Agencies Posted online: Saturday, September 08, 2007 at 1813 hours IST
Washington, September 8: Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has received backing from leading Indian Americans, is walking a fine line on the sensitive outsourcing issue as key labour unions withhold endorsements pending clear position from the candidates on it, a leading American newspaper has said.
The Washington Post has profiled the predicament of Senator Clinton in a front page article contrasting the two different positions she has taken on the issue over the last two years.
Clinton has been pressed by labour leaders on her support for expanding temporary US work visas that often go to Indians who get jobs in the US, the report said.
"There is no way to legislate against reality. Outsourcing will continue. We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of putting up fences," Clinton told Indian business leaders in New Delhi in 2005 and two years later she as a Presidential hopeful told students in New Hampshire that she hated ‘seeing US telemarketing jobs done in remote locations far, far from our shores’.
"The two speeches delivered continents apart highlight the delicate balance the senator from New York is seeking to maintain as she courts two competing constituencies – wealthy Indian immigrants who have pledged to donate and raise as much as USD 5 million for her 2008 campaign and powerful American labor unions that are crucial to any Democratic primary victory," The Post said.
"The India issue is still something people are concerned about. Her financial relationships, her quotes -- they have both gotten attention," Thea M Lee, Policy Director for the AFL-CIO told The Post.
Under pressure from political opponents within the party Clinton, according to The Post, has recently pleaded with her allies in the Indian American community to press Indian companies to invest more in the US in return for the jobs they have gained through outsourcing -- or risk a backlash.
"If the United States continues to outsource jobs to India in increasingly large numbers, people will begin to feel insecure and may very well seek more protection against what they view as unfair competition," Clinton told US Alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology in California this July.
"America is not just a marketplace to get a foothold in. It's a place to make lasting investments that will create jobs and economic growth for everyone" she added.
In spite of some aggressive courting by Democratic candidates unions such as the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the Service Emploees International Union have withheld their endorsements.
Clinton declined repeated requests for an interview about her views on outsourcing with her campaign advisers saying that there are no inconsistencies in the comments she has made here and in India or in her actions as a senator.
The report said that among labour officials, a nagging question about Hillary Clinton's commitment to protecting US jobs stems from a deal she helped broker for Tata Consulting, one of India's largest technology firms.
