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As new H-1B season begins, Microsoft renews call to loosen rules on foreign workers
Wednesday, 04 April 2012 10:29 | 
This story is posted here by permission of Todd Bishop. Please follow the link for the entire article on GeekWire.com
It’s the start of an annual tradition, and the revival of a perennial debate.
Today is the first day for companies to submit petitions to employ highly skilled foreign workers in the U.S. under H-1B visas in 2013 — a program used by many U.S. tech companies to allow engineers from China, India and other countries to work here.
The program has raised objections over the years from labor groups and others who contend that people on H-1B visas are taking jobs from U.S. workers.
However, Microsoft and other companies that use the program contend that it helps the economy in the long run to bring these workers to the U.S. They say the current restrictions on the program are too severe.
Please follow this link for the entire article on GeekWire.com
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 April 2012 10:58 )
Harvest America or Invest in America Wednesday, 22 February 2012 15:10 |
By Stan Sorcher Many American voters seem ready to run our country as if it were a business. Some businesses take a long-range growth perspective, and honor all their stakeholders. A country run that way would be OK. However, other businesses believe their markets are "unattractive," to use the business school expression. If your business is in an unattractive market, your smart business move is to defer investment in new plant and equipment, cut back on worker training, freeze or terminate pensions, reduce R&D, extract as much value from the business as possible, return the cash to shareholders, and dump whatever remains. I wouldn't run a country that way. Obama’s high-tech labor lies Monday, 06 February 2012 12:23 |
This article is re-printed from Salon.We have no shortage of skilled engineers. Corporations would just rather import foreign ones on lower wagesBy David Sirota A few days after the New York Times’ (embarrassingly belated and deeply flawed) article on Apple’s Chinese production facilities reignited a national discussion about offshore outsourcing, President Obama was confronted during a Google+ “hang out” about why during a brutal unemployment crisis his administration continues to support expanding the H-1B visa program that allows tech companies to annually import thousands of low-wage engineers from abroad. In his stunning answer, the president first expresses bewilderment that any American high-tech engineer could be out of work, because he says that “what industry tells me is that they don’t have enough (domestic) highly skilled engineers” and that “the word that we’re getting is that somebody (a domestic engineer) in a high-tech field should be able to find something right away.” He then goes on to insist that the H-1B program is “reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in (a) particular field” and that it shouldn’t apply to industries where “there are a lot of highly skilled American workers” looking for a job because he says his administration is focused on “encourag(ing) more American engineers to be placed” in open positions.
Last Updated ( Monday, 06 February 2012 12:33 ) |
Jim McDermott supports the US Call Center Bill Wednesday, 08 February 2012 11:34 |  Author: Dan Gillespie |
With American families struggling, it's time for companies to bring good jobs home. Foreign call centers not only ship jobs abroad, but they endanger our confidential personal information because they operate without US data regulation. Les French (President CWA Local 37083, left), Stan Wylie (President CWA Local 7800, second from right) and Ted Frederick (President CWA Local 7818, right) met with Congressman Jim McDermott (D WA-7) and asked that he co-sponsor H.R.3596 - United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act. Which he did immediately!You can ask lawmakers to support the US Call Center Bill. The Bill would build jobs in America by:
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 February 2012 12:28 ) Obama to High Tech Workers: Send Me Your Resume Wednesday, 01 February 2012 08:31 | Author: Rennie Sawade |
Jennifer, the wife of a semiconductor engineer who has been unable to find permanent employment for 3 years, asks Obama why the H-1B visa program continues to be used to bring over high tech workers from overseas when so many American high tech workers are unemployed, working on a string of temporary contract based jobs with little or no benefits, or working jobs that are outside of their chosen industry.
Obama's response is that high tech companies have more engineering jobs available than there are engineers. He says that it is "interesting" that her husband has been unable to find permanent employment because engineers should be hired right away. Obama asks Jennifer to send her husband's resume so that he can give it to the companies that continue to tell him that they cannot find engineers. Obama seems willing to help unemployed/underemployed engineers find jobs with these companies, so if you are in the same situation as Jennifer's husband, send your resume to Obama. Last Updated ( Wednesday, 01 February 2012 09:22 ) |
