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Subject: ]India Thinkers Net]Pink elephant symbol of UK protests - November12, 2003



Pink elephant symbol of UK protests
K YATISH RAJAWAT

TIMES NEWS NETWORK--WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2003


MUMBAI: The British Communication Workers Union (CWU)
has found an innovative method to generate awareness
about the loss of IT and ITeS jobs to India. CWU has
recruited the services of a &#8216;pink elephant&#8217; to
lobby and demonstrate for the union.

CWU has created a cartoon character, a pink elephant
or &#8216;Pinky&#8217; to use it in its campaign, called &#8216;stop
the job stampede&#8217;. CWU first used Pinky at a British
Telecom shareholders&#8217; meeting, where it was a
roaring success. Now Pinky is being used on
postcards, placards and other campaign material
used by the union. (Will the BPO backlash in the
West affect firms in India?)

Pinky is also being used extensively by the union
in campaigning against the outsourcing of jobs in
small cities like Croydon, Southend, Norwich,
Brentwood, Cambridge, Sandrigham, Reading and
Coventry.

A prancing pink elephant is used to grab the
attention of the crowd in a public place. Once
there is a big enough crowd, people are
requested to sign petitions and contribute
money for campaigning against the outsourcing
of jobs.

The union is also using humans dressed as pink
elephants in all its protests against
outsourcing. And the elephant is attracting
the attention of both the public and the press
in the UK.

The CWU protests started with British Telecom
outsourcing its call centre operations to India.
The protest tactics used by CWU are in sharp
contrast to the approach adopted by US unions,
who are using inexpensive means like the Internet
and e-mail lists to communicate their message.

Indian software companies, who are facing the
brunt of this protest have so far been unable
to get their act together to explain the
rationale for outsourcing.

The National Association of Software and Services
Companies (Nasscom) is spearheading the campaign
for the Indian IT & ITeS industry. It has recently
opened an office in the UK to combat the CWU.
Nasscom&#8217;s efforts in the US have not been very
successful either, though it had been able to
stall legislations in some state legislatures
 
 
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=280390


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