Posted on 03/31/2015 8:05:36 PM PDT by Lorianne
Last month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, held a congressional hearing on the H-1B visa program that eliminated any doubt that some corporations are gaming the system to the severe disadvantage of skilled workers. Last year, the Center for Investigative Reporting reported on abuses of so-called “body shops” — labor brokers who enlist foreign workers abroad, press them into exploitative contracts and cut them undersized checks as they do contract work for established tech concerns that may want to avert the bad publicity. Howard University public policy Professor Ron Hira testified that Washington “inadvertently created a highly profitable business model” to bring in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) professionals at cheaper wages.
The biggest, baddest star of the hearing turned out to be Southern California Edison. The utility plans to lay off 400 IT workers; another 100 workers are leaving voluntarily. What happens to the work? SCE has hired two labor brokers — Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services — to outsource most information technology work overseas, while 20 percent of the work will go to H1-B workers, according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper’s Michael Hiltzik found that the utility paid its domestic IT specialists an average of $120,000, while Infosys and Tata pay recruits an average of $65,000 to $71,000. Infosys and Tata are, by the way, are among the largest beneficiaries of H-1B visas.
The story gets worse. To qualify for severance, SCE workers had to agree to train their replacements and to not criticize the utility in public.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Article title should be:
H-1B visa program needs reform
Seldom mentioned is the practice of just selling visas in overseas markets. There are other than H1-B visa programs that are being abused.
Durbin’s “great” idea to require companies with more than 50 employees to not have more than 50% H-1B employees is laughable. Why 50 employees? All I need to do is create another company when I reach 50. If I decided to exceed 50, for certain my janitors and clerks - all my lowest paying jobs - would be citizens. Then I offset them with cheaper, H-1B workers for the higher paying jobs.
This will drive native employment and wages down.
The proper reform is to shut it down until our children have jobs out of college. It is really pretty simple.
Grassley, age 81, has been in DC so long he thinks talking is an accomplishment. He’s announced he will run again.
This is what the corporatists want, a nation with open borders and no restrictions on immigration. The free trade movement was Phase one to outsource our jobs. Phase 2 is break the back of the American culture by massive immigration. Obamas TPP will open the gates to an immigration free for all.
The inevitable cultural fragmentation allows the political elites to have their way with an even more low information society. There are still some who believe unabashed corporatism is good for conservatives. When the middle’class is diminished the plutocrats will have no opposition to expanding their oligarchy. A USA without sovereignty ruled by a Congress of corrupt lackies is what they want.
A clean sweep purge and term limits sounds good to me. Once they get through one term they’ve learned how to play the system for them, not America.
Yeah, call it the racist slavery act.
I would end it, or at least freeze it for a decade
Simply cancel H1B.
The basic reason for it is an outrageous lie: there aren’t enough people with the right technical skills.
Utter crap. The recent mass layoffs at SoCal Edison and replacement with H1Bs shows that to be a crass lie.
The U.S. Has no need for immigrants of any sort. The people with the needs are the immigrants themselves: they want to come to get out of crapholes and move to a place where they can live at a level wildly above anything in their countries.
The job openings will fill themselves with the natives when supply and demand equilibriate. That will happen when the pricing is right.
Basic economics.
Grassley, age 81, has been in DC so long he thinks talking is an accomplishment. He’s announced he will run again.
From the article:
Last month, Senate Judiciary Committee CHAIRMAN Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, held a congressional hearing on the H-1B visa program that eliminated any doubt that some corporations are gaming the system to the severe disadvantage of skilled workers. Last year, the Center for Investigative Reporting reported on
Sen. Dick DURBIN, D-Ill., proclaimed, “I want to put the H-1B factories out of business.” His remedy: a rule to prohibit firms with more than 50 employees from having more than 50 percent H-1B visa workers. Billhardt thought it was a grand idea. So do I.
Frankly I am glad that fiiinally someone is addressing this growing problem.
How many of these low wage
H1B workers will be hired by left wing West Coast digital companies like Google, Apple, Intel, and MS?
The ideal situation would involve repealing the 1965 Immigration Act as well as regulation removal.
The story gets worse. To qualify for severance, SCE workers had to agree to train their replacements and to not criticize the utility in public.
Unfortunately, that is an easy way to muzzle speech by holding the severance over their heads. Would be nice to see some loopholes in both provisions, such that guest workers were ill-trained and that accurate criticism of the company still could be made.
Unfortunately Durbin, Sessions, Vitter and Grassley seem to be the only ones that had any concern at all. Most other Senators think it is fine.
I don’t think any of the Presidential candidates care. I think Donald Trump or Santorum are the only ones who might bring the issue up.
One thing I like about turban Durbin is he doesn’t want H1B visas to increase in their own bill, because he is worried the tech lobby won’t stay in the fight for amnesty for 12 million illegals.
Unfortunately Durbin, Sessions, Vitter and Grassley seem to be the only ones that had any concern at all. Most other Senators think it is fine.
I don’t think any of the Presidential candidates care. I think Donald Trump or Santorum are the only ones who might bring the issue up.
One thing I like about turban Durbin is he doesn’t want H1B visas to increase in their own bill, because he is worried the tech lobby won’t stay in the fight for amnesty for 12 million illegals.
Interesting point about Durban’s motivation BTW.
H-1B needs to be killed.
Until Rush Limbaugh comes to his senses about gloBULLism and renounces free trade and open borders, Freepers will not care.
Some Xerox employees must train their H1B replacements. Once trained, the old employees get fired, and the newly trained H1B’s take over.
Meanwhile, Xerox president Ursula Burns is advising 0Bama on ‘jobs creation’.
If they’re training the replacements, can’t we assume that they’re qualified to do the job?
WTF is going on here?
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