Free Republic

Applied Materials reportedly to cut more jobsBy Semiconductor Business News July 11, 2003 (12:48 p.m. EST) URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030711S0020SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Heading into the Semicon West trade show next week, Applied Materials Inc. is planning to cut 2,000 more jobs, including management, according to a Reuters report on Friday (July 11). The cuts are part of an ongoing effort by Applied to reduce costs. It also represents the first big move made by Michael Splinter, the new chief executive of the chip-equipment giant. In April, Applied named Splinter, a former Intel Corp. executive, president, chief executive officer and a...

India's tech industry defends H-1B, outsource rolesBy K.C. Krishnadas, EE Times July 10, 2003 (3:53 p.m. EST) URL: http://www.theworkcircuit.com/story/OEG20030710S0050BANGALORE, India — Fearful that the United States will restrict the use of outsourcing services or limit the number of H-1B visas granted to immigrant workers, India's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) is doing some proactive damage control, releasing a report designed to allay industry concerns in both the United States and India. The United States continues to be the main market for Indian software and technical services, but the Nasscom report reveals that the number of H-1B...

File photo of staff walking in Infosys Technologies campus at Electronics City in Bangalore, January 20, 2003. Global firms such as IBM and Accenture are increasingly taking advantage of relatively low wages to hire software engineers in India, lifting the pressure on local firms already struggling with tighter margins. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski The newly opened International Tech Park in Bangalore, India Global tech firms compete to hire Indian staff ADVERTISEMENT Click to enlarge photo By Anshuman Daga BANGALORE (Reuters) - Global firms such as IBM and Accenture are increasingly taking advantage of relatively low wages to hire software engineers in India,...

KPMG Decries High Corporate Taxes in India, Wants Pared to 25% Our Markets Bureau in MumbaiBusiness Standard, February 28, 2003KPMG wants corporate tax rates pared to 25 per centCorporate tax rates should be further reduced to 25 per cent and the difference in tax rates between domestic and foreign companies should be removed, according to KPMG.The consultancy major has sought further relaxations in the recommendations made by the Kelkar Committee and, according to it, corporate tax rates need to be reduced in line with the rates prevailing in other countries. The suggestion comes in the backdrop of a proposal to...

IBM launches Indian design centerBy K.C. Krishnadas, EE Times May 21, 2003 (7:56 AM) URL: http://www.eedesign.com/story/OEG20030521S0022BANGALORE, India — IBM Corp. will establish a new technology design center to supply advanced chips, cards and systems to companies across Asia. The center, based here, will coordinate regional engineering, research and technology design services from various IBM locations around the world. It will also design a variety of new electronic products for customers, ranging from chips to entire systems. IBM's other technology centers, which assist customers in designing new products, are located in the United States (five) and one each in Germany...

Folks, I've been looking for a job for weeks without success. While searching on Dice.com, I found an ad targeting anyone with an H1 visa to transfer! Whoever says workers on visas don't take jobs from Americans is smoking crack. Foreign workers send money "home" thereby taking money out of the US economy. They take both old and new jobs away from Citizens. This might be fine during times of economic boom, but it's a shame during times like now. Call and write your representatives in Congress asking them to, on an emergency basis, deny ALL H1 and L1 visas...

Friday March 28, 5:23 PM Backlash against Indian IT professionals on upswing By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service ADVERTISEMENT Bangalore, Mar 28 (IANS) The backlash against Indian information technology (IT) professionals working abroad is on the upswing, industry officials aver, pointing to the action by Dutch authorities against an Indian software developer. "This is clearly a backlash against the Indians. The Indians have come under the spotlight after growing unemployment and the downturn of economies in Europe now," contended the CEO of a software company. Senthil Kumar, CEO of i-Flex's Dutch subsidiary, was detained in London on Holland's request...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. ROCK SPRINGS -- A group of Utah investors are planning to reopen the historic Stansbury Coal Mine located just north of Rock Springs and again become Wyoming's only underground coal mining operation, officials involved in the effort said Wednesday. The backers behind the new underground coal-mining venture are hoping the high BTU content of the coal seams will be attractive to markets outside of Wyoming, particularly electrical markets in southern California, Utah and Colorado. New Stansbury Coal Company, LCC officials also said they want to eventually produce and market a new...

ZURICH, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse (CSGZn.VX) insisted on Friday it was adequately capitalised, hoping to quash fears it might need to raise fresh capital which sent its ailing shares down over 15 percent to their lowest in over nine years. "Due to the drop in its share price yesterday and today, Credit Suisse Group wishes to announce that it is not aware of any objective reasons prompting this development," Switzerland's second-largest financial conglomerate said in a brief statement. "The group's present capital resources remain adequate, and as stated before, no capital increase of the group is planned," it...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- There were years, Omar Belazi says, when he willingly logged 65-hour weeks, stayed late to vacuum the store's floor and clean the bathroom, and surrendered his Sundays to hit sales targets.</p> <p>But a decade later he grew tired of waiting for the payback.</p>

Bush Ban on Discriminatory Union-Only Contracting Upheld by Appellate CourtNational Right to Work Foundation helps to successfully defend Bush Executive OrderFOR RELEASE: July 15, 2002 WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 15, 2002) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the Bush Administration’s Executive Order 13202, which bans discriminatory union-only contracts, also known as project labor agreements (PLAs), on federally funded construction projects. In support of the Bush administration, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation filed an amicus curiae (Friend of the Court) brief with Associated Builders and Contractors and the U.S. Chamber...

NEW YORK -- In the 1990s, the Northeast region lost the equivalent of the population of Connecticut and relied heavily on new immigrants to support its labor force, according to a Northeastern University study. The Northeast's share of the country's population growth has declined since the 1930s, but the '90s marked the first time that the region would have had negative population growth if immigrants had not moved in. That translated into more than 2.7 million residents leaving the six New England states plus New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Many of those residents were young, educated workers heading to...

WASHINGTON - Employers are not required under US civil rights laws to hire disabled workers whose mental or physical handicap might endanger their own health or safety on the job. In a major decision restricting the scope of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the US Supreme Court has ruled that Congress did not intend to force employers to hire workers with disabilities that might pose a direct threat to others as well as to themselves in the workplace. Instead, Congress left the issue open for interpretation by federal agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enact regulations...

<p>Employees are putting a newfound emphasis on family over work despite anxieties about layoffs and a slow economic recovery.</p> <p>This family focus is being attributed to a shift in priorities after Sept. 11 and a backlash to the hard-driving mentality of the dot-com boom. But it's also having repercussions on employers, many of whom are finding they can't slash family-friendly programs, even in a slackening labor market.</p>

NewsMax.com / Commentary How Big Brother Plans Your CareerWes Vernon, NewsMax.com Tuesday, May 14, 2002 WASHINGTON – The School to Work program, which is written into U.S. law, aims to decide for your children what line of work they should be trained and educated for, according to the needs of the state, collaborating with big business. It has all the appearances of a back-door approach to the police state. William L. Shirer, in his book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” cites this phenomenon in Nazi Germany: "[The workbook was introduced] and eventually no worker could be hired...

When Americans Became Soft, Hispanic Workers Stepped inRichmond Times-Dispatch - April 16, 2002There's been una sensacin pe quea (a small sensation) lately about "Speedy Gonzales," the fastest mouse in Mexico.The Cartoon Network pulled the Academy Award-winning cartoon from its lineup in 1999 because of poor ratings and concerns that the hard-working Speedy - and his cigar-smoking, alcohol-swilling compaeros he's always trying to straighten up - reinforced negative racial stereotypes.Since then, some U.S. Latino groups have been lobbying hard to get Speedy back on the air here. (By the way, The Cartoon Network Latin America still broadcasts him south of the...

Jane Sims always knew her husband was a valuable employee to Wal-Mart. She just didn't know how valuable. Sims discovered recently that Wal-Mart, the company her husband, Douglas, worked for before he died, had taken out a life insurance policy in his name. When Douglas Sims died in 1998 of a sudden heart attack, Wal-Mart received about $64,000. She got nothing from that policy. "I never dreamed that they could profit from my husband's death," said Sims, whose husband worked in receiving at Wal-Mart's distribution center in Plainview for 11 years. Companies routinely take out secret life insurance policies...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. NEW ORLEANS -- A reduction in the number of external space shuttle fuel tanks being ordered by NASA will cost 325 workers their jobs at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. At the same time, the space agency warned the company, a division of Lockheed Martin Corp., that more reductions could be coming in tank production. Lockheed said that if that occurs, additional job reductions could be necessary. "Any further reduction in the external tank production would impact the work force beyond the 325 jobs announced today," said Lockheed spokesman Marion LaNasa....

Sharon Lattiker has two master's degrees and is finishing up a PhD. But it's another credential earned more than a decade ago that controls her career: felon. Even after a pardon from the governor of Illinois, Ms. Lattiker's check-fraud conviction makes landing her dream job as a public-school principal nearly impossible. "The X is always on your back," she says. Nationwide, a growing number of convicted felons are seeking to erase any trace of past crimes as more employers perform background checks on job applicants – particularly since 9/11. About a dozen states do wipe out at least some felony...

It's not hard to figure out why the Bush administration and the Republican congressional leadership are wooing the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. They want the union to lobby for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. And they really want support and endorsements in states like Michigan and Ohio, where the union's members may hold the balance of power in key House and Senate races—and even in the 2004 presidential election. Less well understood is why Teamster President James P. Hoffa—who endorsed Al Gore and agrees with the Democrats on most issues—is courting the Republicans right back....