Posted on 04/30/2015 5:10:15 AM PDT by Reno89519
At the end of October, IT employees at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts were called, one-by-one, into conference rooms to receive notice of their layoffs.
--snip--
[Disney:] "H-1B workers complement - instead of displace - U.S. Workers." It explains that as employers use foreign workers to fill "more technical and low-level jobs, firms are able to expand" and allow U.S. workers "to assume managerial and leadership positions."
--snip--
"Some of these folks were literally flown in the day before to take over the exact same job I was doing," said one of the IT workers who lost his job. He trained his replacement and is angry over the fact he had to train someone from India "on site, in our country."
--snip--
It's difficult to determine how many H-1B workers, L-1 visa workers or contractor workers generally, were at this Disney site. --snip-- But one observation all of the workers recounted was the widespread use of Hindi.
--snip--
"There is no need to have any type of foreigners, boots on the ground, augmenting any type of perceived technological gap," said one worker. "We don't have one, first off."
--snip--
The use of H-1B workers to displace U.S. workers is getting more attention in Congress. In response to Southern California Edison's use of foreign labor, 10 U.S. senators recently asked three federal agencies to investigate H-1B use. But one agency, the U.S. Department of Labor, wrote back last week and told the lawmakers that large H-1B using firms "are not prohibited from displacing U.S. workers" as long as they meet certain conditions, such as paying each H-1B worker at least $60,000 a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
So who would you force to hire the old EE—and what would he do?
Yeah, there’s some bias, but still with 3% unemployment there’s opportunity there for everyone who is current and good.
Just treat him like anybody else, that’s all that is required.
And how do you know the "whiners" aren't persistent learners?
most of those here understand markets I hope? Isn’t that the very definition of conservative?
No, importing Third World standards of living in the name of "markets" may be the very definition of libertarian, but conservatives also value the preservation of America.
I suspect the IT workers being replaced by $60K foreign workers were making $100-125K or more. I work in IT and this is an ongoing problem everywhere as companies try to drive wages down by claiming need for cheap foreign labor when all they really want is cheap labor. There is zero shortage of American workers for most IT position and no justification for importing workers.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2844020/10-hottest-it-skills-for-2015.html
I'm hard pressed to think of an area of IT that's NOT on this list - and #1 and #3 are where lots of H-1B displacement is happening.
Help desk really should be close to entry level for US tech workers.
And Python? Ruby? C++?
Decent programmers with these skills are not being turned away.
I have a friend who works for an IT subcontractor (foreign owned) for a major (international) petroleum company.
He currently makes a very nice salary and his job is reasonably secure, but they use him quite mercilessly with the attitude of, “what are you going to do, find a better job somewhere else?” He gets to spend long hours on the phone with Malaysia helping fix the problems caused by the cheap IT labor.
At one point, they had a meeting with the foreign leadership and they were essentially told the same thing you mentioned, which was that the long term goal was to knock the US off its perch and reduce its standard of living.
It would appear that “they” are succeeding.
re:This isnt new....and the work visa program is needed in several industries...medical for one. Until we can turn out better engs, med techs and so on we will need to find qualified people somewhere.
This excuse does not explain the fact that experienced, proven people in STEM fields are frequently replaced by foreigners both legal and illegal who on the whole are at best mediocre. But damn they’re CHEAP, often paying no or very little in US taxes.
Re:”Wages in IT used to rival executive positions at large companies. IT wages have basically been frozen at 1990’s levels while executive salaries and perks have blasted through the roof.
In most cases, the executives are worthless, imho.”
Those executives are why they started putting velcro instead of laces on shoes.
correcto....Im taking a bit of flak...and deservedly so but the point is our grads arent worth a sh’itie in so many ways.
As far as the Disney folks getting the ax Im sorry for the conservatives and their fams. The others I dont care what happens to them....plus one more tidbit....H1B visa holders are exempt(as are their employers)from obamacare....
re:”As a whole they aren’t better qualified, but they can be abused and used to drive down wages.”
AMEN !!!
They’re CHEAP and DESPERATE, just like corporate likes ‘em.
Cruz is wrong on H1B visas.
So? He is still the best candidate by far
The Parks and Resorts division is massive, and includes a whole lot of people besides the guy selling turkey legs.
Re:”Indeed. rrrod, did you read the article? They’re FIRING U.S. employees that they ALREADY have to hire low wage H1-B workers.”
Amazing how many miss this part along with and miss the fact the Americans have to TRAIN THEIR REPLACEMENTS:
“Some of these folks were literally flown in the day before to take over the exact same job I was doing,” said one of the IT workers who lost his job. He trained his replacement and is angry over the fact he had to train someone from India “on site, in our country.””
:
There is a certain logic to this.
Many people in IT in large companies were there in the mainframe says when IT truly was a specialty skill. If those workers were loyal company people, they stayed and made their careers at the company - remember, we're talking about the 1980s now. These people continued to add value to the company as their knowledge grew with the company growth. They retrained through the PC revolution, Y2K, and the growth of the Web. They also saw salary inflation as anyone would who stayed with a company for a career.
Today, IT has become a commodity service, but the career IT worker is earning a 30 year employee salary, not an IT salary.
-PJ
They learned from watching tech companies doing the same thing for decades
Bookmark
I know, right? Reading comprehension, I guess.
It’s some sort of brainwashed mantra:
“We need the H1-B’s because we can’t find qualified U.S. workers”.
You mean like the U.S. workers who were stting at that desk before you gave it to an H1-B?
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