Virgin versus Vikings
A plan to close a call center in Scotland has locals up in arms against Sir Richard Branson's company.
The Virgin Group is the object of much scorn this week in Scotland, according to the Times of London.
The company plans to close a 260-employee call center in the village of Dingwall, the self-proclaimed Viking capital of Scotland, and move the work to India.
The deal has outraged Scottish politicians and labor leaders, with one union official calling on Virgin to return more than $1 billion in government subsidies the company collected last year. Sir Richard Branson may have messed with the wrong Vikings.
Meanwhile in Denver, Colo., the cowboy capital of the West, some lawmakers would like to outlaw offshore outsourcing, the Denver Post reports. Democrats there are pushing for a bill that would forbid the state from working with companies that employ overseas service workers.
A vote on the bill was delayed this week after much questioning from Republican senators. One skeptic pointed out that provision would not let the state hire Microsoft or practically any other major software company to maintain the products it buys from them. Hmmm. Good point.
Well, if it's any consolation, officials from Denver to Dingwall and everywhere in between probably don't have to worry about losing jobs to Indonesia. A new report from Accenture says the place may offer cheap labor, but it's just too scary. Past riots in Jakarta and terrorism in Bali are keeping foreign companies away.