But are they protecting U.S. jobs by calling an American company's customer-service or technical-support representative with questions about a product or service?
Probably not.
Turns out that increasing numbers of "American" companies--General Electric, American Express, Amazon.com, to name just a few--have bootleg service centers based in Bangalore.
That's in India, not Indiana.
And that perky company representative speaking Americaneze with a Midwestern accent isn't really "Annie," as she claims, but Arundhuti.
"Annie's" other Yankee persona--family history, education, television viewing habits--also are carefully crafted and honed to hoodwink American callers.
"Annie" is a "techno coolie," earning a measly $213 a month in a white-collar sweatshop. She displaced an American worker who once earned about ten times that amount.
What really rankles, however, is the fact that "Annie" speaks better English than Dubya.
Congress should extend the product-label law and require routine disclosure of national origins for technical support, customer service and other company responses and solicitations.(24 JUNE 2001)
