me more so than him, since I get more of a thrill from shopping and I tend to have a more vocal opinion about what we purchase together. Fortunately, most of our reasons for doing this are compatible and I am grateful to have an ally in this challenging battle.