Displaced Techies

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Displaced Techies

allow american workers to participate in the global economy!

Thursday March 31, 2005

Response from InfoWorld author

Yesterday, in this post, I said if I heard back from Ephraim Schwartz I would post his response. (He is the InfoWorld author who implied that companies are going to offshore everything if they can't get the laber here in the US with visas).

Here is what Mr. Schwartz had to say:

No, I did not mean the best and the brightest can only be found outside the
U.S. However, that's what it sounded like. Poorly worded. I was using that
as an expression to say if you hire foreign workers, and ith 65,000 H-!B
visas being snapped up in three days I guess that point can't be disputed,
then you can get the best that a country has to offer by going off shore.

But, I was not encouraging going off shore. It is a fact of life. I was
saying that the difficulty in hiring foreign tech people here will make off
shoring even more attractive.
Finally, I am not encouraging firing Americans in favor of non-U.S.
citizens. I am stating a fact of life. This is what's done.

Of course, I had more questions for him:

Thank you for your reply. I wonder, do you have any comment on the fact
that high tech unemployment in the US is still very high? If there is a
glut in the domestic technical labor pool, and visas are snapped up as soon
as they are available, how can companies be sure they are getting the "best
and brightest" from any country (including our own)?

Isn't it possible that these visas are being misused?

His response:

Yes. But if you've lived long enough you know how the government screws
things up. I doubt if even the government knows if anyone is misusing the
visa. However, I think you have to be sponsored by a company. So, it would
be in the best interest of that company to sponsor someone who will be of
benefit. Why they don't look locally is a good question. In fact, I think
it is worth looking into as a story. I will interview companies that
sponsor green card applicants in high tech and ask them why.

So, stay tuned to InfoWorld and see if Mr. Schwartz keeps his word and does a story on why tech companies do not use the domestic labor pool. It will be interesting to see how the companies spin this to Mr. Schwartz, and how he reports it.
05:33 am
Thursday March 31, 2005
posted by gmminks
link

Wednesday March 30, 2005

Employers need H1Bs to fill IT positions?

According to this article in InfoWorld, Ephraim Schwartz says the following:

"I recently spoke with Frida Glucoft, a leading immigration lawyer and a partner and chair of the immigration practice at law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp. She tells me that changes made by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) during the past three months will limit many companies’ ability to hire and retain new IT employees."

So, is he saying that only foreigners can do IT work?

Kim Berry at the Programmer's Guild thinks so. He wrote the following to InfoWorld:

Do you have any regard for Americans that have been forced out of the job market by this onslaught? Do you believe that employers should be able to exclude qualified U.S. workers in favor of foreign workers? I assure you that most H-1Bs are not filling jobs that no American can do. Instead, they are aggressively marketed and compete directly with U.S. workers for the dearth of jobs. (This week an H-1B worker told me how hard it has been to stay employed in the U.S., as the worker is contracted out on various projects by the sponsoring agency.)

I have written to the author of the article, as well as the immigration attorney he references. Here are the letters, I will post any follow-up I receive:

To Mr. Schwartz:

To: ephraim_scwartz@infoworld.com
Dear Mr. Scwartz,

I have a question about your article in InfoWorld entitled "Green Card Regulations Encourage Offshoring". In that article you state:

"...changes made by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) during the past three months will limit many companies’ ability to hire and retain new IT employees.."

Are you implying that Americans cannot do IT work?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Gina Minks

To Ms. Glucoft:

To: fpg@msk.com
Dear Ms. Glucoft,

In a recent InfoWorld article entitled "Green Card regulations encourage offshoring", Ephraim Schwartz reports the following:

"I recently spoke with Frida Glucoft, a leading immigration lawyer and a partner and chair of the immigration practice at law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp. She tells me that changes made by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) during the past three months will limit many companies’ ability to hire and retain new IT employees."

Is this an accurate representation of what you told Mr. Schwartz? If so, is it your position that the only way companies can hire and retain new IT employees is to look beyond the domestic labor pool? Finally, does this mean that you believe that Americans cannot do IT work?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

-Gina Minks

05:30 am
Wednesday March 30, 2005
posted by gmminks
link

Friday March 25, 2005

Wanna tell your story to a major news magazine?

Contact Dr. Hira:

Is there anyone who can talk (on or off the record) about:
1. Training their H-1B replacement.

2. H-1Bs (or former H-1Bs) who were paid lower wages and/or
were treated badly.

Thanks,
Ron

Ron Hira, Ph.D., P.E.
Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Rochester Institute of Technology
rhira@mail.rit.edu

05:02 am
Friday March 25, 2005
posted by gmminks
link

Tuesday March 15, 2005

Why the USCIS did not follow the wishes of Congress

In December, Congress granted 20,000 additional H-1B visas to the cap of 65,000 visas. The intent was to provide a way for graduates of US Universities a way to avoid the so-called cap-gap (a traditional "who will think about the kids" reaction). The compromise in allowing the visas was that the 20,000 additional visas could only go to persons graduating from US Universities with a Master's degree of PhD.

USCIS suprised everyone by coming out with the way they intended to enforce the legislation. They declared that the additional 20,000 H-1B visas approved by Congress would be granted to anyone who qualified for an H-1B visa.

Why?

Because the people at USCIS cannot count.

Apparently, USCIS somehow gave out at least 75,000 H-1B visas, maybe as many as 80,000 visas. [Remember, the cap is set at 65,000 visas]. So, when they found the mistake, did they own up to it?

Hell no! Why should they? Congress had alloted another 20,000 visas. They decided to try and cover up their mistake by going through all the already over-alloted visas, and counted the visa-holders who held Master's and PhDs from US Universities as part of the extra 20,000 allocated by Congress.

So really, there are probably only 5,000 -10,000 additional H-1B visas remaining to be claimed. Maybe.

06:27 pm
Tuesday March 15, 2005
posted by gmminks
link

Thursday March 10, 2005

This is just plain stupid

I read this article and it just pissed me off. I'm somewhat sarcastic right now.

I'm sorry, but this is just f**king stupid. You know that people have gone to the extreme when they want to outsource "Do you want Fries with that?"

Do you really think that outsourcing this 'business process' would improve accuracy? The probability of a call-center person making a mistake and the order taker at the restauraunt making a mistake is the same. It's the same data entry error either way.

Improve accuracy my ass...

Let's say someone in Alabama with a wicked Alabama drawl accent orders with a 'call center' rep in North Dakota. Do you think that person will get the order right? Chances are the person at the store will do a better job, because they will understand the local dialect/accent/etc...

I can see it now:

Customer w/ wicked Alabama drawl places order.

McDonalds Call Center rep in North Dakota doesn't understand and NAKS the message. (What?)

Customer w/ wicked Alabama drawl repeats order.

McDonalds Call center rep in North Dakota NAKS the message again. (WHAT?)

Customer w/ wicked Alabama drawl goes to Burger King. Customer outsources their fast food preparation to another company.

Disclaimer: No offense intended to anyone with a wicked Alabama drawl. Some people might wonder what 'wicked' means-- But that's my point about accents, slang, etc... and outsourcing. Free hamburgers if you can guess where I'm from.

Anyway, Give me a break. I suppose McDonald's thinks now you've got to be a highly trained 'Call Center Representative' with "very strong communication skills" to take an order for a damn hamburger. What do they mean by "very strong communications skills"? What, are you going to show me a Powerpoint presentation about the methods used to prepare my Happy Meal? It's simple. You take the order, then you fill it.

My first impression was that this sounds like nothing more than a test to see if McDonald's can route order taking offshore in the future, which would allow them to avoid even paying minimum wage for an order taker. So when you hear that person with a North Dakota accent taking your order-- You'll know what they're up to.

If this is what outsourcing is coming to, then some business people have the outsourcing 'Lemming Syndrome' so bad that they have lost their common sense.

I'm hungry. I'm going to Wendy's now.

---------------------------------------------

McDonald's may outsource drive-thru orders
Fast-food chain looking into remote call centers to improve service

McDonald's may look to call center professionals to help boost order accuracy and speed up drive-thru times for customers.

Updated: 2:01 p.m. ET March 10, 2005

LOS ANGELES - McDonald's Corp. wants to outsource your neighborhood drive-thru.

The world's largest fast-food chain said on Thursday it is looking into using remote call centers to take customer orders in an effort to improve service at its drive-thrus.

"If you're in L.A.... and you hear a person with a North Dakota accent taking your order, you'll know what we're up to," McDonald's Chief Executive Jim Skinner told analysts at the Bear Stearns Retail, Restaurants & Apparel Conference in New York.

Call center professionals with "very strong communication skills" could help boost order accuracy and ultimately speed up the time it takes customers to get in and out of the drive-thrus, the company said.

03:42 pm
Thursday March 10, 2005
posted by rickrob
link

Update on additional H-1B visas

As an update to this post, I got a little more info on the additional H1B visas.

The intent of Congress in allowing 20,000 additional visas was to grant people graduating from US schools with advanced degrees a chance to avoid the "cap gap"....which is when the student's practical experience visa expires and there are no more H-1B visas available.

Unfortunately, the language of the bill passed permits anyone with a degree to apply for the additional H-1B visas. The agencies are allowed to make their own interpretations of the law. In this case, the USCIS interpreted the bill to read the additional visas could go to anyone with a degree.

The only good thing about this is it brings the issue back up for discussion. This is where we (as citizens) have to step up and demand an explanation from Congress.It's time to start talking to your Congressional Representatives about this interpretation. Congress promised one thing with this compromise, and they did not deliver.

09:52 am

posted by gmminks
link

Update on additional H-1B visas

As an update to this post, I got a little more info on the additional H1B visas.

The intent of Congress in allowing 20,000 additional visas was to grant people graduating from US schools with advanced degrees a chance to avoid the "cap gap"....which is when the student's practical experience visa expires and there are no more H-1B visas available.

Unfortunately, the language of the bill passed permits anyone with a degree to apply for the additional H-1B visas. The agencies are allowed to make their own interpretations of the law. In this case, the USCIS interpreted the bill to read the additional visas could go to anyone with a degree.

The only good thing about this is it brings the issue back up for discussion. This is where we (as citizens) have to step up and demand an explanation from Congress.It's time to start talking to your Congressional Representatives about this interpretation. Congress promised one thing with this compromise, and they did not deliver.

09:52 am

posted by gmminks
link

New L-1 regulations go into effect in June

This article explains what is going to happen to businesses. It should help US workers...although there is always a last-minute loophole.

Details of "disruption" employers are facing:

Reduction or Elimination of Cost Savings
The result of this should mean that US workers can compete for jobs again in the US
Risk of Business Disruption
Again, this should result in businesses being forced to use the domestic labor market
Reputational Risk
The article makes mention of the study of the use of L-1 visas that Congress has requested, and indicates that it will most likely become public knowledge who is using the most L-1 visas. I hope so!
Potential Legal Liability/Involvement in Enforcement Proceedings
The article says some companies may collude with outsourcing companies to represent the facts. Say it ain't so!

Most disturbing in the article is this footnote:

"Is is not yet clear whether or how the provisions of the Act might apply to individual L-1 "applications" filed under blanket L-1 "petitions" approved prior to the effective date. That point will presumably be addressed in future regulations."

The loophole rears its ugly head.

05:08 am

posted by gmminks
link

EDS adds more jobs in India

EDS is adding 2K positions in India after cutting 21,000 in the US and Europe.

04:55 am

posted by gmminks
link

Accenture to move HR functions to India

According to this article

The company’s Indian employees today constitute 10% of the 1,06,000 workforce worldwide and “we might move in internal functions to India, like HR, knowledge management capabilities and financials.

04:51 am

posted by gmminks
link

Do you work in equity research and analysis?

your job may be going to India

04:44 am

posted by gmminks
link

Firms in India Terrorist Targets?

A Pakistan-based group apparently has been casing the outsourcing firms in India for an attack:

A subsequent raid on their base uncovered diaries revealing they had visited India's high-tech city of Bangalore in December to survey software companies as potential targets.

Police also found AK56 rifles, ammunition and over 10kg of the explosive RDX. The Lashkar-e-Taiba group is a Sunni Muslim anti-US organisation founded in 1989 and one of the largest organisations fighting for the separation of Kashmir from India.

04:42 am

posted by gmminks
link

Additional H1B for 2005 not just for advanced degree holders

Not sure what to make of this announcement from the US Immigration Dept:

The available petitions for FY 2005 will be applied to all qualified H-1B nonimmigrant aliens, and will not be limited to those individuals holding a master’s degree or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher learning.

I am trying to scare up some details, I'll post them when I have them.

04:35 am

posted by gmminks
link

Monday March 7, 2005

new blog

http://stopitoffshoring.blogspot.com/

From the most recent post:

The H1-B program has used the one-two punch against these professionals by denying an opportunity to compete for positions, coupled with a job reservations process that guarantees that citizens from abroad are the only people considered for these positions

05:31 am
Monday March 7, 2005
posted by gmminks
link

Sunday March 6, 2005

Online H1B-only job search

Open Source member driven Database of H1 Visa sponsoring Software firms in the United States with live reviews/ ratings which includes applying to the un-advertised jobs by IT companies both in India & US

www.nostops.org, a non-profit to promote bodyshopping.

slavery goes high tech!

09:27 pm
Sunday March 6, 2005
posted by gmminks
link

Buy American!

Union Jean Company

Onshore Alternatives

www.buympc.com

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