Posted on 01/24/2009 9:24:29 AM PST by John Jorsett
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told Microsoft Corp. this week that U.S. citizens should get priority over H-1B visa holders as the software vendor moves forward on its plan to cut 5,000 jobs.
"These work visa programs were never intended to allow a company to retain foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American workers, when that company cuts jobs during an economic downturn," Grassley wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The letter asked Microsoft to detail the types of jobs that will be eliminated and how those cuts will affect the company's H-1B workers.
"It is imperative that in implementing its layoff plan, Microsoft ensures that American workers have priority in keeping their jobs over foreign workers on visa programs," Grassley added.
In some respects, it was a letter that Grassley, a vocal critic of the H-1B program, could have sent to any number of IT vendors that have announced layoffs recently. But Microsoft has been an outspoken proponent of increasing the annual cap on H-1B visas — primarily through its chairman, Bill Gates, who has spoken in support of raising the cap in speeches and in testimony before congressional committees, most recently last March. Grassley's letter noted as much.
Gates, in his appearance last year before the House Committee on Science and Technology, said that the current cap of 65,000 H-1B visas, plus an additional 20,000 set aside for foreign workers with advanced degrees from U.S. universities, "is arbitrarily set and bears no relationship to the U.S. economy's demand for skilled professionals."
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Microsoft Corp. has delayed plans to build a $500 million data center in West Des Moines.West Des Moines City Manager Jeff Pomerantz said he received a call from Microsoft on Friday morning, telling him that plans for the data center have been postponed.
Telephone messages left Friday for Microsoft officials weren't immediately returned, but the call to West Des Moines comes a day after the company said it would lay off workers for the first time in its 34-year history, cutting 5,000 jobs.
Can’t wait to hear the Microsoft response.
One could hope that Microsoft has been caught with its pants down here.
I don’t have a problem with having the H-1B program, but I would expect a proportionate number of visa holders to be among the layoffs.
As the article suggest, it's not just Microsoft. We continue to import foreign workers (H1Bs) while thousands of Americans are unemployed. Bizzaro.
gee... where have you been? this is all they have been doing.
See post #7...
The threat of being sent back to Pakistan is far more effective than the threat of landing on unemployment for an employee who doesn’t think he should work 70 or 80 hours per week.
It was 1400 jobs, not 5000. But who bothers to try and comprehend a press release? Journalists should only cull the highest numbers and write a story based on those.
If Senator Grassley down’t like the H1B program, then introduce the necessary legislation to end it. If Americans want those jobs that would otherwise go to a foreigner, then develop the necessary skillset.
Lastly, since Microsoft hasn’t taken a single dollar of federal bailout money they don’t owe the Senator from Iowa any sort of explanation.
perzackly
I had a coworker back in the early 80’s who was laid off. The INS was at his door when he got home. They sent him back to Iran.
NO ONE has heard from him since.
Yes. He was a bitter and vocal opponent of the Ayatollah’s regime.
Can’t fault him there.
Gates you SOB.
ping
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