Storm Clouds Rise Over H1-B
Storm Clouds Rise Over H1-B
-----Original Message-----
Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 12:24 PM
*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***
Get the Facts on H-1B at
www.ZaZona.com
This is the second article I have seen that mentions the DOJ investigation
of Sun Microsystems' predilection to keep H-1Bs at the expense of their
American workers during layoffs. It also mentions the battle that CWA is
waging against H-1B.
The most important thing mentioned is that Guy Santiglia used viewed Sun's
LCAs. I wish it would have mentioned that he used the Public Access law that
mandates that all companies must allow public viewing of their LCAs but in
this case the data that Guy saw just may get them into a lot of trouble.
I have one MAJOR PROBLEM with this article so I am forwarding this
newsletter to her. Lisa Vaas, the author, completely downplays the intense
lobbying efforts that are going on to increase the H-1B limits. Harris
Miller and his allies are not cowering in a corner like she portrays in this
article. They are working very hard to increase the H-1B limits and they are
even pushing a Fast Track H-1B concept.
Nobody should get a false sense of security after reading this article. In
no way is H-1B about to be abolished and the shills are not going to stop
lobbying for it.
Vaas also mistakes the facts on the numbers of H-1Bs being issued. For
instance, she said that Hewlett-Packard filed 144 H1-B visa request
documents in 2000, 105 last year and none to date this year. That's just not
true. In the year 2000 I have 222 LCAs online and the majority of them are
asking for 10 or more aliens per LCA. I have at least 150 from last year.
Perhaps she got the "5" an "0" transposed. Since my online database isn't
complete I'm sure HP has many more than this.
Vaas talks about the vast opposition to H-1B but I'm not sure who she is
talking about. Let's look at the two sides - it's no contest:
**** Demographics ***
Almost all of the Senate and House, in addition to George Bush support H-1B.
Tancredo and a few dissidents are the only politicians that oppose H-1B. All
US corporations and big moneyed Indian companies such as TATA and Comsys
also want increased H-1B.
Most of the public doesn't know what H-1B is. Most of the opposition comes
from a the few unemployed computer programmers that understand what is going
on.
*** Media Exposure ***
Most major news media organizations hire H-1Bs so they are automatically
biased in favor of H-1B. To make matters worse the advocates can spend the
money to push their version of the facts on reporters that want easy
stories. They have the time and the staff to do interviews with the press
whenever they are called.
The opponents have a website done by a university professor and a few others
by unemployed programmers like myself. Most of the opponents are too busy
looking for a job to meet with the press and most reporters don't have the
time to seek them out. Making matters worse the opponents are afraid to use
their names in news articles for fear of being blackballed.
*** Funding ***
Most high-tech corporations including Microsoft, Sun, Motorola, and Cisco
spend lavish money to lobby for H-1B. Immigration lawyers from AILA and
lobbyists like ITAA work full time promoting more liberal H-1B laws.
Most opponents of H-1B are either broke and/or unemployed. They can't
possibly afford to match the millions of dollars spent by big business.
*** Organizations ***
ITAA funded by over 500 rich corporate sponsors. Allied with the NSF, AILA,
and a myriad of other wealthy organizations they continuously push their
agenda.
There is not a single organization devoted to opposing H-1B.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,274443,00.asp
June 24, 2002
Storm Clouds Rise Over H1-B
By Lisa Vaas
Two years ago, IT vendors and other proponents of the controversial H1-B
visa program were generating about as much sound and fury as a raging storm
on the high seas. Lobbying groups such as TechNet insisted the chronic IT
skills shortage would sink the industry unless the annual numbers of H1-B
visas—allowing foreign workers to take positions temporarily in the United
States—were substantially increased. They won, and the number of H1-B visas
available to employers annually was increased to 195,000, triple the number
available before 1998.
Fast forward to 2002, and you don't hear a peep from H1-B backers. Even
though the number of H1-B visas available annually is scheduled to revert to
65,000 in 2004, TechNet is quiet. The big tech companies have little or no
comment on the need to sustain or even increase the cap. One of the sponsors
of the 2000 bill increasing the H1-B visa cap, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.,
is unavailable to talk now, according to her assistant. And the brain trust
at another industry lobbying group, the Information Technology Association
of America, "hasn't spent 10 seconds" thinking about its strategy—"yet,"
according to its president, Harris Miller.
Meanwhile, as the lingering economic slowdown has hit the IT industry
particularly hard, throwing many U.S. native IT professionals out of work,
pressure is rapidly mounting to torpedo the H1-B visa program, or at least
cut its engines. Labor groups representing IT workers are mobilizing
members; immigration-focused politicians are introducing bills to downscale
the H1-B program; and laid-off IT workers are threatening employers with
legal action, claiming they've been sacrificed in favor of lower-paid H1-B
workers.
So, is the controversial H1-B visa program about to sail into the sunset,
another victim of the sour economy? Don't count on it, experts say. Although
IT industry lobbyists and other backers of the H1-B program are quiet on the
topic now, this may be the calm before the storm. Support for sustaining or
even increasing the current number of H1-B visas is almost certain to rise
before the 2004 deadline.
Backers of H1-B increases "think the best thing they can do is to shut up
about this and look for an opportunity next year to sneak it through," said
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., in Washington, author of H.R. 3222, the
High-Tech Work Fairness and Economic Stimulus Act of 2001, which would
return the H1-B quota to 65,000 per year. The bill, under consideration in
the House, would also provide for further reductions in the cap if
unemployment increases beyond a certain level. (For more on the bill and
Tancredo's position, see "Anti-H1-B Congressman Plans Strategy").
When now-latent support for the H1-B program resurfaces, plenty of
opposition—from Tancredo and others—will be waiting. Much of that opposition
is from IT workers, many of whom believe they were discriminated against in
favor of H1-B visa holders during the past year's miserable climate of
layoffs.
"Our membership is angry about the H1-B visa issue," said Marcus Courtney,
staff organizer and local president of the Washington Alliance of Technology
Workers, or WashTech, a Seattle-based organization of high-tech workers and
the local affiliate of the Communications Workers of America. "They're
starting to have serious doubts about the validity of the program and the
premise under which it operates."
As this story was going to press, delegates from WashTech were planning to
present a resolution to the annual convention of the CWA in Las Vegas last
week. The resolution will call on the CWA to support legislation that
strengthens reporting requirements of companies that use H1-B workers and
reduces the H1-B visa cap to 65,000. The resolution also challenges the
employ of H1-B visa holders by telecommunications companies attempting to
break strikes (as allegedly happened at AT&T Corp. this spring when the
company brought in hundreds of Indian workers for training as network
technicians as part of a strike contingency plan).
The same anger is seeping toward courts in the form of threatened lawsuits
against employers that have allegedly discriminated against native workers
in favor of lower-paid H1-Bs. If some laid-off tech workers get their way,
Sun Microsystems Inc. will soon be the subject of a class action suit
alleging discriminatory patterns in November 2001 layoffs of about 9 percent
of Sun's work force—about 3,900 jobs.
Guy Santiglia is one of a handful of ex-Sun employees who have provided the
Department of Justice and the Department of Labor with information about Sun
regarding what he believes are violations of the H1-B visa-related laws and
alleged discrimination against U.S. citizens. Some ex-Sun employees who
prefer to remain anonymous are also running a Web site that asks laid-off
Sun workers to file charges against the company (www.sunclassaction.com).
Laid off from a one-year position as assistant IT administrator in November,
Santiglia said that the DOJ is investigating Sun for possible instances of
discrimination in the November layoffs. A spokeswoman and an attorney for
the DOL and a spokeswoman for the DOJ said they could not comment on ongoing
investigations.
Santiglia's claims are fueled by the perception that he lost his job while,
he said, some H1-B visa holders—brought into this country ostensibly because
there were no domestic workers to perform their jobs—retained theirs. But,
according to Santiglia, the DOL told him that his job isn't protected in
such a situation unless Sun has a work force of more than 15 percent H1-B
visa holders.
Does Sun employ more than 15 percent H1-B visa holders? To find out,
Santiglia walked into Sun's Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters and demanded
to see the company's records of the LCAs, or labor condition applications,
companies must file when requesting H1-B visas. According to Santiglia, Sun
requested approval for thousands of H1-B workers last year, well in excess
of the number of workers the company laid off this year. The figure he came
up with doesn't represent 15 percent of Sun's work force, but Santiglia said
the company is still being investigated on grounds of discrimination.
Sun spokeswoman Penny Bruce declined to disclose how many H1-B petitions Sun
filed between October last year and March this year but said that it is a
"fraction—close to 20 percent—of the numbers filed in the prior year." Bruce
also denied that Santiglia was replaced with an H1-B worker.
For their part, technology industry lobbying groups said they've gone quiet
on H1-B because the depressed economy has reduced the need for hiring all IT
workers—natives and H1-B holders alike.
"It's a lot less of a hot topic than it used to be," said Rick White, CEO of
TechNet, in Palo Alto, Calif., which represents 230 tech-related companies.
"There's not the desperation. The industry's still supportive of [H1-B], but
it was a totally different world a couple years ago. Now, there hasn't been
any pressure to focus on it."
Indeed, many tech companies have rendered the H1-B issue moot by
implementing hiring freezes and cutting back severely on filing H1-B visa
applications (see chart).
Hewlett-Packard Co., its hands full with both its merger with Compaq
Computer Corp. and the stubbornly slow economy, is one such company. It
filed 144 H1-B visa request documents in 2000, 105 last year and none to
date this year. "Nobody in the industry is commenting on H1-B," said Larry
Estrada, HP government affairs manager, in Palo Alto. "It's tied to the
economy. If you have a hiring freeze, you're not going to be as concerned
with seeing how you can add on expertise."
Still, WashTech's Courtney doesn't trust the relative quiet. "Even now, with
the recession going on and hundreds of thousands of tech employees out of
work, the [pro-H1-B-increase] lobby is still very effective in making its
case to members of Congress in that this program is still required because
the American educational system has failed to fill the types of jobs
required," said Courtney.
Courtney said he fears politicians will be open to that argument because
many haven't given up on the dot-com-era fantasy that technology would be a
bottomless source of high-paying jobs. "There's still unrealistic
expectations by the leadership—by politicians—regarding what the IT industry
will deliver in terms of job creation and growth," he said. "Our political
leaders drank so much of the New Economy Kool-Aid, they're not willing to
say, 'Man, maybe we need to try a different flavor here.'"
Besides, to WashTech organizers, H1-B is just one component of a cluster of
issues that are undermining IT pay and job security, including escalating
offshore outsourcing and increasing reliance by employers on temporary
workers.
"We [fear] that IT is like manufacturing was 20 years ago: on the brink of
leaving the borders," said Roberta Wilson, WashTech union secretary, in
Bainbridge Island, Wash. "There will always be IT jobs, but a big chunk of
them could leave. Whether that's a brilliant idea or the worst possible idea
is hard to say, but for sure, workers are not part of this dialogue, and
their interests are not on the top of this list."
IT Careers Managing Editor Lisa Vaas can be reached at
lisa_vaas@ziffdavis.com.
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