Posted on 03/02/2017 7:16:10 AM PST by TigerClaws
At the University of California's San Francisco campus, 79 IT employees lost their jobs this week, some of them after explaining to their replacements at Indian outsourcing firm HCL how to do their jobs.
The union representing the employees, University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, says it's the first time a public university has offshored American IT jobs.
In a statement sent yesterday, UPTE-CWA says the layoffs could spread, since the HCL contract can be utilized by any of the 10 campuses in the University of California system, the nation's largest public university. "US taxes should be used to create jobs in the US, not in other countries," said Kurt Ho, a systems administrator who was quoted in the union's press release. Ho was required to train his replacement as a condition of getting his severance pay.
In its statement on the matter, UCSF says that it was pushed to hire outside contractors due to "increased demand for information technology and escalating costs for these services." The university says it will save more than $30 million by hiring HCL, after seeing IT costs nearly triple between 2011 and 2016, "driven by the introduction of the electronic medical record and increased digital connectivity."
The university says 49 UCSF employees were laid off, and it will eliminate another 48 jobs that are currently vacant or filled by contractors. "UCSF will not replace UCSF IT employees with H-1B visa holders, nor will HCL," the university wrote in a statement e-mailed to Ars.
Of the 49 laid-off UCSF employees, 34 have either secured other employment or are retiring, the university said.
The university's decision to hire HCL has been controversial for months and has drawn fire from politicians. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who has submitted a bill meant to curb abuses of the H-1B program, sent a letter to UC President Janet Napolitano in November asking her to reverse its plan to outsource IT staff. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) sent a similar letter, reminding Napolitano that the UC system gets about $8.5 billion in federal support. House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose district encompasses most of San Francisco including UCSF, also asked the UC president to reverse herself later in the month.
That led to some changes in UCSF's plan. According to a January story in the Los Angeles Times, the university told Feinstein's office that of the 27 HCL employees assigned to UCSF during the transition, eight had H-1B visas. The university assured her office that all the H-1B visa holders were moved elsewhere and won't be working at UCSF after all.
Ho, who earns about $100,000, told the LA Times that he spent two days training his replacement in a process that UCSF called "knowledge transfer."
"He told me he would go back to India and train his team and would be sending me e-mails with questions," Ho said.
Audrey Hatten-Milholin, who earned $127,000 at her job, says other replacements were around for two weeks. "What was shocking is that the system is so complex there’s no way you can learn it in two weeks," she said.
Thirteen of the workers are considering filing a lawsuit, saying the way they were fired amounts to discrimination, Computerworld reported.
There have been reports that the Trump Administration is considering changes to the H-1B visa program, and there are at least two bills pending in Congress asking for reforms to the H-1B system, which is meant to allow for hiring of high-skilled employees from abroad. No movement has happened on those proposals yet, however.
"There’s talk about fixing things, and no [one] has done it yet,” laid-off worker Bizhan Tabatabaian told Computerworld. "And I’m the proof."
Pull their damn federal funding !
So these former employees avg $140,000 as mid to low level workers
There’s a place for H1B, I guess.
But not in its current form.
It is not different than using illegals to pay less.
And we ALL KNOW that is the reason they are hired.
The “no Americans to fill the jobs” bull#### is just that.
THEY FIRED people who knew how to do the job!!!
I know the uber capitalists here will disagree. I couldn’t give a ####.
$114,000 rather
Let’s see how the (rather complex) system holds up under the control of the new IT laborers after a year or so.
Any questions of what political party loves to hire foreign workers?
This is probably an accurate statement. They likely brought the workers over to train them (train the trainer), and they'll go back and train the team in India. The jobs will be permanently outsourced, with ZERO economic benefit to the U.S. -- no taxes, no cash flow, and no economic benefit.
Hey! At least the Dems (Lofgren, Pelosi, Feinstein) are creating jobs.
In INDIA!!!!!
It costs more to live in San Francisco than just about anywhere else in the U.S. I doubt that $114k provides for a lavish lifestyle.
Public university lays off 79 IT workers after they train H-1B replacements
The American and the 8 H-1B visa holders physically working at the University trained Indian workers that will work in India.
Completely Outsourced.
This will help recruit students to major in CompSci.
$140K is chump change there.
140k is not much in SF.
140k after federal and state taxes amounts to about 90k take home or about 7500 per month.
Avg monthly cost of a one bedroom apartment in SF is 3500.
Avg monthly combined utility bill in SF is 170
Avg internet/phone bill is 70
Avg public trans monthly pass is 70
Avg monthly groceries and restaurants are 450
Avg fitness club is 75
Subtotal about 4335
Add a car, insurance, registration, parking
Add an additional bedroom
Add a preschool child
Total: less than zero
In sum, a single IT worker can possibly save a couple of thousand per month.
An IT worker who is a single parent of a preschooler has no chance at all to make it there. Add a spouse who works part-time and maybe they will just get by but they will struggle.
Add facts such as crime and homelessness are rampant in SF, and it becomes clear that the 140k per year lifestyle of an IT worker is a miserable proposition.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-rent-cost-drop-rental-6690357.php
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/San-Francisco
The leftist Ars Technica site and its leftist snowflake commentators are up in arms.
Too bad leftists - you’re gonna have to go looking to the hated Trump to solve your gored ox.
I lived there 20 years and moved away last summer, $140,000 is good money. My wifey and I together made that much and lived quite well, it is hardly chump change.
Sometimes, IT depts get overloaded with “non-technical” people. No work gets done and you have to do something.
“$114,000 rather”
No wonder they are upset. Big salary and a pension they think they will get.
So you owned real estate that you bought 20 years ago? So if you had to pay today’s prices for that same house/condo/whatever and made the same money now as then, how well off would you be? Educate me. What we are talking about is affordability now, not 20 years ago.
One major Freeper short coming is not adjusting for inflation.....Many seem to think a minimum wage of $10.00/hr is a lot of money LOL!
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