Senators seek H-1B cap that starts at 115,000 and rises

[Newsjock]

Source: Computerworld

A bipartisan group of Senators is planning to introduce a bill that not only hikes the H-1B cap, but allows it to rise automatically with demand to a maximum of 300,000 visas annually.

This 20-page bill, called the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 or the "I-Squared Act of 2013," is being developed by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.).

Presently, the U.S. has an H-1B visa cap of 65,000. There are another 20,000 H-1B visas set aside for advanced degree gradates of U.S. universities, for 85,000 in total.

... The H-1B cap increase provisions will be very controversial for many reasons. The visa is seen as a tool by offshore companies to replace U.S. workers. Some critics see it as instrumental in age discrimination with an impact on wages. On the other side are U.S. tech companies, such as Microsoft and Google, which argue that H-1B visa is essential to hiring workers.

Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236208/Senators_seek_H_1B_cap_that_starts_at_115_000_and_rises

[antigop]

1. and the corporate Dems go along with it. nt

[OhioChick]

9. +1000

We don't need an increase in H-1B's with so many US citizens unemployed.

[Angry Dragon]

2. no more H-1B visas

plenty of Americans out of work that could do those jobs


add: just called Amy's office and she has no comment ........ the ultimate fence sitter

[antigop]

3. +1000 nt

[BadgerKid]

7. But, you see, they claim our educ system is crap

so they "have" to do this. I'm so sick of this. I doubt the H1B is going to be rolled back once the educational system is deemed to be producing hirable workers.

[cascadiance]

14. Damn right. Many of us tech workers have to take contract jobs now...

... instead of getting a decent permanent job as employers (with all of these H-1B guest workers) can staff their companies with American contractors or H-1B permanent workers (or those hired as contractors from "body shops&quot at a lot less salary.

I'm making about 30% less than I was a few years back after having been going through being unemployed like many of us have in the technology sector.

STOP THE CORPORATE CORRUPTION BULLSHIT!!!

NO to H-!B Visa expansion.

It was supposed to only be for employees that had unique qualifications that we don't have (like languages combined with certain tech skills). It is now set up to pay people a lot less with the body shops!

[Angry Dragon]

15. I can only suggest you call the congress-critters listed

[cascadiance]

24. I sent a long note yesterday to Jeff Merkley and hoping we will lead the charge against it...

I reminded him that I've worked hard with him, and even personally told him at a fundraiser months before the election that his battle on the filibuster would be the big one that will solidify many Americans' support for him. I think this is another where he can really get us going for him to get reelected in 2014 and hopefully even made Senate Majority Leader over the useless POS we have in there right now..

[Angry Dragon]

25. GOOD

[OhioChick]

36. Good for you for writing

I wish that more would. I have.

Don't forget to write to Durbin and Grassley as they've both been against raising H-1B caps in the past.

"The H-1B provisions of in this draft proposal are almost certain to face opposition from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), both of whom are on the Senate immigration subcommittee with Hatch, where immigration bills are vetted."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236208/Senators_seek_H_1B_cap_that_starts_at_115_000_and_rises

[christx30]

35. They're just doing

IT work Americans won't do.

[MH1]

4. recc'd for visibility

This bill sucks. Sorry to see some Dems going along with it - but of course they need campaign cash too.

I might be ok with H1B visas if they were married to SERIOUS, EFFECTIVE provisions to train US workers. I don't see that happening til a cold day in hell, though.

[KoKo]

5. K&R...with such high unemployment...do we really need this right now?

Train our own workers and give job opportunities to those who've lost them.

[jsr]

6. Thus ensuring a never-ending stream of ever-cheaper labor

[antigop]

12. yep. that's what this is all about nt

[Populist_Prole]

8. When the chips are down, it's nice to finally see the Dems and GOP cooperate

....when it comes to further marginalizing the working class.


In typical conservative fashion, they attach a specious benign name for it all, the "innovation act". More of the same insidious bullshit though: "patriot", "freedom", "enterprise", now "innovation".

Feckin bastards.....................

[pscot]

10. Bend over Amerika

a bipartisan group of senators has something for you.

[forestpath]

11. Both parties are always quick to do their corporate overlords' bidding.

[antigop]

13. k & r nt

[LibDemAlways]

16. Total BS. We don't need a single H-1B worker.

When my 59-year-old laid off software engineer husband was looking for work 3 years ago, he was basically laughed at at job fairs for positions he was well-qualified for. Cheap companies only wanted young, inexperienced H-1B types who would work for next to nothing. He ended up having to settle for a 40% pay cut anyway doing work he was overqualified for but that required US citizenship. The citizenship requirement was the only thing that saved him. He wrote to Senators Boxer and Feinstein at the time and received two form letters thanking him for writing. Our elected reps. are useless on this issue.

[valerief]

17. Yeah, because, like, Americans don't really *need* employment.

[jasendorf]

18. 20 years ago this was supposed to give companies time to educate American workers

20 years ago when they introduced th H-1B it was supposed to be a stop gap measure to give American companies time to train Americans to do these jobs. Instead, those companies sucked up the cheap labor, depressed American tech workers' salaries and didn't spend a single non-obligatory dime on training. Now here they are 20 years later, enough time to train an entire generation, and they're saying there aren't enough American tech workers? F YOU.

If anything they should be DECREASING the number of visas designed SPECIFICALLY for lower my earning potential.

[cascadiance]

28. It was supposed to be for a SMALL number of workers that they couldn't get otherwise...

with unique qualifications that are harder to get amongst Americans (like certain foreign language skills as well as technical skills). If it were limited to that, and companies were willing to pay extra to have one employee to do that rather than hiring two to get both sets of skills, I wouldn't mind the H-1B visa program. The cap being low shouldn't prevent companies from being helped with THESE situations.

Way back in the 80's and 90's, I recall when managers I knew laughed at how they were able to subvert the "rules" of the H-1B program and hire foreign workers as H-1B employees through "body shop" contract firms. They weren't contracted out as "workers" but a "service" that allowed them to manipulate more what they paid to those workers doing the "service", since contracting companies didn't have the data to "measure" what they paid for these contractors versus their own employees.

And then these body shops got away with paying lower salaries because they ONLY hired H-1B workers, and therefore had no domestic American workers to compare their salaries against to live up to the USELESS rule that was made in the program that those hiring H-1B workers should be hired to the "prevailing wage" of domestic workers doing the same job, since they only hired H-1B workers and had no American workers that they had to pay "equal" salaries too. Thus they paid them dirt, and the companies contracting them out also enjoyed paying them dirt!

It even affected H-1B workers places where they lived. I recall when right across the hall from me, a bunch of them all crowded in to a rental unit that my neighbor had left (during the housing mess at the end of the dotcom bomb era when rents were skyrocketing). The guy hiring them then suddenly decided to have them kicked out so that he could move in himself. H-1B workers, under the threat of being deported if they offend their employers in the least (as the indentured servants they were), couldn't take them on in court for pulling this crap.

That's who we are competing with when we allow more of these kind of workers to come in. We need to stand up for our rights as workers AND those in other countries who are forced to come in under these conditions to have decent jobs. Their countries shouldn't be "the bottom" that companies race to, and pay them decently as well. If all of us were organized around the world, it would be that much harder for these big companies and our bought politicians from playing these games.

[Smilo]

19. B S

What is this so they can employ foreigners at lower salaries while denying American children good jobs and education.

As for bipartisan - nope not when you have corporatist sycophants involved.

[RandiFan1290]

20. The 1% making sure your kids don't have a chance!

They don't give a damn about us. They are taken care of.

[Jerry442]

21. When kids ask me if they should seek a career in electrical or computer engineering....

...I tell them, "You can't. There is no such thing as a career in those fields: just jobs that end sometime in your thirties. Then you have to find a real career."

[ChromeFoundry]

22. If this goes through...

the safest job in tech, will be troubleshooting and fixing shit code.

[antigop]

23. Not too long ago I had a conversation with a National Merit Finalist

Got a perfect score on the math and science part of the ACT. Everyone had told her to be an engineer.

She said, "No way....those jobs are outsourced. My Dad is under constant stress."

She became a music major. She said, "If I'm going to have job insecurity, I might as well do something I enjoy."

You are so correct about not having a career in those fields.

[cascadiance]

26. And these IDIOTS wonder why American students don't pursue tech careers!

Smart kids KNOW that if they don't want to spend a ton of money to get an education where they'll be immediately facing unemployment with all of th outsourcing going on it, that they'd rather invest in a career like medicine or law where they are more likely to be employed locally and get better money doing it. And those that are stupid and wouldn't know any better wouldn't cut it in these careers anyway.

Not sure what I would have done back in the 80's had I had to face a tech sector today to get a job in compared to what there was then with the Silicon Valley boom of that time. I might have pursued another career too then.

[peacebird]

27. The H1B is a way to offshore MY job to low paid workers in our own country.

I totally feel this. The H1B visa workers are paid basically indentured servant wages. The guys I know who are H1B live in group apartments because their pay is too low.

[cascadiance]

29. Read my note above of observing the exact same thing you just stated here...

And I just now thought of that experience BEFORE reading your post here...

[JDPriestly]

30. American kids have to invest a lot of money to get an education and then can't find jobs.

Why in the world do we give H-1B visas?

I think the law should be that H-1B visas are only given out when every single college graduate has a full-time job paying over $50,000 per year or some other figure that allows our kids to repay their college loans.

Last thing we need are more H-1B visas. Our children can be educated to do the work that people with those visas want to do.

Enough!

[GoHomeVisa]

31. This requires action!!!

Please, everyone - EVERYONE - do as I just did, email the sh*t out of your representatives, and let them know this is legislation is pure poison, it makes a difference, it really does, and it's so easy to do. Contact your rep's and urge others to do the same, this is pure crap and it's pissing me off like nothing else right now tonight

Dean

[William769]

32. Welcome to Democratic underground.

[OhioChick]

37. You're absolutely right and welcome to DU

Don't forget to write to Durbin and Grassley as they've both been against raising H-1B caps in the past.

"The H-1B provisions of in this draft proposal are almost certain to face opposition from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), both of whom are on the Senate immigration subcommittee with Hatch, where immigration bills are vetted."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236208/Senators_seek_H_1B_cap_that_starts_at_115_000_and_rises

[sikofit3]

33. Unbelievable

So basically 300,000 jobs a year will be lost to the American worker? I mean, wth? college grads and others already can't find work. I used to work for IBM and on pink slip day all the IT guys already new they had lost their jobs because they had been training their replacement for months only for that job to go right back to India mostly. How can we keep up? What jobs will be available to us? If we are suppose to be the consumers in the global economy how are we supposed to consume? I just can't wrap my mind around this at all and it goes against any agenda every presented to the American public.... but then again, how can I be surprised at this point.

[antigop]

34. IBM's "Transformation": More Layoffs Despite Earnings Surge

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/01/23/ibm-layoffs-earnings-cloud-computing/

When a company reports strong end-of-the-year earnings, workers might expect some positive news -- maybe a bonus, even. But that's not what happened at IBM. On Wednesday, the same day the Armonk, N.Y.-based technology corporation announced its net income "surge" 6 percent in the fourth quarter, reports came out that IBM was planning layoffs.

Why would workers be laid off when total net income was $5.8 billion, better than what most analysts expected?

"Transformation is a permanent feature of our business model," IBM spokesman Doug Shelton explained via email. "Technology evolves -- requiring new skills. Client needs shift -- requiring new capability. Consequently, some level of workforce remix is an ongoing part of our business model."

Shelton passed on confirming the lay-off rumors, saying the company was preparing its annual "remixing." No specifics about what divisions will be targeted, or how many workers, have been released.