GUILTY? Trump Fashion Painting Twisted Truth

TIM STELLER, a very talented Tucson Arizona Daily Star investigative reporter and columnist paints a half truth story of incentives used by government to steal or otherwise attract employment to our state. In his headline story, "Incentives are fine, but job deals have to be good" he cites a number of failures of companies that moved to Tucson lured by incentives then packed up and left. One of those companies Steller points to was American Airlines who opened a "call center" in 1991 building a new building and at one time was home to approximately 1,500 employees. He places them with Weiser Lock who while giving the company credit for bringing 1,100 jobs to Tucson and being a good corporate citizen "sponsoring the Copper Bowl for several years" but eventually moving its' operations to Mexico. Yes, American Airlines updated their operations in Tucson and closed their physical call center plant, but they did not leave Tucson and like so many other companies move their operations overseas or out of the country. No one in India, the Philippines or Mexico are answering calls for American Airlines. Many calls are still being answered right here in Tucson from the same skilled, company trained dedicated call center specialists as before the building was closed in 2012 and many of their employees became stationed in their homes. A couple facts, the Philippines was purchased from Spain in 1898 it became a US commonwealth in 1935 and remained so until independence was finally given in 1946, after the World War II. Official languages are Filipino and English giving way to why so many companies have moved their operations to lower wage English speaking Philippine Islands. American Airlines is a permanent fixture in Arizona with a huge presence out of both Tucson and Phoenix. New labor contracts have moved their "call center" home-based employees to the top of the wage, benefits packages for the United States. Mr. Steller's characterization of American Airlines as an incentive based corporate failure is totally without merit. American Airlines move to Tucson lead the way to a number of other employment based call centers, job opportunities and payrolls feeding a growing Southern Arizona economy. Not all marriages work out, and not all business proposals are perfect, let's hope Comcast's huge move opening a customer support center in Tucson works for them and additional incentive programs bring more solid employment to our area. Another factor not mentioned in the STELLER article about American Airlines is the still active full-time American Airlines employees feeding their payroll dollars into the Tucson economy are the thousands of dollars received each month by the dozens of retired American Airline folks also paying handsome returns on the incentives used to lure the call center to Tucson.