Proponents expect a major fight at the state Capitol over legislation that would bar state work from being outsourced overseas. Unions representing public employees say the debate highlights the problems caused by privatizing public services.

?It?s going to be a major fight,? said Jim Monroe, executive director of MAPE, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, the second-largest state employee union. ?We?re hoping people wake up to this problem.?

The issue came to light when the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that certain state functions ? namely the handling of calls regarding food stamps and some software programming for the Department of Human Services ? are being performed in India. Both services were first contracted out to private companies, which then arranged to have the work done overseas.

Legislation sponsored by Reps. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, and Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, and Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, would prohibit the state from signing contracts with firms that perform the work overseas.

The legislation had a first reading in both houses of the Legislature and was referred to committees.

Pete Benner, director of AFSCME Council 6, the largest state employee union, predicted the measure will not pass the Minnesota House because of Republican opposition. But he said members will mobilize to support the legislation as part of their larger campaign to maintain the quality of public services.

?Our main issue is that we prevent the privatization and contracting out of jobs we?re now doing,? Benner said. ?It is legitimate for us to be raising questions about contracting out jobs, whether it?s to Illinois or India.?

Both Monroe and Benner said it is ironic that Gov. Tim Pawlenty is promoting economic development in Minnesota while allowing tax-funded services to be performed outside the state.

?It strikes me as very weird for the governor to be pushing his enterprise zones, his job zones, at the very same time . . . (he) clearly will do nothing to prevent the loss of jobs paid for by tax money,? Benner noted.

The irony was not lost on Steelworkers District 11 Director David Foster, who fired off a letter to Pawlenty shortly after the Pioneer Press published its report.

Foster described how more than 2,400 Minnesota steelworkers on the Iron Range and in the Twin Cities have lost their jobs due to global trade in the past two years. ?I urge you to cancel these contracts and move these jobs back to Minnesota as quickly as possible so laid-off steelworkers and other Minnesotans can benefit from them,? Foster wrote.

White collar workers no longer feel their education and skills keep them immune from the pressures of the global economy. Last fall, a Congressional committee released a report documenting thousands of jobs, including some 3,400 government positions, that had been outsourced to India, Russia and other countries where highly educated workers earn a fraction of the U.S. wage.

?It?s not unique to Minnesota,? said Monroe. ?It?s going on all across the country.?

Contracting out ? and the movement of jobs overseas ? would escalate under new trade agreements being promoted by the Bush administration.

?Privatization of public services would be mandated under these new trade deals,? Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition Coordinator Larry Weiss testified at a Congressional hearing in St. Paul. ?Under terms of these deals, public services would have to be opened up to private bidding, regardless of the will of the citizens affected or the state and local officials who currently set such policies.?

?Other trading rules being negotiated under an agreement known as GATS also push privatization of public-sector jobs, including postal jobs and in education. Further rules potentially give overseas workers access to American jobs in areas such as construction, transportation, utilities and health care.?

To track the progress of the outsourcing legislation, go to the Legislature?s website, www.leg.state.mn.us. Click on ?Legislation and Bill Status? and enter the bill?s numbers, H.F. 1816 and S.F. 1792.