Fury rises at Disney over use of foreign workers

At the end of October, IT employees at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts were called, one-by-one, into conference rooms to receive notice of their layoffs. Multiple conference rooms had been set aside for this purpose, and in each room an executive read from a script informing the worker that their last day would be Jan. 30, 2015.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of eight co-chairs of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a leading group advocating for an increase in the H-1B visa cap. Last Friday, this partnership was a sponsor of an H-1B briefing at the U.S. Capitol for congressional staffers. The briefing was closed to the press.


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Fury rises at Disney over use of foreign workers

There has been an increase in the use of foreign workers to replace American IT workers, and this increase in the use of foreign workers was apparently spurred by whatever happened at the H-1B briefing at the U.S. Capitol for congressional staffers. We have no idea what was said in that briefing because it was closed to the press. However, we can see many other examples of employers laying off American workers to replace them for foreign workers who are being paid less than their American counter parts, all with the blessings of the Obama administration.

Examples of other employers laying off American workers to substitute them for lower paid foreign workers include.

About 500 IT jobs are cut at utility through layoffs and voluntary departures

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

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.

The employees are upset and say they can't understand how H-1B guest workers can be used to replace them.

The IT organization's "transition effort" is expected to result in about 400 layoffs, with "another 100 or so employees leaving voluntarily," SCE said in a statement. The "transition," which began in August, will be completed by the end of March, the company said.
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www.computerworld.com...

Earlier this month a bipartisan effort led by 10 U.S. Senators requested an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Labor Department in the use of the H-1B program to replace American workers for lower paid foreign workers. But the fact is, it is obvious the Obama administration gave a green light in the expansion of the use of the H-1B visas to replace many Americans for lower paid foreign workers in IT positions, many of whom are from India.

In fact, among some of the new changes that have been introduced, the DHS recently introduced a final rule on H-4 work authorization extending eligibility for employment authorization to certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B work visa holders seeking employment in the U.S.

Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses Eligible for Work Authorization | USCIS Will Accept Filings on May 26, 2015
25-February-2015
Authors
Beth E. Carlson
Sarah R. Kilibarda
Sari M. Long

The long-awaited final rule on H-4 work authorization has now been introduced by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). USCIS Director León Rodríguez has announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through this final rule is extending eligibility for employment authorization to certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B work visa holders who are seeking employment-based lawful permanent residence. Although many commenters requested that the H-4 work authorization rule be expanded to all H-4 dependent spouses, USCIS decided to keep the language of the proposed rule and not expand the H-4 work authorization rule to all H-4 spouses at this time.
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With these categories of H-4 spouses, USCIS estimates that the number of H-4 dependent spouses who could potentially be eligible to file under this rule could be as high as 179,600 in the first year and 55,000 annually in future years. Although many comments submitted in response to the proposed rule requested that DHS expand the eligibility of H-4 work authorization to ALL H-4 spouses, the government declined to make such a sweeping regulatory change at this time. However, DHS indicated that it was not precluded from implementing further changes or expanding the H-4 work authorization rule at a later date.
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www.faegrebd.com...

Some of these American workers who have been replaced by foreign workers have even filed lawsuits against the government over these replacements of the American workforce.

Displaced Southern California Edison Workers Sue Obama Admin. Over Unilateral Visa Rule

by Caroline May24 Apr 2015

Former Southern California Edison employees are suing the Obama administration over its H-4 visa rule that grants work permits to certain spouses of H-1B visa holders.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute filed a lawsuit in D.C. District Court this week against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of Save Jobs USA — a group of former SCE employees who were displaced by H-1B visa holders.

In February, the DHS announced it would be extending work eligibility to certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders — a category of immigrant previously ineligible for work permits. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it will begin accepting applications from these visa holders on May 26.

“USCIS estimates the number of individuals eligible to apply for employment authorization under this rule could be as high as 179,600 in the first year and 55,000 annually in subsequent years,” USCIS explained in its February announcement.
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www.breitbart.com...

It seems more and more obvious that meanwhile the standards of living in the U.S. keeps increasing, it is the goal of the Obama administration to lower the wages of American jobs, and replace more and more Americans with foreign workers.

Perhaps we should start laying off the yanks working in Europe and other parts of the world.

(we could start by firing all those Americans in our army and intelligence bases)

The Labor department has already stated that there won't be an investigation that Southern California Edison Co. abused a popular visa program for skilled foreign workers.

Labor Department won't investigate alleged Edison H-1B visa abuses

By Jim Puzzanghera

The U.S. Labor Department will not investigate allegations that Southern California Edison Co. abused a popular visa program for skilled foreign workers, according to senators who requested the probe.

A top Labor official said an investigation could not be opened because there was no complaint from someone adversely affected by the use of the H-1B visas and no reasonable cause to believe the company violated the rules governing the visas.

The Labor Department "has not received a complaint from an aggrieved party or a credible source, and other avenues for investigation are not appropriate at this time," M. Patricia Smith, the department's solicitor, said in a letter dated Tuesday.

The letter was sent to Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who had joined with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and a bipartisan group of eight other senators this month in asking the Obama administration to look into allegations that Edison was using the visas to hire foreigners to replace American workers.
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www.latimes.com...

How likely is that claim by the U.S. Labor Department true, when former employes have even filed lawsuits against the Obama administration over their replacements?

How likely is it true when many of these workers have been in protests over this issue?

It's obvious the claim by the U.S. Labor Department is false, there are indeed complaints being made by former American workers who have been replaced by the H1-B visa workers.

I say we start by firing anyone who works for the banks.
Sorry, underlings- your bosses can't hide behind you forever.

New Data Show How Firms Like Infosys and Tata Abuse the H-1B Program
Posted February 19, 2015 at 10:47 am by Ron Hira

Outsourcing by the thousands

The outsourcing companies involved in the Southern California Edison (SCE) scandal I wrote about last week—where U.S. workers were replaced with H-1B guestworkers—are Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. These two India-based IT firms specialize in outsourcing and offshoring, are major publicly traded companies with a combined market value of about $115 billion, and are the top two H-1B employers in the United States. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, Infosys ranked first with 6,269 H-1B petitions approved by the government, and Tata ranked second with 6,193. As with the SCE scandal, these leading offshore outsourcing firms use the H-1B program to replace American workers and to facilitate the offshoring of American jobs. Because of this, it’s likely that Americans lost more than 12,000 jobs to H-1B workers in just one year. FY13 H-1B data I’ve analyzed, acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveals new details about how firms like Infosys and Tata are using the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program. Spoiler alert: they don’t use the H-1B visa as a way to alleviate a shortage of STEM-educated U.S. workers; they use it primarily to cut labor costs. But the other main arguments proffered to support an expansion of the H-1B program are easily debunked with even a cursory look at the H-1B data.

Lower wages

The principal reason that firms use H-1Bs to replace American workers is because H-1B nonimmigrant workers are much cheaper than locally recruited and hired U.S. workers. As Table 1 shows, Infosys and Tata pay very low wages to their H-1B workers. The average wage for an H-1B employee at Infosys in FY13 was $70,882 and for Tata it was $65,565. Compare this to the average wage of a Computer Systems Analyst in Rosemead, CA (where SCE is located), which is $91,990 (according to the U.S. Department of Labor). That means Infosys and Tata save well over $20,000 per worker per year, by hiring an H-1B instead of a local U.S. worker earning the average wage. But at SCE specifically, the wage savings are much greater. SCE recently commissioned a consulting firm, Aon-Hewitt, to conduct a compensation study, which showed that SCE’s IT specialists were earning an average annual base pay of $110,446. That means Tata and Infosys are getting a 36 to 41 percent savings on labor costs—or saving about $40,000 to $45,000 per worker per year.
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www.epi.org...

Now, due to the new rule introduced by the DHS, the outsourcing of American jobs with foreign workers can increase as high as 179,600 in the first year and 55,000 annually in future years.

a reply to: bullcat

You don't seem to understand the difference. Are there laws in Europe allowing the easy replacements of workers from Europe for lower paid workers from the U.S?...

Read carefully again the difference. Are there laws in Europe allowing the easy replacement of workers from Europe for CHEAPER labor from the U.S. in the tens of thousands per year?...

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

The best way to counter what Disney has done with American workers is boycott them and there products.

People have and always have had the power to make or brake company's like Disney, it just seems we would rather whine then do anything about.

originally posted by: Battleline
a reply to: ElectricUniverse

The best way to counter what Disney has done with American workers is boycott them and there products.

People have and always have had the power to make or brake company's like Disney, it just seems we would rather whine then do anything about.

I boycotted them since their copyright fiasco years ago. What took you so long?

a reply to: bullcat

The local government up here pays to fly foreign workers in to keep the fish factory jobs dirt cheap. They pay half their housing costs too, the factories bus them to and from work. Most of their money is getting sent home, not being put back into the local economy. And then they turn around and bitch about people on seasonal EI(which we pay into), not willing to drive 2 hours each way to go work for walmart at minimum wage part time. Such a joke....... They won't care until some of the third world starts creeping into their little gated communities.

You have too options:

1) Put in a pay cap

2) Get rid of the H1-b Visas


If you go for 2 you will royally # up your scientific sector as they rely on international recruiting as they need a divrse skill range one country cant offer. I know as I used to work in Pharma and the UK nearly lost its R&D a few years back as how government tried scaling back non EU immigration visa so the big company's buggered off to country's greener and are only just coming back. Do it in the USA and a lot of Scientific company's will bugger off too and you will lose even more jobs likely to Germany.

They'll work harder with a gun in their back for a bowl of rice a day.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

I can tell you this much, in my local big corporate monopolistic hospital more than half of the doctors working in there are from India and Pakistan, on visas, they are given fancy accommodations and great pays.

Meanwhile our area is low income high unemployment city with three Wal-Mart's, two of them are super stores.

The irony.

I guess America doesn't have qualified professionals, meanwhile our students are graduating from college with not job opportunities and full of student loan debts.

Then people wonder if only the very poor are the ones been targeted and been destitute.

I misread the title as "Furry" and was briefly very scurred to open this thread.

One thing I don't understand is WHY companies seem to love this practice. At some point the little economic boom they create for themselves is going to pop when it sinks the economy and people realize they can't afford to go to Disneyland.

We're all tied together in this thing.

a reply to: Domo1

Disney has become a all for profit entity that caters to the oversea foreign tourist that the raise in the Euro has made possible for them to enjoy to visit the US, prices are overinflated and out of control, I don't even visit Disney anymore.

We Americans should boycott their facilities.

If I remember correctly h-1b visa had a requirement that you had to look for citizens first before hiring foreign workers.

We ran into this issue a few years ago at another job. The guy we wanted to use was on a expiring work visa. And we were forced to first hire several local programmers before we could consider our first choice.

Did this requirement go away?

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Great post and information on a huge issue for America, but you negate it all by putting blame on solely one administration.

This is not a new trend.

President Bush Lies about U.S. Tech Labor Shortage
www.programmersguild.org...

The President followed this claim with a call on Congress to raise the cap on the H-1B. He concluded by stating "Of course, we want every job that's ever generated in America filled by Americans, but that's not the reality today."

You are now the cause of the issue in this country by trying to make this as a partisan issue. Once it becomes a partisan issue the people are split into the Left and into the Right and corporations win while we fight each other.

To fix the issues in America BOTH Democrats and Republicans have to open their biased eyes and see the reality of the matter, that both Party organizations are sticking it to them and work for the Oligopoly corporate behemoths.

a reply to: Domo1
That is one thing I don't understand about all this in any business. Who is going to buy all the trinkets, when no one can even afford rent anymore?

originally posted by: TKDRL
a reply to: Domo1
That is one thing I don't understand about all this in any business. Who is going to buy all the trinkets, when no one can even afford rent anymore?

Besides short sided greed , especially from the CEO that is going to get a 30 Million dollar bonus next year and could care less about 10 years down the road.

These Oligopoly companies are no longer American companies they are GLOBAL companies with the Power to make and break markets and they benefit from both crashing and creating upcoming markets.

a reply to: TKDRL

I get it if it's Wal Mart, or a company that's hocking necessities, but Disneyland? You certainly don't need to pay an obscene amount of money to stand in a line and be accosted by giant mice. Things like Disneyland seem like they should be the first thing to go tits up when the economy drags.

I suppose someone can counter by saying that when the company is profitable it's beneficial though.