Silicon Valley’s Indian Community Pushes to Reform H1B Visa Program
Source: KQED News
By Sam Harnett
FEBRUARY 11, 2016
...
Meanwhile, Gupta says American businesses lay off employees and hand over the work to IT contractors. Last year, Disney and Southern California Edison were in the news for replacing long-term employees with H1Bs.
Gupta saw the tactic in action as an executive for a big outsourcing firm.
“I remember sitting in Washington, D.C., in 2008 with a proposal that was going to outsource 300 jobs,” he says.
The tech industry has lobbied aggressively for more H1Bs, saying there is not enough talent in the United States to fill jobs. Gupta doesn’t buy it. The outsourcing made him so queasy he founded his own IT staffing company, one that “in-sourced” — hired Americans and immigrants who had put down roots here.
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Read more: http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/02/11/silicon-valleys-indian-community-pushes-to-reform-h1b-visa-program
This article talks about how so many who are working in this program are frustrated with how it works as much as those of us that lose jobs to the outsourcing of it. As noted here, even those who have moved here recognize both our problems as American IT workers and them who have no voice without the ability to vote/be represented or be a part of a union, etc. and feel the need for change.
Someone from Bernie's campaign should contact these folks and get their input on how they would like to see the H-1B Visa program reformed to help everyone who's been screwed by it. Note how the Indian gentleman here has been hiring Americans and those who just settled down here to help build the kind of work community I think we'd all like to see in the IT community.
If Labor for Bernie could also contact them too, I think that would show also that we want to build a world where there is no bottom to race to for the wealthy elites looking to exploit cheap labor world wide either through trade deals or programs like this that have been corrupted by the wealthy and greedy.
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yourout
(7,532 posts)We know what side of this Hillary is on and it isn't good.
Chakab
(1,727 posts)have endorsed her and donated money to her campaign.
cascadiance
(19,537 posts)... whose interests aren't really shared with the likes of Tata or other consulting firms and large companies that donate to her to expand this program's scope as they have in the past.
Chakab
(1,727 posts)nonsense that I wrote can be mistaken for a serious post.
gd770226
(35 posts)Sorry, I don't care if the people trying to get these visas, and those that do, don't like the way it works. Tough. How about all the American workers displaced by these visas. I lost the IT job I had had for 17 years to a H1B replacement. I hate, hate, hate the whole concept of it.
I support Sanders because he is the only candidate on either side that is against it. If he changes his position and suddenly supports it, I can't vote for him. So I don't think the Sanders campaign should work to help "fix" this program for the H1B workers. If it gets "fixed" it should be in a manner that favors US citizens FIRST.
cascadiance
(19,537 posts)I understand your frustration. But I think the point is that we shouldn't be angry with those workers that are trying to survive too, who are victimized as we are by those who created these crappy programs that should be taken down!
Personally, I think they should be going back to limited number of green cards, and the higher minimum wage that Bernie recently proposed and that even some Republicans have supported too. That way, the wealthy elites can't profiteer from this program like they have been, and they should be looking at us at more competitive salary rates as much as they might look at others moving here, and they'd be better off taking people already invested and moved here anyway.
I think that the way to fix it is something that should be worked out not only to discourage importing cheap labor here, but also not to outsource to cheap labor sites overseas too that have been facilitated with our trade deals like TPP and WTO or ISDS courts.
Trump and Cruz are currently against expanding this program, but like they have been ranting about immigration, they I think are trying to rally people in to blaming those foreign workers rather than the architects of these f'd up programs and those programs themselves that need radical change.
I like you, believe that Sanders is the only one that will be one to radically change or eliminate the program to not reward those who just want to profiteer from "cheap labor". That should not be a reason AT ALL for the existence of this program.
But if we try to also look at it from a global labor movement point of view, then I think we can help build the movement that can also help build our labor movement here in this country too.
America never got a chance to build a labor movement in the IT industry. It was a virgin industry in the 80's and early 90's, when most employees were treated then very well and paid very well too, and many companies like HP and Sun were known not to have any layoffs at all then. That changed after the economy dipped in the early 90's and when NAFTA and this H-1B program got passed, but we hadn't had any kind of labor organization at that point yet. About the only organizations for IT workers then were ACM, which really wasn't set up for doing a labor organization effort then, or perhaps even now. Though ultimately, I think having a guild that works as a union and also as a means to independently certify engineers in languages and other technologies and standards that doesn't leave too much control over technical needs purely in the hands of companies themselves.
The reason I continue to post here on H-1B is I share your passion for it being one of our biggest personal obstacles to a reasonable life. But I also have many friends since childhood, college and throughout my career from many parts in the world, and I want to put myself in their shoes and find a solution that is fair to all of us, of course considering our rights and needs paramount as American citizens the first priority.
Those in power profit from dividing us. They also do it with so many other social issues in our society, that has some of us trying prioritizing social issues over economic ones that are often fundamental for all of us as MLK noted in his time, and Bernie notes today. I don't want to fall in to those traps.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)especially after the remittances go through
