PDA

View Full Version : Jobs Lost



indago
06-15-2015, 08:56 AM
From The New York Times 15 June 2015:
----------------------------------------------------------------
It hardly needs saying that immigration policy should not undermine Americans’ jobs, wages or working conditions. The problem is that what some companies want — cheap, exploitable, disposable labor — is exactly what the system can be twisted into giving them. Former workers at Walt Disney World in Orlando or at Southern California Edison, the power utility, can tell the story. Those two companies recently laid off hundreds of tech employees, who were replaced by temporary workers recruited by outsourcing firms based in India.

...The program was created to allow companies to fill gaps in their work force with specialized employees they cannot find in the United States. But the law has loopholes, and companies here and overseas ruthlessly exploit them. A huge industry has risen to meet labor demand in the information-technology sector, with the imported workers being employees of the outsourcing firms.

...A mass influx of foreigners doing the jobs of the workers they displace is clearly not what the law intended. Congress surely did not want to give companies a more efficient means of slashing payroll costs while pushing more people to the curb.
----------------------------------------------------------------

article (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/15/opinion/workers-betrayed-by-visa-loopholes.html?ref=todayspaper)

If "A mass influx of foreigners doing the jobs of the workers they displace" was not what was intended by the politicians, then they would have included provisions within the bill to address that problem. I don't believe for one minute that this wasn't discussed during the assembling of the wording of the bill.

tailfins
06-15-2015, 09:07 AM
From The New York Times 15 June 2015:
----------------------------------------------------------------
It hardly needs saying that immigration policy should not undermine Americans’ jobs, wages or working conditions. The problem is that what some companies want — cheap, exploitable, disposable labor — is exactly what the system can be twisted into giving them. Former workers at Walt Disney World in Orlando or at Southern California Edison, the power utility, can tell the story. Those two companies recently laid off hundreds of tech employees, who were replaced by temporary workers recruited by outsourcing firms based in India.

...The program was created to allow companies to fill gaps in their work force with specialized employees they cannot find in the United States. But the law has loopholes, and companies here and overseas ruthlessly exploit them. A huge industry has risen to meet labor demand in the information-technology sector, with the imported workers being employees of the outsourcing firms.

...A mass influx of foreigners doing the jobs of the workers they displace is clearly not what the law intended. Congress surely did not want to give companies a more efficient means of slashing payroll costs while pushing more people to the curb.
----------------------------------------------------------------

article (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/15/opinion/workers-betrayed-by-visa-loopholes.html?ref=todayspaper)

If "A mass influx of foreigners doing the jobs of the workers they displace" was not what was intended by the politicians, then they would have included provisions within the bill to address that problem. I don't believe for one minute that this wasn't discussed during the assembling of the wording of the bill.

The law as it exists borders on slavery. H1B visa holders have a very difficult time changing jobs away from an abusive employer. Over time it creates company cultures that expect American workers to be bootlickers as well. In information technology it creates a culture where it's taboo to question the boss, who has the power to send you back to your own country. This means that there's resistance to report poorly written code as a defect or report unmaintainable code. Some employers are willing to tolerate someone like myself who throws a fit when presented with defective code, because that's a better option than the damage caused by defective code.