Posted on 10/21/2015 8:02:25 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
One of the tech workers Disney laid off in January is meeting with Senate staffers Monday to describe his experience at Disney and dispel common misconceptions about the H-1B visa program.
The ex-Disney worker is meeting behind closed doors with Senate staffers from several offices, he told The Daily Caller News Foundation. These include Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions and Republican senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
His goal is to personally “explain the Disney situation” and try to dispel four myths he says politicans are being “fed from the tech giants.” (RELATED: Qualcomm Lays Off 4,500 Workers While Demanding More H-1bs)
Nelson asked the Department of Labor to investigate the Disney layoffs, Sessions is a leading advocate for immigration policy that puts American workers first, and Cruz is an H-1B proponent who has worked to dramatically expand the program in the past.
The ex-Disney worker may also meet with staffers from the office of senior Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley , another leading critic of the visa program who has led legislative efforts to fix the alleged abuses. (RELATED: Rubio Breaks Silence On Reports Of H-1B Abuses)
Here are the four myths tech giants and their lobbyists are using to defend the program from critics, according to the former Disney worker:
Myth: Disney is an anomaly. “This exact same situation is happening all over our state and country with most of the large Fortune 500 companies,” the laid-off worker said in an email to TheDCNF.
Myth: The laid-off workers aren’t as qualified for the job. “I hold numerous technical certifications and received the highest possible job performance rating while with Disney,” he added.
Myth: Disney creates other jobs the laid-off workers can apply for. “Disney job postings did not really exist,” he added. “Out of the several hundred IT workers displaced, only three received a new IT job.”
Myth: There is a dire shortage of skilled American tech workers. “IT salaries have steadily decreased due to a low demand of U.S. IT workers,” he said. “And many IT jobs that do still exist in this country require that U.S. IT workers have the ability to work well with foreign offshore and onshore groups.”
He and hundreds of his fellow “Cast Members” were laid off in January and allegedly blacklisted from employment at other Disney-solicited contractors, after Disney forced them to train their foreign replacements. Several of the workers filed official complaints with the Department of Labor, spurring an ongoing investigation into Disney and other companies’ alleged abuse of the H-1B visa program.
The stated intent of the visa program is to help companies bring in high-skilled foreign workers for jobs Americans can’t fill. But some companies including Disney, Southern California Edison, Fossil Group and Catalina Marketing, are allegedly using it to cut labor costs.
something similar happened under Eisner when Disney updated their computer systems.
Yeah. That would work.
H-1B WORKER: “Hi Mr. X, I was told I could call you for advice on the code you wrote for this process before they laid you off and hired me. We added a new process, and the code doesn’t work. Could you help me fix it?”
LAID OFF MR. X: “Sure. Just un-comment this line here, comment out this line and recompile. That should fix it for you.” Click.
Later...
H-1B WORKER: “But sir, I did as Mr. X suggested, and it wrote data to the wrong part of the database, and we can’t undo it...our records are unreadable!”
Good idea. That would limit it to genuine cases of "we need somebody but just can't find an American" and shut out all the "we want somebody who will work for an artificially depressed salary" abuses.
Disney has always had a problem with dead weight employees.
What is going to happen to animatronic service employees when androids go online?
Dark Rides (rides in the dark) have been replaced with repurposeable simulator rides.
Is Paul Ryan in this meeting?.... He will tell these Americans that it is a good thing they lost their jobs to foreigners.
Add my name, please. Thank you.
My sons are following in the footsteps of their father and one grandfather into STEM fields. The eldest is in college now. So, this issue hits close to home here.
The one truth of H1B technical jobs is that it basically froze our salaries in the 1990s.
Before that, our salaries were increasing at the rate of executive positions. After the H1B scam and outsourcing, executive salaries skyrocketed, and ours froze.
We could have gotten the workers that are needed and still had modest salary growth. The golf club guys wanted more in their accounts, so they bought politicians to help get it done.
Perfect example; Zuckenburg
I think it was the H1B and the TPP that stopped Cruz in his tracks a couple of months ago.
There is dignity in work, and in providing for you and yours. Americans want to work.
There is no dignity in handouts.
Washington doesn’t understand how many Americans are desperate to work.
My first experience with H-1b slavery was about 20 years ago. What I saw contract company’s and my employer doing to a Chinese coworker, should have been criminal. Ethically, it was criminal.
I think we’re being lied to about how many H1-B workers are coming into the nation.
It’s all out war on the U. S. Citizen workforce.
normally I don’t like taxes because taxes discourage business activity but I don’t like what is going on with the H1 visa program so lets tax the hell out of it . I think we need taxes but not any where near the level it is at...a flat ten percent tax is all we need and the to cut everything done on the federal level return the responsibility for any social welfare program to the state level and let them tailor there programs to the perceived needs of that state. our biggest problem is a bloated federal government and to many mandated programs thrust upon the state.
What if the SunTrust folks are working at full time jobs elsewhere? Are they supposed to help out during those two years on their new employer’s dime or during their free time (non-work time)? They should change all their contact information at some point to make themselves less available.
Based on my experience working with h1b holders it goes like this:
H1B holder gets a job. Gets settled. Sends to home country for wife or goes there to get married. Moves her to the US where she promptly gets pregnant (some short circuit this by having a wife already, impregnating her and then having her visit the US on a tourist visa around her due date) and has a fetal grappling hook.
now he’s here forever.
On the birth of the fetal grappling hook he (and she) begin the process to bring over their elderly parents and/or grandparents. Who have never paid into medicare or social security but somehow become eligible to obtain those benefits.
Lather, rinse, repeat..
“Would you really stay for a period of 3 months, or six months, to train your replacement, when you need to be out there looking for a new job???”
No, nobody would.
But in the real world job market, which is not good to begin with, employers have a bias toward applicants who are still working, as opposed to unemployed. Regardless of the reason a person is out on the street, there’s always something (wrong, I know) in the back of their minds that raises a yellow flag.
Therefore it’s often best to endure the humility in return for a better chance of getting another job soon.
This assumes the person isn’t well connected or has an Uncle George or Aunt Mary who owns a company.
Tax?
How about cutting foreign aid to any country when we need to deport their criminal invaders?
Having been in this situation a couple of times (and heard firsthand about several others....), it ain't great. The larger the company, the worse it usually is.
Severance is usually one week per year of service. I know of one place that offered two weeks per. Vacation / sick / PTO time sometimes is a bonus offered, sometimes not. "COBRA" ensures that you have health insurance after you leave which is good, but you pay at the full company rate, which is not.
Everyplace that I've seen / heard about has asked that you stick around for six months (may vary a week or two, but 6 mo seems the standard) in order to get the severance package. You need to wait out the *full* six months....not 1 minute earlier...to get the package. Additionally, there are subjective "performance" clauses attached, so you don't just come into work and sleep for six months. You can also get the severance yanked for discussing it, or bad-mouthing the company, or any one of a number of different reasons. You can also get cut loose prior to 6 months - "your services are no longer needed, see ya" - and miss out on the severance that way as well. I actually saw that happen to help desk workers for one Fortune 500 company.
It's most definitely a stacked deck against you. I've never waited one out, fully.
I'm not a fan of H1B workers, and outsourcing, ever.
I hope Cruz listens and learns. This is the only area he falls short on for me.
Ditto.
Managers have communications problems with local employees that are sitting right outside their offices. I've no idea what makes them think they can manage people from an entirely culture, working on the other side of the world.
Institutional arrogance, I suppose. Or desperation to save on the bottom line.
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