Posted on 07/14/2015 12:52:14 PM PDT by xzins
A few weeks ago we told you how Senator Marco Rubio provided the final 60th vote to grant “fast track” trade promotion authority to President Obama, and how he supports Obama’s intended expansion of the H-1B foreign guest worker program, in spite of the devastating effects expanding the program will have on American workers.
Now our friends at Breitbart report that Rubio has doubled down on his support of the H-1B program, even as workers he allegedly represents in Florida are being laid-off, forced to train their foreign replacements and allegedly being blacklisted by their former employer – Disney.
As Breitbart’s Adelle Nazarian reports, even after Microsoft’s announcement last week that it will terminate another 7,800 U.S. workers in order to replace them with cheaper labor — this on top of the 18,000 it’s already laid off.
Rubio’s I-Squared bill would effectively further the plight of American STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and IT workers. Computer World notes that during a speech in Chicago last week, Rubio emphasized the false narrative that a lack of skilled American workers is the cause of these massive layoffs, using the phrase “skills gap” as his hook; a code phrase which is also employed by Microsoft, Southern California Edison and other companies that have laid-off American workers and replaced them with cheaper foreign “guest” workers.
In reality, says Nazarian, there is a surplus, not shortage, of skilled U.S. workers and not enough STEM jobs to accommodate these citizens.
Eleven Senators, including Rubio’s fellow Senator from Florida Democrat Bill Nelson, have for an investigation of the obvious abuses of the H-1B program by companies such as Disney, but Rubio has so far declined to join them.
Breitbart’s Nazarian quotes a skeptical congressional aide saying, “Mr. Rubio’s staff says they don’t want to investigate Disney because they do not trust Mr. Obama to handle the H-1B program. But if that is true, then how do they explain why Mr. Rubio is pushing to triple the number of H-1B visas given to Mr. Obama to hand out? If Mr. Rubio didn’t trust Mr. Obama with H-1Bs wouldn’t he be pushing to suspend the program – rather than joining Corporate America’s crusade to triple it?”
Of course Rubio’s support for expanding the H-1B visa program that Disney is apparently abusing probably has nothing to do with the fact that H1-B visa expansion is endorsed by Disney CEO Bob Iger, who serves on the board of the Partnership for the New American Economy, arguably the largest immigration lobbying group in the nation in terms of its reach. PNAE has strongly endorsed H1-B increases and legislation to that effect.
Disney has laid of hundreds of American workers, forcing them to trains their H1-B visa-holding replacements.
A New York Times report detailed the situation at Disney and other companies where positions are outsourced to companies that hire foreign workers who come to the United States on H-1B visas.
That particular visa is often described as a way to employ foreign workers when companies can't find enough skilled Americans to do the work.
But that's a lie. In reality, says Beth Kassab of The Orlando Sentinel, companies have come to view workers on these visas like generic drugs —just as effective, but a lot cheaper.
It's all about profit, says Ron Hira of the Economic Policy Institute and who testified before Congress in March about the ramifications of the visa program.
Hira said he made a Freedom of Information Act request for the wages of the employees of the outsourcing firm used by Disney. The median was about $62,000.
But he says he spoke to a laid-off Disney employee who was making about $100,000.
"H-1B guest workers are cheaper than American workers and don't have much bargaining power, and any company would be foolish not to take advantage of this highly lucrative business model that has been inadvertently created by Congress and multiple presidential administrations," writes Hira, who recently published a book on outsourcing and also teaches at Howard University.
Professor Hira is being much too polite or is just plain naïve about how Congress works – Congress didn’t “inadvertently” create this highly lucrative business model – it was lobbied into it and Marco Rubio just voted to expand it, no doubt at the bidding of Disney and other beneficiaries.
As Senator Jeff Sessions noted in his post fast track vote statement, "This ‘econometarian’ ideology holds that if a company can increase its bottom line —whether by insourcing foreign workers or outsourcing production—then it’s always a win, never a downside.
"President Obama, and allies in Congress, have won this fast-track vote. But, in exchange, they may find that they are losing something far greater: the trust of the American people. Americans have a fundamental, decent, and just demand: that the people they elect defend their interests. And every issue to come before us in the coming months will have to pass this test: does this strengthen, or weaken, the position of the everyday, loyal American citizen?”
Some 250 Orlando-based Disney workers were not only let go and replaced by cheaper (and younger) foreign workers – they were also required to train their foreign worker replacements.
"I just couldn't believe they could fly people in to sit at our desks and take over our jobs exactly," one former worker, who wasn't named and is now unemployed, told The New York Times. "It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job. I still can't grasp it."
Neither, apparently, can Marco Rubio.
He was dead after the ‘white knight’ routine, and his staff then began their attacks on Palin.
If there’s ever a politician who has gotten a raw deal from her own party and the cowardly media, it is Sarah Palin.
I think she’s going to stay out of it for now, but I’d love to see her knock off an Alaska Senate seat.
Some guys just keep putting their foot in the establishment camp. After a while, you’ve gotta figure that’s where they’ve pitched their tent.
The question is not ownership of jobs, the question is ownership of the market, specifically what laws must one abide by in order to trade in a particular nation’s market. We do not currently live in a borderless world, so the nation that allows its marketplace to be harmed via siphoning off money, job experience, etc. to other often unfriendly competing nations is a foolish nation indeed. Not only will their economy drain like an engine with an oil leak, say there is WW3 and massive cyber attacks are launched, and, oh darn it, no more American network security people, oops!
Employers are also black listing these employees. If they lay someone off why should they have the right to shut them out of the jobs for which they are qualified?
BTW, it looks like Disney got shamed into reversing it’s layoff/outsource/H1-B Visa decision: http://blog.hreonline.com/2015/06/18/disney-retreats-dol-investigates/
There is no such and there is no legal controlling authority. The foxes run the hen house.
Unless there’s legislation backing that up, then it is a decent political position, but lacking in teeth.
Sure, just like he walked back on the TPP.
Better, I suppose, than not walking it back.
But, if keeping a scorecard, that is 2 demerits for Cruz.
How many demerits does Bush have? Christie? Walker? Trump?
Walker is the only Presidential candidate that I know of who has supported TPP.
Thanks for the correction, I meant TPA. Silly me.
At this point, I’m surprised we know our TPA from the PTA or the NAACP!
Re: “The H-1B visa program that Disney is apparently abusing...”
Disney is not “abusing” the H-1B visa program.
This is EXACTLY what H-1B was designed to do from the very beginning...
Replace expensive American workers with cheap foreign labor - without the corporate inconvenience of having to move your American operation to a foreign country!
Rand Paul ,Zero !!!!
My thoughts all along. Thanks.
No one was attacked like Palin. And klinton is
A rapist for Pete’s sake.
True of 90 percent of the "Republican leaders".
Who has FL ever elected statewide that was good? I can’t think of anyone.
Synonyms: FL, Rubio, Cluelessness
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