Sen. Durbin calls Abbott Labs' IT layoffs 'harsh and insensitive’

Computer World ^ | February 29, 2016 | Patrick Thibodeau

[C19fan]

Abbott Labs, a global healthcare company, is laying off about 180 IT employees after signing an agreement with Wipro, a major India-based IT services firm, to take over some IT services. The employees were told about the planned cuts on Feb. 22; their last day will be April 22.

[bert]

——But a 60 day notice to find new employment is rather considerate on the part of the employer.——

Actually it is the law for layoffs of more than the number in the law. It is a union law to allow employees to sabotage their work before leaving

[ConservingFreedom]

H-1B ping. Let me know if you're not on the list and want to be added (or are and want to be removed).

[central_va]

Bull. It's due to the fact that outsourcing IT functions overseas looks good on a corporation's bottom line.

This is NOT a case of outsourcing overseas. Indians are flown in on H-1B visas and work in the USA, they are inshore replacements. Try to follow along.

[pierrem15]

bringing in the best and brightest from around the world will grow our national talent pool)

H1B doesn't do that: they get a temporary work visa as long as they are sponsored by their employer.

It's indentured servitude, and the only reason it exists is to lower costs-- they have to be trained by the American workers before they can work.

It's a wage busting scam and always has been.

[central_va]

I am not a union person but STEM workers need to organize. Sorry to say it but it is true. That can’t happen until H-1B visas are killed or curtailed.

[ConservingFreedom]

we have two Republican Senators running for President who gleefully clap over this news.

False. From https://www.tedcruz.org/cruz-immigration-plan/:

Amend the H-1B visa program to fulfill its original purpose: Work with Congress to pass reform legislation for the H-1B visa program that will:

• Create an advanced degree requirement: Only individuals with advanced degrees in their respective fields may be brought to the United States with an H-1B visa. And preference will be given to those with advanced degrees from American universities.
• Create a "layoff cool-off" period for all H-1B visa applications: Companies must wait one or two years between laying off a worker and bringing in any H-1B foreign workers to ensure that the program is not used to displace American workers.
• Establish accreditation or recognition requirements for overseas schools: The recent lack of federal oversight of the H-1B visa program has fueled a cottage industry of diploma mills. Foreign academic institutions must meet minimum accreditation standards at least as stringent as those imposed on American universities in order to qualify for the advanced-degree requirement.
• Require sworn affidavits describing domestic hiring efforts: Companies will provide sworn statements and documentation that detail their efforts to hire Americans before requesting foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. Individuals who make false statements in these affidavits will be subject to perjury charges.
• Suspend companies from H-1B visa eligibility for failure to help foreign workers obtain green cards: Many companies misuse the H-1B visa program to train foreign workers that they intend to send back overseas to compete with America. The law must impose additional requirements on employers to pursue Legal Permanent Resident status on behalf of their H-1B visa-based foreign workers, or risk loss of access to the program.

"Ted Cruz, Jeff Sessions Roll Out Antidote To Broken H-1B Program: American Jobs First Act" - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3371276/posts

"Ted Cruz Explains why His Position on H-1B Visas Has Changed" - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3376485/posts

[DoodleDawg]

Right. It looks good on their bottom lines because the tax structure and trade deals make it look good.

No it looks good on their bottom line because IT costs go down and headcount goes down. No IT employees then no benefits to pay and no U.S. salary structure to worry about. Trump could pass his tax plan and this will still happen. And it has nothing to do with trade deals. This is offshoring the work; it's been going on for upwards of 20 years, if not longer.

[pierrem15]

Well, they push people with STEM credentials like crazy.

Whether they are any good is another question.

Another issue is cultural-- a lot of Indian IT workers are very rigid and hard to work with.

[JEDI4S]

Durbin is going to be the number 2 under Senate Majority Leader Chuck E. Schumer if we don't get our act together....and quickly.

Just saying.

[central_va]

BY definition if you have to train someone then they are not the best and the brightest. It has been explained a thousand times with thousands of examples yet some dimwits can’t seem to fathom that this is actually a wage suppression scheme created by our government in cohoots with international corporations. Only a dimwit goes along with the lie. You are are dimwit.

[fooman]

Yes, but in the sense of a guild.

Not in the sense of rampant ‘work rules’ to make people lazy.

80 hour weeks are De-rigour in my mentality.

[central_va]

No this is outsourcing but the work stays here. H-1b visa holders are flying in and REPLACING Americans. Get it?

[fooman]

Cruz came round.

Trump started strong and is now ‘changing’

I hope Trump is not changing into Zuckerberg.

[central_va]

No it looks good on their bottom line because IT costs go down and headcount goes down

Head count stays the same. Ram replaces Roger, get it?

[fooman]

They say ‘ok ok’, then filibuster for months.

Senior management does not even have the acumen to ask the right questions.

Then they call in the US stem workers to fix it.

[ConservingFreedom]

Not in the sense of rampant ‘work rules’ to make people lazy.

80 hour weeks are De-rigour in my mentality.

Are you saying you think 80 hour weeks are an acceptable norm?

[SoothingDave]

Even with offshoring, how do you create a tariff for lines of code?

All internet traffic routed through the IRS, of course!

[DoodleDawg]

Head count stays the same. Ram replaces Roger, get it?

Headcount goes down. Roger gets the axe and is not replaced. That nice Indian company Wipro, the one that Ram works for, gets the contract for providing the IT services. Offshoring and outsourcing IT functions have always been about cost reductions and not efficiencies or improved service.

[fooman]

It has always been like that in start ups and elite organizations I have been around.

There is just simply a high fixed cost to be a good software engineer or doctor.

Looking at some youtube videos and setting up eclipse for Java just does not cut it.

There is often a vast business domain that has to be learned as well.

The yabba dabba do crowd will have a more limited set of roles to choose from.

[CodeToad]

Ted Cruz wants 325,000 MORE H-1B foreign tech workers visas while claiming unemployed Americans need to just suck it up.