01-02-2009, 09:58 PM
[Also posted at Daily Kos.]
The Shock Doctrine is now being used against labor.
I think it is obvious that the "economic crisis" is being used as an excuse, or a diversion, to allow companies to accelerate the replacement of citizen and resident workers with cheap foreign labor. The companies seem to have no trouble getting the work visas they need, even with the soaring unemployment rate. Furthermore, many of the companies are operating with bailout money paid for by US taxpayers--bailouts supposedly overseen by congress.
A friend of mine was laid off from Yahoo on Dec 10. While googling on the subject I found the following piece:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40530/122/
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 11:20
More layoffs at Yahoo
Yahoo will notify 1500 employees that they will be losing their job today. This comes following an October announcement from chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen that the company would be making their layoffs by the end of 2008. Yahoo also announced that Yahoo is prepared to make further cuts in 2009 if the economy continues to worsen.
...
Yahoo will reduce its workforce in high-cost markets and hire aggressively in lower-cost locations such as Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and India, the company said.
...
Interesting because, we don't see much reporting on the mass hiring of cheap foreign labor in parallel with mass layoffs. I mentioned the piece to my laid off friend at Yahoo and he emailed the following, still on Dec 10:
> BTW, I found out afterward today, 3 H1-Bs in my group are safe. 1 other
> H1-B in another group is safe, while all effected, 12 of us today in QA are
> all US Citizens or Residences.
Today this story appeared in The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/01...62877.html
Bailed Out Banks Sought Foreign Workers For High-Paying Jobs: AP
FRANK BASS and RITA BEAMISH | February 1, 2009 12:49 PM EST | AP
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.
The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.
As the economic collapse worsened last year _ with huge numbers of bank employees laid off _ the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.
...
Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.
...
"The system provides you perfectly legal mechanisms to underpay the workers," said John Miano of Summit, N.J., a lawyer who has analyzed the wage data and started the Programmers Guild, an advocacy group that opposes the H-1B system.
...
Beyond seeking approval for visas from the government, banks that accepted federal bailout money also enlisted uncounted foreign workers, often in technology jobs, through intermediary companies known as "body shops." Such businesses are the top recipients of the H-1B visas.
...
Banks turned to foreign workers before the current economic crisis, said Diane Casey-Landry, chief operating officer for the American Bankers Association. The group said a year ago that demand exceeded the pool of qualified workers in areas like sales, lending and bank administration. Now with massive layoffs, the situation is different, Casey-Landry said.
...
"You're using taxpayer dollars and there's an expectation that there are benefits to the U.S.," said Ron Hira, a national expert on foreign employment and assistant public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "What you're really doing is leaking away those jobs and benefits that should accrue to the taxpayers."
...
Jennifer Scott of Yreka, Calif., a retired technical systems manager at Bank of America in Concord, Calif., said in 2004 she oversaw foreign employees from a contractor firm that also sent overnight work to employees in India.
"It had nothing to do with a shortage, but they didn't want to pay the U.S. rate," she said, adding that the quality of the work was weak. "It's all about numbers crunching."
To say that I'm outraged would be a vast understatement.
Joe Biden is now in charged of the Middle-Class Task Force. This acceleration of shifting jobs overseas in the midst of a likely economic depression, facilitated by bailout money paid for by US taxpayers, is something that his task force should focus on.
In fact President Obama and Congress should also focus on it urgently, if they are serious about helping the endangered middle class.
Who would like to join me in informing elected officials, and the media, and the internet, of this outrage--and pushing for change we can survive on?
The Shock Doctrine is now being used against labor.
I think it is obvious that the "economic crisis" is being used as an excuse, or a diversion, to allow companies to accelerate the replacement of citizen and resident workers with cheap foreign labor. The companies seem to have no trouble getting the work visas they need, even with the soaring unemployment rate. Furthermore, many of the companies are operating with bailout money paid for by US taxpayers--bailouts supposedly overseen by congress.
A friend of mine was laid off from Yahoo on Dec 10. While googling on the subject I found the following piece:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40530/122/
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 11:20
More layoffs at Yahoo
Yahoo will notify 1500 employees that they will be losing their job today. This comes following an October announcement from chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen that the company would be making their layoffs by the end of 2008. Yahoo also announced that Yahoo is prepared to make further cuts in 2009 if the economy continues to worsen.
...
Yahoo will reduce its workforce in high-cost markets and hire aggressively in lower-cost locations such as Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and India, the company said.
...
Interesting because, we don't see much reporting on the mass hiring of cheap foreign labor in parallel with mass layoffs. I mentioned the piece to my laid off friend at Yahoo and he emailed the following, still on Dec 10:
> BTW, I found out afterward today, 3 H1-Bs in my group are safe. 1 other
> H1-B in another group is safe, while all effected, 12 of us today in QA are
> all US Citizens or Residences.
Today this story appeared in The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/01...62877.html
Bailed Out Banks Sought Foreign Workers For High-Paying Jobs: AP
FRANK BASS and RITA BEAMISH | February 1, 2009 12:49 PM EST | AP
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.
The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.
As the economic collapse worsened last year _ with huge numbers of bank employees laid off _ the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.
...
Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.
...
"The system provides you perfectly legal mechanisms to underpay the workers," said John Miano of Summit, N.J., a lawyer who has analyzed the wage data and started the Programmers Guild, an advocacy group that opposes the H-1B system.
...
Beyond seeking approval for visas from the government, banks that accepted federal bailout money also enlisted uncounted foreign workers, often in technology jobs, through intermediary companies known as "body shops." Such businesses are the top recipients of the H-1B visas.
...
Banks turned to foreign workers before the current economic crisis, said Diane Casey-Landry, chief operating officer for the American Bankers Association. The group said a year ago that demand exceeded the pool of qualified workers in areas like sales, lending and bank administration. Now with massive layoffs, the situation is different, Casey-Landry said.
...
"You're using taxpayer dollars and there's an expectation that there are benefits to the U.S.," said Ron Hira, a national expert on foreign employment and assistant public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "What you're really doing is leaking away those jobs and benefits that should accrue to the taxpayers."
...
Jennifer Scott of Yreka, Calif., a retired technical systems manager at Bank of America in Concord, Calif., said in 2004 she oversaw foreign employees from a contractor firm that also sent overnight work to employees in India.
"It had nothing to do with a shortage, but they didn't want to pay the U.S. rate," she said, adding that the quality of the work was weak. "It's all about numbers crunching."
To say that I'm outraged would be a vast understatement.
Joe Biden is now in charged of the Middle-Class Task Force. This acceleration of shifting jobs overseas in the midst of a likely economic depression, facilitated by bailout money paid for by US taxpayers, is something that his task force should focus on.
In fact President Obama and Congress should also focus on it urgently, if they are serious about helping the endangered middle class.
Who would like to join me in informing elected officials, and the media, and the internet, of this outrage--and pushing for change we can survive on?
