NO layoffs took place at Microsoft India, just in the US

[eridani]

Microsoft laid off 872 workers locally last week, while NO Layoffs took place at Microsoft India. Outsourcing is sapping the American economy every day. Americans are training their own replacements every day.


www.washtech.org is looking for your opinions. We’re making short video recordings of people (need not be ex or present Microsoft employees) who want to share their outrage over how corporate America is draining the American middle class. Contact dang {at} washtech.org, or priyanka {at} washtech.org with “MSFT Video” in subject line. Participants’ identities will be 100% protected. We’ll walk them through the process.


Here again are the links to both stories referenced above:

https://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126805
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Jobs/Microsoft_to_axe_5000_no_job_cuts_in_India/articleshow/4018523.cms

[Howardx]

1. question

how many people does microsoft employ in the us vs the amount in india?

[TahitiNut]

3. As of September 30, 2008 ... 94,286 employees worldwide, 56,654 in the U.S.

That leaves about 38,000 in the entire ROW (Rest Of World).

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/inside_ms.mspx

[Howardx]

6. i wonder

if theres any available info on how many of the microsoft US employees that were laid off were h1-b visa holders. probably not.

[hootinholler]

9. From the article...

Microsoft will not disclose the number of H-1B workers on its payroll, and it is hard to get a complete picture on any company's visa use from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but Microsoft is considered a leading H-1B employer.

Interesting that they seem to be not laying off H1-B visa employees first.

Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Davis and a leading critic of the H-1B program, sees great benefits for opponents of the visas in Grassley's letter.

"If Microsoft doesn't state that they will lay off the H-1Bs first -- and they won't state this -- then it would be awfully tough for Bill Gates to come back to the Hill and urge an H-1B increase, wouldn't it?" said Matloff. "In fact, Microsoft's refusal to lay off H-1Bs first would weaken the effect of Gates' previous testimony."

-Hoot

[ChromeFoundry]

19. RE: How many H-1Bs?.....

I bet you can count them with the number of fingers you have on one foot.

[Howardx]

27. can you see what you ate last night?

what with your head up there and all....

[ChromeFoundry]

30. I was agreeing with you...

I think Microsoft will be keeping that information very secret. They have refused to even release the head-count of how many H-1B employees they employee in the US. I take that as, must have something to hide.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Well, how about that.

:mad:

.

[MichiganVote]

4. And I suppose we give them tax breaks.....

[Deja Q]

5. Another article here

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/01/27/microsoft_layoffs_have_minimal_impact_in_china_no.html

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. What is UP with them?

Its not just that, its Gates. I mean I love his charity work, but his wealth is made largely of US dollars which he's endlessly pouring overseas as well. I just get the feeling they think of themselves as 'citizens of the world', to the extent they have turned a blind eye to the US workforce, and the people who made them rich.

[Deja Q]

10. Gates said in 2005 the dollar would fall. And they are NOT 'citizens of the world'

Given the size of his company, he could have helped prevent it.

The developing countries deserve to be developed, but at the cost of American workers being economically coerced into training their own replacements?! Or at the destruction of our economy? If they are citizens of the world, they are acting as if the US is not a part of it. If the global economy was a human body, and to paraphrase a comment someone posted on another forum, when the US sneezes, the world catches pneumonia as a result. We are not irrelevant, no matter how wet Gates' dreams get.

And yet Russia and (get this) China are blaming America for the economic malaise. Well, what am I missing for them to have any claim? (Okay, on huffpo there's an article that exemplifies Putin and Russia's position eloquently, but China's contributions to the world aren't showing them much of any favor with the products they've sold WORLDWIDE (so it's not a US-centric thing); therefore China has no right to say a word. Why Russia is allying itself with China, I have no idea.)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. Yes, he should have just waved his magic rich-person wand.

You know, the one *they* give you when you become a millionaire.

[Hannah Bell]

18. it's not charity work. it's mostly agenda-driven.

[napoleon_in_rags]

21. I bumped into this in my reading earlier today:

It was this:
http://boycottnovell.com/2009/01/28/uganda-sells-out-to-ms/
I take this site with a grain of salt, but this raises some interesting questions.

[Hannah Bell]

22. That's not all. Look into MS's funding of Monsanto's research & test plots in africa

under the guise of charity.

and look into drug testing in the third world generally, some of which MS runs.

It ain't charity. The benefits go mainly to the corps.

[napoleon_in_rags]

24. I see a monsanto connection. I'm skeptical of the "feed the puppies" approach to charity in general.

Its the "give a man a fish, teach a man to fish" thing in the end for me. You have this great African OS in Ubuntu, which they actually own forever. Then you have Microsoft charging in and giving these short term "gifts", which don't really empower the kids, but get them dependent on a system Microsoft plans to charge for down the road. Its really quite disgusting.

[Hannah Bell]

26. agreed. it isn't disinterested, but self-interested. personally, i believe africa

is being developed as the next low-wage platform for foreign capital, probably 30 years down the road.

same way china was 30 years ago.

[Kansas Wyatt]

8. So Microsoft will have even more screw ups?

I have yet to have anyone from India ever help me with a computer problem, and they only end up doing more harm.

[Deja Q]

12. Regarding a bug I'd found, which has also been reported by others,

it will be fixed in a new version of the product. Not a service pack or hotfix. A new release. Pony up that $300...

Microsoft is just doing itself a gross disservice.

Peoples' businesses rely on properly functioning programs. Microsoft has a responsibility. They act more like extortionists.

I don't know or care who is programming their products, but between 2001 and now, there has been an unprecedented drop in quality, which is nothing short of amazing when all factors are brought in. It works, but it's buggy, many fixes are just shortcuts or band-aids (or the entire feature removed and pawned off as a fix). Nevermind the joke of product activation magically de-activating itself, or acting it's been activated despite not having activated it-- I've bought and paid for it all and the residual activation issues are horrid. Then again, India wouldn't kill its cash cow; India and China still have, by a wide margin, the highest piracy rates. (Yet the BSA, which Microsoft is a founding member of, doesn't give a shit. Color me confused; those countries should be penalized -- not rewarded, but it's not as much the country, regulations, or lack thereof -- it's the company's responsibility to prevent piracy of its own products. If Microsoft is tolerating piracy, their claim to be adamantly against it is depreciated by some margin. Oh, hell, it's just nullified.)

I wish Adobe would make Photoshop for Linux. I won't use Gimp; it's called that for a reason... Or Apple would get its OS be installed on non-branded "Apple" hardware. They'd make a lot more in profits.

But if Microsoft wants to shoot itself in the foot, so be it. Wait until the proverbial next flight of stairs comes along.

[endless october]

11. i guess there are available American engineers now, huh billy?

maybe we should consider breaking up Microsoft for real this time.

[Hotler]

13. Will the White House call Bill Gates and tell him to "Fix it,"

???????? I think he should.

[OhioChick]

14. K&R

:kick:

[Greyhound]

15. and have been for over ten years in IT, over 25 years in other industries.

How long will we allow this to continue?

[OhioChick]

16. Another one to look at:

IBM quietly cuts thousands of jobs

"It is adding bodies in cheaper and higher-growth parts of the world, like India."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x420763

[Azlady]

17. K&R

[bridgit]

23. Gates has been vying for bringing Indian programmers over on his targeted

high teach work visa' for some time as you know...it would seem he has some positions to fill. America should be watching these corporations very closely at this critical time

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

25. There haven't been any layoffs at Microsoft UK as far as I know.

Must be because those Limeys are just so cheap in comparison to Americans.

[Waiting For Everyman]

28. I hope the visa program is ended ENTIRELY and immediately.

More power to Grassley and those on it with him.

[we can do it]

29. Fuck Microshit