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What I am saying is not incorrect - I limited my discussion to the IT field, which is my area of expertise. I understand about the steps one must go through to hire an H1-B visa person. A simple way around this is to first hire someone as a contractor. Let them build specific skills on a specific project, using specific technologies. Then advertise for someone with all of those skills. Say, for example, you want someone who can use: webMethods integration with MQSeries, to integrate an Oracle financial system to an SAA BPICs shop floor system, with custom Unix HR integration. How many people who answer the ad will have all of those skills? Answer - none except for that contractor.
As for the newspaper ads and the unemployment office - the corporate HR department has processes to handle this on a weekly basis. Also, I think advertising on your website, and job boards, can replace the newspaper ads. Typically the contractor is already working on an H1-B anyway - the trick is to hire existing H1-B's not new ones. But there are H1-B shops that specialize in handling the embassy's, the visa's, etc. - it is a big business for them. That is how they get the people into the country.

Sorry, but the high tech IT situation is quite different than your timber falling situation.

Temporary Work Visa (H) - required by an alien who is to perform a prearranged professional or highly skilled job for a temporary period, or to fill a temporary position for which there is a shortage of U.S. workers, or receive training from an employer. The employment or training must be approved in advance by an office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the United States on the basis of an application filed by the prospective employer.
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Sorry; But this is from the INS site. So what you are saying you are being replaced by foriegn nationals in a permanent matter. Note that it says temporary positions for jobs in which there is a shortage in the USA. Even training must be approved by the INS. So in short my friend, you guys are screwing the pooch, as they say, and not using the exsisting laws to stop the back handed dealings. All it takes is a group of you to file a complaint with the Justice Dept and get a federal judge to issue a court order to cease such activities.
Sorry to hear of the IT downturn in the economy. But you know as well as I that many of these companies were not going to last anyway.

As per your contractor issue. A L1 intra company transfer can only be done if the company keeps 50% of its business going in the nation it hires from. So if company x wants to transfer or hire a contractor from the UK, it must be doing at least 50% of its business in revenue in the UK or the contractor must be doing 50% of his/her business in the UK. They MUST have keep a viable business in the foriegn country. I suspect this is not happening though. And sorry to say, I am for the L1 intra company transfer. It brings business to this country. I believe anyone who wants to come to this country to establish a viable and leagal business, should be able to do so..as long as they meet a few requirments and adhere to a couple of rules such as showing the business turns a taxable profit in the first 2 years.