Forget Irag, War has Broken Out Here

Times Of India ^ | 10/30/02 | Gurbir SinH

[FlyingA]

NEW DELHI: The role of H-1B visa workers in increasing unemployment is generating heat in the upper echelons of US politics. A study is being conducted by the US' federal department for accounting, called the General Accounting Office, on the impact of H-1B visa workers on US jobs.

The study will be ready by next year, and will form a significant input to the September '03 debate in the US Congress on letting the H-1B visa cap shrink from 1.95 lakh to 65,000 in '04.

GAO undertook the study after two Democrat members on the US House Committee on Science — James Barcia and Lynn Rivers — put in a request to GAO for gauging the impact of the H-1B visa programme on unemployment.

Voices in the US are rising about the unemployment impact of H-1B visa programme, with associations like the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers opposing the role played by H-1B visa workers in increasing unemployment of US engineers.

The influential body of electronics and electrical engineers in the US, IEEE, has this to say about the H-1B visa programme in a middle-of-the-year pronouncement.

"IEEE-USA opposes any further extension and/or additional increases in the H-1B visa quota for entry of skilled guest workers, especially in light of the current economic downturn and record high unemployment among electrical engineers and computer scientists."

IEEE says that if market forces are not satisfying demand for skilled technical workers in the US, then displaced US engineers and computer science professionals should be retrained, school-level math and science education improved, and immigration reforms that facilitate permanent immigration visas for skilled foreign-born engineers and scientists seeking US citizenship be pushed strongly.

Individual cases of US workers complaining to various US courts on being replaced on job by H-1B workers are also routinely coming to light. Examples abound in the US media of American technology workers going to court over displacement by H-1B visa holders. Jenlih Hsieh, a 50-year-old US tech worker, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that SwitchOn Networks of Milpitas fired him after six months and replaced him with an H-1B worker.

According to the complaint, filed by attorney Phillip Griego, the H-1B worker was earning $30,000 less a year. The US Department of Justice is also routinely investigating cases involving displacement of US workers by H-1B replacements.

The grassroots anger against H-1B workers is best exemplified by web sites like zazona.com, run by an unemployed engineer Rob Sanchez. The site claims that in '01, nine out of 10 US technology jobs were taken over by H-1B workers.

Then there's the case of Linda Evans, a US resident, who writes loads of letters to elected Federal officials asking for abolition of H-1B visa after her husband was laid off.

Obviously exaggerated sentiments, but deeply reflective of the public and political mood in the US against H-1B visas. As a technology journal says, in '03, when the H-1B cap debate begins in the US Senate, it will basically be high-tech firms lobbying for more foreign workers against a political and industrial opinion concerned by rising unemployment among US hi-tech workers.

[FlyingA]

www.zazona.com

[glorgau]

Obviously exaggerated sentiments,

Nope, not exagerated.

[FlyingA]

There will be a war here and it will concentrate on two fronts. One, to keep our IT jobs here and out of foreign countries. Two, to declare war of the H1-B visa program and to effectively shut it down and to deport all foreign workers.
What I'm also hearing and I pray that it's not true is organizations getting together in front of major companies to point out those who are foreign to this country. From what I've heard they want to take pictures to identify those so they can be rounded up and deported. I don't agree with this but there are those desparate enough out there to do something drastic.

[Revolting cat!]

letting the H-1B visa cap shrink from 1.95 lakh to 65,000 in '04.

Sorry, as a liberal arts graduate I don't understand scientific notation - what exactly is "1.95 lakh"?

[FlyingA]

Not trying to come across totally synical but, we are in mid-flight of a nose dive, and at the least, job-availablity wise. plus the gov wants to harbor more people than it can handle,, case in point below

On Friday, November 2, the President signed H.R. 2215, 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act, into law. This bill includes a provision that allows H-1B visa holders to extend their stay beyond the statutory six-year period if a labor certification has been pending for at least 365 days. INS is expected to issue guidance shortly on the evidence required by petitioners seeking to take advantage of this provision. In the interim, ACIP advises members to consult with legal counsel on the potential benefits of this measure to your pending cases.

We are going to pay to float forigners to take our jobs, not just for the short term anymore.

[FlyingA]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Aetna Inc., (AET) the nation's No. 2 health insurer, on Wednesday said it will cut 690 jobs, or nearly 2.5 percent of its work force, and take a $30 million charge in the fourth quarter as it seeks to bring down costs amid a decline in membership.

Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna said the charge will cover severance costs. After the job cuts, Aetna expects to have 27,500 employees.

The cuts are the latest in a series of moves designed to make the company more profitable since it sold off its property-casualty business in 1996 and turned itself into a health-care company.

In December 2001 Aetna announced it would cut 4,400 jobs, and three months ago it said it would cut an additional 2,750.

[Wolfie]

H-1B's will be a dead issue soon. The trend is to just move operations overseas, lock, stock, and barrel.

"Will Code For Food"

[1rudeboy]

Sorry, as a liberal arts graduate I don't understand scientific notation - what exactly is "1.95 lakh"?

I'm sure someone could tell you, but they likely would have to hire a H-1B worker to find out.

[constable tom]

Recently unemployed high tech worker bump. Although as a sales engineer, I'm less likely to be replaced by an H1-B visa holder (language and culture issues coming into play with American customers), I agree that the H1-B visa program became a real and unnecessary threat to US high tech workers the instant the IT industry started sputtering (with the dot.bomb crash in early 2000) and this issue should have been addressed over a year ago.

[swarthyguy]

A lakh is 100,000 in Inglish.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I think it can be inferred that a lakh is 100,000.

[FlyingA]

series ly

[Eastbound]

"INS is expected to issue guidance shortly on the evidence required by petitioners seeking to take advantage of this provision."

Interpretation: (a) Put the required amount in small bills in a plain envelope and slip it in the slot. (b) Pick up extension approval certificate from stack by the door as you leave.

[Cicero]

I've heard of a lakh of rubies, but I never heard of a lakh of H-1B tech workers before. I guess I should stop reading Talbot Mundy.

[neutrino]

Bump!