It seems there’s no end to the frustration on Capitol Hill over the behavior of bailed-out banks. On a day when AIG remained the No. 1 target of populist wrath from both parties, 43 House Democrats dashed off a letter to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, blasting the bank’s plan to spend $400 million on expanding its Indian IT workforce.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), whose state has 15,000 JP Morgan Chase employees, can be found after the jump, along with the names of co-signers (including Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank [D-MA]).
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,
Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy Rep. Barney Frank
Rep. Loretta Sanchez Rep. Charles Wilson
Rep. Marcy Kaptur Rep. Betty Sutton
Rep. Tomas Perriello Rep. Joe Baca
Rep. Diane Watson Rep. Peter Welch
Rep. Charles Gonzalez Rep. Lynn Woolsey
Rep. Al Green Rep. Luis Gutierrez
Rep. Paul Hodes Rep. Tim Ryan
Rep. Timothy Bishop Rep. Paul Hodes
Rep. Stephen Lynch Rep. Eric Massa
Rep. Robert Brady Rep. Chellie Pingree
Rep. Bobby Rush Rep. John Oliver
Rep. Chaka Fattah Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Rep. Rubén Hinojosa Rep. James McGovern
Rep. Elijah Cummings Rep. Michael Michaud
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver Rep. Linda Sánchez
Rep. Christopher Carney Rep. Steven Rothman
Rep. Raúl Grijalva Rep. Phil Hare
Rep. Fortney Peter Stark Rep. Michael Capuano
Rep. Daniel Maffei Rep. Harry Teague
Rep. Paul Tonko Rep. John Dingell
