But I still think it stinks.
Posted on 07/08/2014 4:39:20 PM PDT by upchuck
Maybe it’s time we re-think what a proud American brand the Harley Davidson motorcycle company is. Not too long ago I told you about the man whose warranty claim was rejected by the company because he was flying an American flag on his bike. And who can forget their new addition of an all-electric motorcycle (seriously?) But those things pale in comparison to a story I just found: Harley Davidson uses the services of a company that helps them replace fairly paid American employees with cheap foreign-born workers through the H-1B visa program.
The LA Daily News tells us about Kelly Parker, a divorced mother of three, who landed her dream job at Harley Davidson in tech support. That dream turned into a nightmare when she was laid off less than a year later, replaced by an H-1B “guest worker” from India. The biggest indignation: Parker had to train her replacement before she was fired.
The company that helped Kelly Parker to the unemployment line is the India-based Infosys Ltd. What they do is help companies like Harley Davidson ditch their American workers in favor of lower cost Asians and Indians. They do this through the H-1B visa program, which allows foreigners special access to America if they can fill jobs that no American is capable of or willing to do.
Of course, the H-1B program has been completely abused by companies that want to cut labor costs. Instead of shipping jobs overseas, they bring overseas here to take American jobs. Different scheme; same results. Americans lose jobs.
The H-1B program is supposed to be for filling skilled and tech jobs, but what this government created clusterf**k really does is get Americans fired and keep them from ever getting hired in the first place. Companies do not have to prove that there are no Americans available for a given position, and, as we’ve seen with Kelly Parker, are perfectly within their rights to can an American that already holds a position.
Hey, Obama was right. The immigration system is broken and badly in need of repair. However, the problem isn’t that we aren’t letting millions of illegal aliens become citizens, it’s that even with legal immigration Americans are getting screwed.
It should be noted that Obama and the democrats are not only pushing amnesty, but also a massive expansion of the H-1B program, which will put even more Americans out of work.
This is how messed up things currently are: no one even keeps statistics on how many H-1B workers there are in the US. The best estimates put the number at around 600,000. Let that sink in for a moment. Well over a half a million mostly skilled and high-tech jobs are occupied by foreigners while a record number of Americans can’t find work. And Obama wants to expand this? What an a$$hole.
So while the federal government and apparently Harley Davidson are working against the interests of American workers, Kelly Parker is doing something uniquely American: she is fighting back. She has joined a federal lawsuit that claims in part that Infosys Ltd. has discriminated against workers based on their country of origin by replacing Americans with foreigners. I hope like hell the lawsuit succeeds. It won’t end the H-1B visa scam, but it might make companies a little more reluctant to abuse the program.
So Harley Davidson is just like any other corporation where the bottom line is the only important thing. They are not unique is this cold heartless approach to running a business. However, Harley sells itself as a brand that represents freedom and the American way. I guess now we all know that’s just an image cooked up by some ad agency, because their recent actions tell a different story.
Doing the jobs that Americans won’t do . . . . uh . . . . wait a minute . . . . . never mind . . . . .
Good thing we are bringing hundreds of thousands of low-skilled, poorly educated ‘workers’ into the U.S. since there’s such a shortage of people in need of job...
Sounds like time to buy an Indian motorcycle...or will that name be changed for political correctness? /s;)
Buy a Honda. They don’t hire foreign labor.
LOL that’s a good one.
In our local Independence Day parade there was a Pearl Harbor survivor riding in a Honda SUV.
Only a few of us old guys got the irony.
Harley didn’t do this and more likely an unintended outcome.
They’ll likely remedy.
They’re good guys.
I got to see the museum in York, PA unattended after an appointment. No one goes in there alone and I felt like I was at the Vatican.
Not surprised though. I'm in the position to peer into the makeup of many of the IT datacenters and NOC's. More and more there are people with names, accents, and attitudes that pretty much indicate "they're not from around here". It's when I see these name and hear these voices coming from email domain names that you wouldn't expect it that I get concerned. We hear through the grapevine how upper management wants more H1b visa's because they can't find the skills, but when they come an American worker is let go to "make room" (ie. save $$$). The $$$ guys feel anyone with a certification, fancy resume and a visa is a steal. Trouble is, most of it is faked, and even after forcing the American IT worker to train his/her replacement, that person hasn't learned the job and usually ends up calling their friends or company vendors to do their job for them.
Makes me sick, and I'm working to "Go Galt" over it...!
Unions and the minimum wage are job killers, crippling the free enterprise system. Add to that the burdensome regulations imposed by the hussein/holder crime syndicate as well as the confiscatory taxes, it’s remarkable that any corporation is able to make a profit nowadays. Get rid of the NLRB, EPA, OSHA and the minimum wage. Then America will come roaring back as commie Red China is reduced again to a third world backwater.
We’ll get rid of them meddlesome things and America will swamp every country out their.
It’s a work ethic thing.
Zee Fwench sure don’t have it and china only makes products best sold on Canal Street, in Manhattan.
But I still think it stinks.
Hey, they’re making ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES NOW for God’s sake.
That Honda may be more American than a Chevy truck. Check the VIN.
It should also be noted that Republicans are pushing for an expansion of H-1B just as hard.
>>Buy a Honda<<
Rather walk twenty miles over broken glass barefooted.
Sounds like Harley may be going back to it’s AMF day’s.
But will Indian fill their tech support positions with...Indians?
Seriously, most of the time I call customer service lines these days I get someone with a thick accent. I’ve been to job fairs a where they had openings for customer support specialists “bilingual only”, meaning Hispanics only. Now when I get someone with an accent I don’t even waste my time with them. I tell them, “I’m sorry but I can’t understand you because of your accent. I would like to speak to someone whose first language is English please”. Frankly I don’t care if they are offended, because I’m offended that companies won’t hire native born Americans.
Who started the H1B program?
I tried to have a conversation with a state employee once and couldn’t understand her. I told her I didn’t speak Swahili. I heard her screaming something in Swahili as I was hanging up.
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Should've been in a Mazda ... here's a pic of Mazda's Hiroshima plant ,, I hear they got the land for a great price..
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