Please Call Your Senators/Reps Today to Stop H1-B Visa Increase

[LaymansTermsPlease]

Today, Nov 19, the Congress is trying to sneak in an increase in allowing foreign tech workers to come in and displace U.S. jobs. There is an Omnibus spending bill that must be passed to fund the government for the next year. They are trying to cram in an H1-B Visa increase as a sneaky attachment to the Omnibus bill so it will not gain much public scrutiny.

I just can't believe they are trying to do this when there is such severe unemployment and so many programming jobs lost already in the
last couple of years. They are doing to the tech jobs just what they did to manufacturing years ago when they started moving factories offshore.

Free Faxes
If you have not set up an account, you can do so for free at http://www.numbersusa.com/fax. Once you enter your info, you'll get a new set of faxes listed about current events like the Omnibus Bill H1-B push, Illegal Immigration, and the fax numbers of your particular representatives (they know by your zip code) will be already there for you.

I have used NumbersUSA free faxes for years, they are legitimate and no need to fear you'll be put on some kind of wacko mailing list if you enter your info to setup an account.

Programmers are out of jobs in greater numbers..their unemployment rate is higher than the general population. It is unconscionable that Congress would allow more foreign tech workers to come in to the U.S. and keep or put American programmers out of work.

They claim the ammendment they are trying to make is for highly trained (Masters or Phd) workers and that there is a shortage in the U.S. This is a lie.

The real reason is that the greedy folks at the American companies want to hire foreign workers and pay them a fraction of what an American programmer would command. There are American programmers with Masters degrees and such that are out of work, or underemployed at retail/fast-food/construction jobs because they had to take any job they could find in another field not related to programming just to survive.

I work in an office where in just the last two years ONE-THIRD of all the programmers have been replaced by Indian H1-B liasions and offshore teams. We are all like the proverbial frogs being boiled alive who don't realize the heat has been turned up yet.

We feel warm, but we are lulled into inactivity while our jobs are destroyed and downward pressure on wages reduces our salaries.

Please also forward this plea for action to any other Americans you know that would take a few moments today to voice their opinion on saving U.S. tech jobs.

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

Now we'll get what we voted for.

By all means call, and let your representative know that you are aware of the sneaky, cynical tricks that they are using to ruin our nation for the profits of their friends.

How long will we continue to re-elect these guys?

 

[LaymansTermsPlease]

This isn't just programmers either. It is about engineers too.

http://www.aea.org/lobby2004.htm

No job is safe anymore. These high-tech jobs are the ones we were supposed to get to replace the manufacturing jobs lost..remember.

"Don't worry the factories are closing, Americans can just go back to school, retrain, and get higher-skill, higher-paying jobs."

Any tech job that can be done remotely via the internet/phone/whatever will be exported. Legal research, programming, Radiology (looking at X-Ray results), engineering, whatever.

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

Oh, it doesn't have to be a job that can be done remotely. The foreigners, who came here for high tech jobs, will simply be sent to their native countries with what they have learned, to set up operations for their "American" employers.

Congress will not exercize its duty to implement either immigration laws or tariffs in a way beneficial to our nation.

Hey, who cares, as long as it's the GOP driving us off a cliff?

 

[The Galatian]

It's "good for bidness." The shortsighted people who are rushing to replace Americans with foreign workers can only see next year's bottom line.

They still haven't realized that the people who will be out of work, won't be buying what they have to sell...

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

Originally posted by The Galatian:
It's "good for bidness." The shortsighted people who are rushing to replace Americans with foreign workers can only see next year's bottom line.

...

They never look nearly that far ahead.

 

[Baptist in Richmond]

Come on, guys: this is part of that "mandate," remember?

Kerry bet his whole campaign on the "outsourcing" platform. He is the one who said he would work to stop the outsourcing of US jobs. Corporate America has undoubtedly noticed that outsourcing was not a major concern for the "clear majority" of Americans. Now that he was defeated and a "mandate" was given, you ain't seen nothin' yet. [sic]

This will affect more than just hi-tech and engineering jobs. You are going to see this across the board. If you are at work and you begin to hear phrases like "identifying areas for potential cost savings," then you are at risk.

"LaymansTermsPlease" (that is an excellent name, by the way): if this is being sponsored by a Republican (and I am willing to bet that it is), then there is NO CHANCE of stopping it.

 

[Baptist in Richmond]

Follow up:
I clicked on the link you provided, and there is an interesting quote:

The administration is currently proposing to raise it to de facto 325,000.

Like I said, there is NO CHANCE of stopping this.

 

[Pennsylvania Jim]

Yep. We elected Bush. Now we'll pay.

 

[Baptist in Richmond]

Does anyone have an update on this?
Did this initiative pass?

I am pretty sure that I know the answer, as this is apparently part of that "mandate."

Moreover, is this not cause for concern for those on the board?

I once heard someone say that a recession is when your neighbor loses his/her job, and a depression is when you lose yours.

 

[LadyEagle]

It's always been a concern of mine and I've harped on job outsourcing and illegal immigration ever since I've been on this board. It amounts to "spitting into the wind." (You don't tug on Superman's (GOP) cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with George---RIP Jim Croce)

 

[Johnv]

Originally posted by LaymansTermsPlease:
Today, Nov 19, the Congress is trying to sneak in an increase in allowing foreign tech workers to come in and displace U.S. jobs.

Before I jump, which specific jobs are we talking about?

... there is such severe unemployment...

There is? Unemployement is pretty low at the moment.

...and so many programming jobs lost already in the last couple of years.

As an IT prefessional (aka, geek) myself, this is not really a true statement. The programming jobs that are being outsourced are not the "think tank" and "write original code from scratch" jobs. They're the "this code has a bug in line 45 that needs to be replaced" and "delete this section of code and insert that section" type jobs. In other words, the no-brainer janitor-type work that it doesn't make sense to have a 60k-80k a year programmer do. This is actually a good thing, because it frees experienced programmers to do "real" programming, instead of getting stuck with grunt work, making the entier industry more competitive.

They are doing to the tech jobs just what they did to manufacturing years ago when they started moving factories offshore.

Which resulted in things like the $50 DVD player and $10 alarm clock, which we'd otherwise have to pay $200 and $75 for.

Programmers are out of jobs in greater numbers..their unemployment rate is higher than the general population. It is unconscionable that Congress would allow more foreign tech workers to come in to the U.S. and keep or put American programmers out of work.

Many programmers are also overpaid. I know I are one.

They claim the ammendment they are trying to make is for highly trained (Masters or Phd) workers and that there is a shortage in the U.S. This is a lie.

Not at all. most programmers have bachelors or associates in fields unrelaed to their professions. Few have masters' degrees. However, that being said, I question the statement as a whole, since the types of jobs wer're talking about isn't masters degree level.

The real reason is that the greedy folks at the American companies want to hire foreign workers and pay them a fraction of what an American programmer would command.

First, if the US programmer is overpaid for the job, is this a bad thing? Second, the issue is less likely to be "greedy folks at the American companies" and more likely the greedy consumers who want to pay less for their goods.

There are American programmers with Masters degrees and such that are out of work, or underemployed at retail/fast-food/construction jobs because they had to take any job they could find in another field not related to programming just to survive.

That's quite a bit of grandstanding. PC support & installation jobs are quite plentiful, and most programmers would qualify for a PC support job. Those jobs sometimes pay as much as programmer positions.

I work in an office where in just the last two years ONE-THIRD of all the programmers have been replaced by Indian H1-B liasions and offshore teams. We are all like the proverbial frogs being boiled alive who don't realize the heat has been turned up yet. We feel warm, but we are lulled into inactivity while our jobs are destroyed and downward pressure on wages reduces our salaries.

Something sounds fishy with that statement, as though it were cut-&-pasted from somewhere. Since the bill in question has not yet gone into effect, this situation is unrelated. I question the validity of the claim. What company? What type of programming language? What type of system? What kind of hardware are you using? How many employees?

Don't get me wrong here, I'm no fan of blind outsourcing, but when I looked at the link prvided, I couldn't help but notice that it was supported by several unions, like the AFL-CIO. These unions aren't exactly out to protect things like competition, supply and demand, fair wages, etc.

 

[Baptist in Richmond]

Johnv, do you really believe that things are great in the IT industry? I have friends up in the Bay Area who say that it is very tough up there right now. They also think things will get tougher should Oracle succeed in acquiring PeopleSoft.

 

[Johnv]

Since I work on a Peoplesoft system, that would be a GOOD thing for me, so it's a matter of perspective. That's business. Things are pretty good here in the OC tech-wise, and we see mergers and acquisitions all the time. In fact, in light of our high real estate prices, we have tech companies moving here because the region is resource rich. Then again, OC tech worker's wages are lower than the national average, so perhaps they're more competitive. Folks in other areas shouldn't whine if we in the OC are willing to do the same job as them for less money.

I've been laid off several times in my life. I'll probably get laid off once or twice more before I reach retirement age. That's the field I've chosen. It's ridiculous for me to go to a chinese restaurant and complain that there's no lasagna on the menu.

As far as Oracle and PeopleSoft, that has nothing to do with the OP.

 

[Baptist in Richmond]

Then you are indeed fortunate, as I have other friends in other places who say virtually the same thing.

[BTW, I am quite aware that it has nothing to do with the OP, and do not recall offering it up as anything other than something said to me in passing by the people I identified in the post.]

Hope this post finds you well,

BiR