Two articles on H-1B, F-4, and organizing

Date: Thursday, May 18, 2006 6:59 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1480 >>>>>

I'm not sure I agree with Andrew Leonard's characterization of myself as a
"militant opponent of outsourcing and H-1B visa immigration." It does fit
Webster's 2nd definition but when most people see the term it has a
negative connotation.

Main Entry: mil7i7tant
Pronunciation: -t&nt
Function: adjective
1 : engaged in warfare or combat : FIGHTING
2 : aggressively active (as in a cause)

You can write comments on the Salon.com site about the article. There are
some good ones already there. If you don't want to pay to be a member, just
click their ad to watch it, and then you can post comments.

The second article is from the San Antonio Express. I am very happy that
the author mentioned the F-4 visa. She was somewhat skeptical when I first
told her about it only because she has never heard of it. Give her credit
for being open minded enough to listen.

Lorek mentioned that she wants to do a series of articles on this subject.
Send her an email and thank her for what she did, and be sure to encourage
her to do more.

Email for Laura Lorek: llorek@express-news.net

Probably equally as important is to send feedback to the newspaper. Go here
to throw in a good word.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/help/feedback/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2006/04/26/job_destruction/index.html

Job destruction update

Why aren't American workers as good as Indian ones at organizing?
Andrew Leonard

Apr. 27, 2006 | When the April 26 installment of Rob Sanchez's Job
Destruction Newsletter arrived in my in box this afternoon, I braced myself
for a fresh jolt of information technology worker outrage. Via columns and
his Web site ZaZona.com Sanchez is a militant opponent of outsourcing and
H-1B visa immigration. And he's not likely to mince words when he feels
it's time to castigate the "skunks" and "sell-outs" he believes are
screwing the American worker.

Today's newsletter covered the formation of Immigration Voice, a lobbying
group that represents mostly Indian H-1B visa holders who are agitating for
the U.S. government to simplify citizenship procedures and issue more green
cards. But although Sanchez concedes that he wondered whether it is even
legal for foreign nationals to lobby the U.S. government (it is), his real
ire isn't aimed at them. Instead, he wonders why American I.T. workers
haven't organized themselves as effectively.

"Why after 16 years of H-1B have American workers failed to organize
themselves to fight for their jobs?" he asks.

"There have been many attempts at forming organizations but all of them are
struggling. In all their years of existence they haven't been able to raise
even a fraction of the money IV has raised in just four months. ZaZona.com
as well as many others are operating on such small shoestring budgets we
are continually struggling just to survive.

"Why do citizens of the United States lack the compassion we are seeing
from foreign nationals that are here both legally and illegally?"

(UPDATE: In a follow up to his newsletter, Sanchez wrote that the word
"compassion" was a "typo." The correct word should have been "passion.")

What Sanchez appears to be asking is why there isn't more worker solidarity
in the information technology workforce. It's a good question. Of course,
back in the dot-com heyday, if you so much as whispered the word "union"
around a bunch of programmers you were generally laughed out of the room.
And given the general decline of union power throughout the United States,
it's also a fair question whether any amount of white-collar I.T. worker
organizing would have made a dent in outsourcing or any other I.T.-related
labor issue.

Still, you'd think there'd be a few successful software billionaires out
there who would have the welfare of their brethren close enough to their
hearts to feel like writing a check and funding a lobbying organization or
two, wouldn't you?

-- Andrew Leonard

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA051806.01E.H1BVisas.1c12bbae.html

Some seeking more visas for skilled foreign workers

Web Posted: 05/18/2006 12:00 AM CDT
L.A. Lorek
Express-News Business Writer

While Congress examines tougher immigration law and border security,
technology companies want the government to let more educated and highly
skilled workers come here.

The government's restrictive H-1B policy has led to a brain drain in the
United States and prompted the outsourcing of skilled jobs to India and
China, said Jim Goodnight, chief executive of privately held software
company SAS, based in Cary, N.C.

"Our immigration policy doesn't make any sense," Goodnight said. "We're
keeping out the best and the brightest."

The government cut back the number of H-1B visas to 65,000 in 2004 from the
195,000 issued annually between 2001 and '03. H-1B visas, which let
companies hire highly skilled foreigners such as engineers and doctors, are
currently capped at 65,000.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, this month introduced legislation to let more
H-1B visa workers in the country. The bill, SB 2691, known as the "Securing
Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act of 2006," seeks to raise the cap
to 115,000.

What is the cap? Currently it's 65,000. In 2000, the cap reached 115,000,
and it climbed to 195,000 in 2001-03, then dropped back to 65,000 in 2004
and up to 90,000 in 2005.
What is Bill 2691? The Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership Act,
introduced by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, seeks to increase the H-1B
visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000. It also exempts professionals who have
earned advanced degrees from U.S. universities and those who have been
awarded a medical specialty certification based on post-doctoral training.
Sources: Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

"A crucial part of our growing economy is our ability to innovate," Cornyn,
chairman of the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittee,
said in a statement. "This bill would help cultivate a system that ensures
these talented people -- and their jobs -- remain here."

Cornyn argues that the bill, currently in committee, is necessary because
the Labor Department projects that by 2012 there will be 2 million U.S. job
openings in computer science, mathematics, engineering and the physical
sciences.

The bill also would exempt professionals who have earned advanced degrees
from U.S. universities from the annual H-1B visa cap.

Another immigration bill, SB 2611, introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.,
proposes creating a new international student visa called an F-4. It would
let students who earned advanced degrees in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics stay in the United States to work.

But the government's efforts to increase H-1B visas have met with
opposition from unemployed American technology workers, especially after
the dotcom bust began in 2000.

The H-1B visa increases will flood the job market with cheap labor and
throw U.S. technology workers out of jobs, said Rob Sanchez, a laid-off
software engineer in Chandler, Ariz., who runs ZaZona.com, a Web site that
opposes employment-based visas.

Sanchez said he knows highly skilled computer programmers and engineers who
now work at Wal-Mart's tire center and as ticket-takers at concert halls
because their companies fired them after bringing in H-1B workers. They
once commanded six-figure salaries, and now some of them work for minimum
wage, he said.

"Even if you can get a job in the technology industry, your salary is
spiraling downward," Sanchez said. "Companies basically go for the cheapest
labor possible, which for U.S. workers is bad, because it's never them."

G.P. Singh, chief executive of Karta Technologies, a high-tech military
contractor in San Antonio, applauds moves to increase visas for highly
skilled workers and sees it as necessary to keep the United States
competitive in science and engineering. His company has three workers here
on H-1B visas out of its work force of 380.

"People who offer good working environments and salaries -- that is where
the work is going to go," Singh said. "There is no doubt about it. We need
more technically skilled people in the United States."

William Afendy, who's from Jakarta, Indonesia, may have to leave his job as
a software engineer at Karta Technologies and move to Australia or another
country when his H-1B visa expires next year. He got a bachelor's degree in
engineering from Texas A&M University in 2000 and joined Karta shortly
after that. The federal government requires H-1B visa holders to leave the
country after six years and reapply from abroad.

"It's kind of a bummer that I'm kind of forced to move," Afendy said. "If I
had a choice to stay, I would stay. I moved to the States in 1995, and I
hardly know anyone from my home country anymore. Most of my friends live in
San Antonio."

H-1B VISA
What is it? Established by the Immigration Act of 1990, the H-1B visa lets
U.S. employers hire highly skilled temporary foreign workers. Typically,
H-1B occupations include architects, engineers, computer programmers,
accountants, doctors and college professors.

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