I've heard quite a few arguments regarding the ethics of off-shore outsourcing, and quite a few others about the ethics of soaring gas and oil prices in a year of record profits by oil companies. Now, like chocolate and peanut butter, the two have been combined by the union representing Royal Dutch Shell's IT workers.

It seems that plans are proceeding apace at Shell to off-shore significant amounts of IT work, and the union reps are perhaps understandably upset that this cost-cutting measure comes just as Shell reported the largest one-year profit of all time for any British company, ever.

Although I sympathize with the workers' plight, one wonders where their ethics were when the computers they support displaced traditional office workers who had been shuffling paper quite comfortably in centralized urban spaces up to that time. Oh, that's right, they could be retrained and moved out to the country where lower utility rates and real estate costs make data center installations more advantageous. Perhaps Shell's IT staff could move to India and make a few adjustments in their lifestyle and transportation habits.

In fact, business efficiency is business efficiency whether it is exercised in a time of high profits or low. Along with most American consumers, I hope that Congress reams Big Oil a new one over a state of affairs which seems suspiciously like pricing collusion, but that responsibility which may have been breached to consumers doesn't cover staff... in fact, the more that efficiency can be increased, the more the potential benefit to both customer and shareholder. Shell's IT staff are driving gas prices up themselves by refusing to go quietly; it hardly seems as if they can use the argument to defend their positions.