Carnival HeadquartersCBS4 Local News is reporting that Carnival Corporation is eliminating 200 positions from its IT departments across its brands, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Lines and Princess Cruises.  

The local news station writes that a French company which holds itself out as a “global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing services” is offering offering new jobs – with only six months of guaranteed employment – to Carnival’s IT employees. CBS4 News says that the cruise line is pressuring its IT employees to sign agreements to participate in “knowledge transfer activities.”

Carnival told CBS4 that "all impacted individuals will become employees of Capgemini.”

But what Carnival did not admit is that "Capgemini is "outsourcing the work to India because that was the only way it could provide the IT services to Carnival at the rate paid to them by the company,” according to Sara Blackwell, a labor attorney, who is giving advice to the soon-to-be-displaced Carnival employees.

You can read about Capgemini’s Indian operations here.

According to CBS4, a Carnival PR spokesman said that the move was to improve performance and not save money. "Asked if the employees were being asked to train others how to do their jobs, Frizzell responded: ‘Not trained, but they will be involved in showcasing the processes related to the function in order for Capgemini to provide stronger and better service to Carnival Corporation and its brands.’”

Labor lawyer Blackwell told CBS4 that Carnival was dumping its IT employees: “The Carnival executives dumped oil in the ocean with the Princess Cruise line and now they are throwing away American workers for foreign slave labor. The executives of Carnival should be ashamed and should have to face the families that they have destroyed merely days before Christmas."

Other cruise lines have outsourced jobs before to minimize costs and maximize profits. Three years ago Royal Caribbean’s call center was unceremoniously moved to Guatemala where workers earned substantially less with no real benefits.

Carnival is reportedly cutting 200 IT jobs,140 of which are here in Miami.

Carnival’s outsourcing is part of Arnold Donald’s costs cutting steps which he initiated years ago. Money saved – yes; but at the expense of terminating loyal employees? Not to mention running the risk of demoralizing the remaining staff while offering substandard services?

I hope that Carnival’s outsourced IT sales office in India works better than the service center in India which I have to call when I’m having a computer problem.

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The CBS4 article was written by Jim DeFede, a former journalist for the Miami New Times who in the 1990’s authored articles critical of Carnival penny-pinching ways, including Is Mickey A Greedy Corporate Pig?, which is one of my favorite articles in addition to an article written by Ted Kissell titled The Deep Blue Greed – The Arison Clan Built Carnival into a Money Machine by Cleverly Avoiding Tax Laws.

Photo credit: Coolcaesar at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons / wikimedi

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December 14, 2016 Update:  CBS4 updates its article (video below) regarding Carnival Corporation’s termination of its IT employees. It turns out that the displaced Carnival employees do not have a guarantee of 6 months employment with the new foreign employer.   

Article: Carnival Cruise Line forces fired employees to train foreign replacements.

Breibart covers the Carnival outsourcing during this Christmas season . . . 

"This U.S. Company Just Laid Off Hundreds Of Employees For Reason You’ll Never Believe!" via Faith Family America.  

 

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