Posted on 03/09/2020 12:50:10 PM PDT by JimSp
For years now, corporations in the United States have clamored for more foreign-born workers. The main reason for this need, they insist, is to remedy an alleged labor shortage. Indeed, by examining the unemployment trend line, every year since 2010 has brought progressively lower jobless numbers, and since President Trump took office, businesses are reporting record profits and growth. Furthermore, acting White House chief of Staff Nick Mulvaney recently declared that the U.S. labor force is “desperate — desperate — for more people” to immigrate into the country.
So, this surface examination of the U.S. economy tells us that we’ve created a crisis of plenty, and there are too few job seekers to fill open positions, right?
Not so fast.
In reality, millions of Americans are still looking for work, and far too many have recently been let go from their jobs. In fact, the U-6 unemployment rate, which includes underemployed workers and those who believe no position exists for them, shows that 7 percent of American workers are currently without gainful employment.
If there’s such a critical labor shortage across the United States, the question begs to be asked: why are so many U.S. citizens without work? Even worse, if businesses are enjoying record growth, why are so many large corporations firing American workers?
The truth is inconvenient, unfair, and runs counter to the best interests of our nation. Far too many corporations wish to undercut the market and boost profits by hiring foreign-born workers who are more than happy to work for far less than a fair market wage.
To witness this in action, one need not look any further than the tech industry in the United States. According to the Associated Press, foreign-born H-1B tech workers make an average of 9 percent less than American-born workers in similar positions. Furthermore, H-1B workers must work for the company that sponsored them, or else face deportation. So there is little incentive for companies to increase their pay.
In an eye-opening Twitter thread, Michelle Malkin aggregated a number of news articles that exposed dozens of large tech corporations which are currently in the process of firing more than 10,000 employees. One notable example, Cisco, recently laid off nearly 500 employees. However, in 2019, the company applied for 691 H-1B visas, almost all of which were approved.
Uber, Walgreens, Macy’s, Expedia, Tripadvisor, LogMeIn, Intel, and many other large corporations are also taking part in the firing spree. And again, many of them, such as Uber, are doing so while simultaneously increasing their total number of H-1B visa applications.
In many instances, these Americans are not only faced with the prospect of losing their jobs, but are also subjected to the humiliating task of training the foreign-born employees that are replacing them. According to Axios, as many as nine in 10 victims of the recent firing sprees at telecom giant AT&T were required to train their foreign replacements: “some [workers] were told they were needed for a ‘knowledge transfer’ — then tapped to train people on work visas or overseas who would replace them.”
Unfortunately, this classless tactic is nothing new. In 2016, Disney Resorts infamously not only fired hundreds of IT professionals in favor of foreign guest workers, but forced them to train their replacement or else forfeit their severance packages.
"That day, 20 years of hard work, a bachelor's degree in information technology, and an IT job for Disney were all over when my team, along with hundreds of others, were displaced by a less-skilled foreign work force imported into our country using the H-1B visa program," said Leo Perrero, who was a victim of the Disney firing spree, despite having worked there for 10 years.
Thousands of such workers are now job searchers. Most of them are highly skilled. Yet Washington continues to debate whether or not to expand guest-worker visa programs across the board. Under President Trump’s administration, the number of temporary visas issued each year has risen to more than 900,000. Why should that number continue to grow when so many citizens are looking for work? Why reward corporations for firing Americans by offering them increased access to cheap, foreign labor?
President Trump rode a rallying cry of “America First” into the White House in 2016. If he wishes to maintain the support that won him the presidency, it’s imperative that his administration continue to implement policies which, first and foremost, protects the interests of U.S. citizens, and puts more Americans back to work.
Most of the GOP Senators are Bush League Republicans who favor importing cheap labor for their donors, regardless of the consequences to the citizens.
Cisco laid off far far more than 500. I know, directly.
I suspect this is why Mulvaney is gone now.
DJT just got back from a very productive meeting in India and is open to more visas. How that Makes America Great Again is anyone’s guess.
I read a story about a some jack ball selling a bottle of hand sanitizer for $100. bucks. These AH’s ought to be shot and those who are buying it are stupified. Greed is alive and well.
Give companies just as many H1bs as they want. Just so long as they are MORE EXPENSIVE than it would cost to employ an American in the same job. That’s it. That’s all you have to do. Just make it more expensive and companies will stop abusing it. They’ll even reimplement job training programs they used to have because that will be cheaper than what it costs to obtain foreigners for the same positions.
In 50 years , this nation will be unrecognizable. Our duly elected, oath swearing officials will be darn sure of that. The next Dem sworn in as President should use Mein Kampf instead of a bible at the inauguration.. and borders? Who needs stinkin’ borders? Ask EUrabia.
You can’t enforce these programs. They have to be killed and all legal immigration stopped for decades.
Free Republican will ignore this thread. 90% are globalists, anti nationalists and anti US worker.
Privatize profits but make pubic the costs. Great for the owners. For the workers, not so much.
This needs to stop. Disney is the worst offender. Magic Kingdom, my A$$........................
Agreed.
Yep. I agree.
Profits supersede Americans working.
Every company that does this should be outted
And passed around
Hmm, so how much profit is "too much", Bernie?
That's it. If these positions are so important that they need H-1B workers, require premium pay. Let's say at 150% the prevailing salary.
That’s exactly correct. In the US, when you have an emergency need, you pay extra. FedEx Next Day letter = $17.50 vs USPS First Class mail = .55 - that is 32x the cost. Make every H1B visa worker be paid the average of the highest 5 non-officers in the company.
A nice side benefit was that I was grateful to my host country for the opportunity rather than angry at being exploited.
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