Blogs

On August 27^th, the Black Economic Council (BEC) will lead a protest at the Apple Computer Retail Store in Palo Alto, CA. located at 451 University Ave. The protest will begin sharply at 11:45 AM.

This is follow-on to the event held June 10^th, 2011, when the BEC and other minority leaders held a protest and press conference at the San Francisco Union Square Apple store to raise awareness of key issues related to the lack of employment and business opportunities for Americans.

Apple Inc. along with several other Silicon Valley leading companies refused to submit requested EE0-1 data, calling the information 'trade secrets'. Although based on the Freedom of Information Actthe data should have been released; Apple and other companies argued that the release of employee race and gender data "would cause 'commercial harm' by potentially revealing the company's business strategy to competitors." Apple and others convinced federal regulators not to require the release of this data over the 18-month Freedom of Information battle launched by Mike Swift, a San Jose Mercury reporter.

In 2010, this information was again requested, this time by the Black Economic Council along with several other leading advocacy groups. These groups not only requested EEO-1 data, but also the company's supplier diversity program data. No information has yet been conveyed. The lack of transparency on issues related to business practices is not a highly regarded strategy.

John Sims, a law professor at the University of the Pacific and an expert in FOIA law, called the objections to release EEO-1 data by Apple, Google and others "absurd."

Northern California has been hard hit by outsourcing, according to a study done by the Brookings Institution, which estimates that between 2004 and 2015, the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas will lose between 3.1% and 4.3% of their jobs to outsourcing.  The Sacramento metro area is also estimated to suffer significantly from this problem, losing between 2.1% and 2.5% of its jobs to outsourcing during the same time period. 

Occupations considered particularly vulnerable to outsourcing include middle class jobs such as manufacturing positions, as well as office support, financial and technical professions such as data entry and payroll clerks, auditors and tax preparers, computer programmers, software engineers and technical writers. Positions such as medical transcriptionists and paralegals are also viewed as highly vulnerable.

Congressman Jerry McNerney introduced legislation to stop American jobs from going overseas.  H.R. 5622, the 'Stop Outsourcing and Create American Jobs Act of 2010', was created to prevent job losses by cracking down on tax loopholes that encourage corporations to ship jobs abroad and helping to ensure that corporations with government contracts are not using the taxpayers' money to ship jobs overseas. 

Apple like Google has used the excuse that the Bush administration gave them a "wavier" which allowed these companies not to submit EEO data to anyone, including the U.S. Department of Justice or the Department of Labor. These companies like the banks that were deemed too big to fail, have taken a stand that they are too big and too powerful to comply with federal laws and regulations.

Taxpayer dollars are used to fund federal contracts for these Silicon Valley firms and instead of investing in Americans, they invest in non-U.S tax paying foreign labor. According to the Wall Street Journal in an April 2011 article, there are 5.5 million Americans unemployed and not receiving any unemployment benefits. The success of Apple's products is based on the support of American consumers and taxpayers who are being replaced by non-tax paying foreign labor.

The destabilization of the American economy, caused by the "Anti-American" hiring and business practices of Apple Inc. under the leadership of CEO Steve Jobs, is inevitable unless we stop the outsourcing of our jobs and manufacturing to other countries.

The Black Economic Council along with community leaders seek to meet with the leadership at Apple to address these critical issues including the provision of employment and contract data to establish a baseline to work from, with the goal of establishing a strategy with measurable results to increase employment and contract opportunities for Americans.

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The Apple Store is located in the University Avenue shopping district, at 451 University in Palo Alto, situated at the cross street of Kipling across the street from Varsity Borders.

Traveling on Hwy101, take exit 403 for University Avenue and head west towards Stanford University. The Apple Store will be 1.5 miles ahead on the right.

On public transit, the closest Caltrain stop is the Palo Alto station.

Visit us online at http://www.BlackEconomicCouncil.com

CONTACT

Yolanda Lewis 

(866) 856-4570  

lencanty@blackeconomiccouncil.org

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress.  Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground.  They want rain without thunder and lightning.  They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.  Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."---------------- Fredrick Douglass

About the Black Economic Council (BEC)

The Black Economic Council (BEC) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization created to provide Black Americans an economic platform that facilitates business formation, job creation, access to capital, home ownership, affordable housing, financial fitness and equal opportunity for employment in the workforce. The mission of the BEC is to promote the self-sufficiency of Black-American communities through structured economic development.