Southern California Edison IT workers 'beyond furious' over H-1B replacements

Computerworld ^ | Feb 4, 2015 12:06 PM PT | Patrick Thibodeau

[Bill_o'Rights]

Information technology workers at Southern California Edison (SCE) are being laid off and replaced by workers from India. Some employees are training their H-1B visa holding replacements, and many have already lost their jobs.
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The H-1B program "was supposed to be for projects and jobs that American workers could not fill," this worker said. "But we're doing our job. It's not like they are bringing in these guys for new positions that nobody can fill.

"Not one of these jobs being filled by India was a job that an Edison employee wasn't already performing," he said.
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SCE employees said that since August, when the layoffs began, the composition of the IT workplace began to change. "I see a lot of Indian people walking the halls, and less Americans," said a third IT worker interviewed.

[Fantasywriter]

Thanks for that clarification. Sorry for the confusion.

[Fantasywriter]

Thanks; appreciate your clarification.

[kearnyirish2]

You are lucky; thank God. Nice to hear a happy ending!

I’m always happy when someone leaves my company on their own terms (either for another job or to retire).

[kearnyirish2]

Companies dangle your severance in front of you to get you to train your replacement.

I’m disgusted that so many Americans fake disability as jobs disappear, but I get it is one last way to get back at corporate America (a large segment of our taxpayers).

[kearnyirish2]

A friend working as a programmer understood why they were trafficking Indians here when he realized they were forced to work every weekend while the Americans weren’t. That is also why the whole workforce becomes Indian.

When these Indians are emancipated after their years of indentured servitude, they are often just replaced with new ones; management isn’t going to have them enjoying weekends or any other rights...

[kearnyirish2]

How about bank personnel, investment management firms’ staffs? Accountants, BTW, ARE being replaced by Indians, as are professors. Construction workers are in the category of our blue-collar replacements (Hispanics); Indians are the white-collar replacements.

Many of the middle-aged Americans in those fields have been replaced by H-1B types; the US companies are just having a hard time matching up job skills needed here to India’s caste system (and I’m not joking). I don’t blame the Indians themselves; they are coming here for the same opportunities that brought our ancestors here years ago.

[DoodleDawg]

I would much much much much rather the jobs be here in the United States than the whole department sent to India.

So send the department from here to India or bring the department from India to here, what's the difference? Either way U.S. workers are displaced.

[baltimorepoet]

I think the American middle class has TWO choices, since the political system and “social contract” is irreparably broken, and both of them involve withdrawing “consent to govern”.

Choice 1) Withdraw consent to govern by voting with your feet — by leaving the country and taking the skills somewhere else. This is the route many immigrants took when they came to the US from other countries.

Choice 2) Withdraw consent by actively refusing to obey the people in power who are abusing you, and meeting force with force when they try to imprison or kill you. This is the route the Founding Fathers took when they booted out the British.

[central_va]

The present pursuit of cheap labor is driven now by unions, and the endless pursuit of every union, public and private, to forever coerce wages for themselves higher than every other union, reinforced and enabled by the "support" of a corrupt government, seeking power, and exchanging mutual support for votes.

Bullcrap. In the area of manufacturing the union participation rate is only 10% and it is falling. So any off shored manufacturing job has a 90% chance of being a non union job lost. So try again.

[Freedom56v2]

Thanks for posting. BTT

[SoCal Pubbie]

That’s what he gets paid. His employer must charge more. How much, I don’t know. I do not know the exact nature of any contract he has. So far, it’s been steady work for several months. He’s about ten years away from “retirement” age of 65. I just can’t believe he’ll be able to keep making that rate for the next decade, but who knows.

[Regulator]

It's relatively easy to see who is getting hired as an H1B.

The petitions for the visas are on line.

SCE Petitions 2013

Anyone with those job titles can figure it out. They also might be interested in objecting to it via a complaint to the Labor Department.

[VRW Conspirator]

The American Caste System

Nothing new. The propensity for people, particularly those in power, to gravitate towards an elitist system has always been around. The founding of this country was based on preventing this: separation of powers, checks and balances, etc. The statists, progressives, elitists, etc. have inched this country closer and closer over a century and a half.

IMO, Obama, the proven liar, is the Manchurian candidate set in place to bring the coup de grace. I believe we have not yet seen what this idiot and his masters will finally do to crash this country and render it a 3rd world hell-hole.

[entropy12]

Please read my post #132.

Overwhelming people complaining about H-1B visa’s are computer programmers. There are several million computer programmers world wide in India, China, Russia, SE-Asia, without jobs. In real world, you can not elevate value of anything when supply exceeds demand.

[entropy12]

Correct, do not blame the Indians for accepting opportunities.

What it boils down to is that there is abundant supply of white collar professionals. Law of supply and demand says you can’t artificially elevate value of any product or service when supply exceeds demand.

Just look at gasoline prices recently!

Yet, there are many jobs right here in United States which can not find qualified people to fill them.

[OneWingedShark]

It might not be 3rd world route — I can imagine the vaccine debate we're currently having to be handled ObamaCare style: mandatory. That, in conjunction with vaccines that are actually sterilization/Immunocontraception would lead to a big depopulation.

It may just end, like Madeline's comment about Japan on this site (Crtl+F Madeline).

[Ghost of SVR4]

The outcome would certainly be interesting!

No it wouldn't, the employee would just lose their severance package and probably just let go then and there as a message to others. Usually a severance package is dangled in front of those who will be let go in exchange for doing the company's final pieces of business. It sucks, but it is what it is.

[familyop]

"That, my friend, is simple:
The American Caste System"

That's pretty funny! Notice the use of the word, endogamous (link goes to definition at a dictionary site). That explains a noticeable trend of decades in business, political and academic leadership (Cyril Kornbuth, "The Marching Morons").

[OneWingedShark]

That's pretty funny!

Thank you — I try'n make most of my brochures humorous.

Notice the use of the word, endogamous. That explains a noticeable trend of decades in business, political and academic leadership.

You're quite right — it's one thing that makes the left (general Democrat) right: the businesses have too much influence on government. But, likewise, the right (general Republican) is also right: the [federal] government's involvement in regulating business [beyond fraud, larceny, etc] is also a bad thing. Like you mention: the elite (in business, academia, and politics) have long been involved in mental/philosophical incest.

[GeronL]

This program needs to be stopped!