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Update on Unemployment

I wrote a Horror Story back in May and am updating. It has now been 1 full year (Dec 23 , 2001) since I have been unemployed. I no longer get unemployment and we've been surviving on gifts. I have had 45 interviews. All of them being complete setups and shams. My local Paper NO LONGER has an IT Employment section! Every Tuesday they had at least 2 pages of ads for IT workers. Now, it no longer exists. Since I live near NYC, I have calculated the MINIMUM I need to make to pay my mortgage, electric bill, heat and phone and stuff for my child. (my wife is on disability). Minimum of $30,000 and that's not including medical (which my wife must have). With 12 years of experience, I figured I HAVE to find something that at least pays that! Nope...nothing. IT is pretty much all I can do (from programming to UNIX to Database engineering to Networking and managing). I've been looking to change my career. Can't afford to go back to college. So, all I can basically do is unskilled labor. Retail, fast-food, etc. THEY won't even hire me! I walked into McDonalds where the manager was an Indian who could barely speak English. His entire staff was either Indian or Mexicans. I tried anyhow. No call back. No luck at WalMart or other retail outlets. Even if I DID get those jobs, they start you at 20 hours at $7 an hour). So I would have to get 2 jobs at $7 an hour. That still doesn't add to $30,000. Not even close. So, I've thought of being an expatriot and trying to move to Europe. But I'm not sure how they would feel about ME moving there, or whether or not they have the same H11B Problem. Anyone know of any European Country that IS hiring skilled IT workers? I speak 5 languages and I'm willing to move anywhere. (As long as I can afford it). I never thought I would have to leave the United States to find a better job!

Yet another H-1B Visa victim

I am a Senior Technical Architect with two degrees in Computer Science. I have a Bachelors of Science Degree in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota and a Masters Degree in Software Engineering/Computer Science from Northwestern. I have worked as an Engineer, Programmer, Project Manager, Development Manager, and my last position was a Senior Technical Architect for a large public company here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My position was eliminated and retitled about a year ago and given to an Indian H-1B visa worker from Bombay. I had worked for my former company for 8 years providing them with quality results that were on time and on budget.

My previous employer began a cost cutting program and eliminated 40% of it's technical workers. I was one of them. The company then hired 14 H-1B visa workers to fill in for the laid off full time American workers. They even had the balls to ask me if I would come in and train the H-1B visa workers on systems architecture and network design! I said I would just so I could go back into the company and tell my ex-boss and his boss to go and F**K THEMSELVES!!

I let my ex-boss know that what they did was immoral, downright weasel like, and probably illegal. I also let them know that I regarded their short sighted grab for profits by selling out American employees to be the ultimate sign of corporate malfeasance and cowardice. I said it loud enough so the entire department could hear me, including the Chief Technical Officer down the hall. I walked out of my ex-boss's office and through the main area in the IT department towards the exit. To my ultimate surprise, the IT employees came out of their cubicles and applauded me! The H-1B visa techies sat at a conference table in the main IT area looking utterly horrified at what they had just witnessed. My ex-boss just stood near his office silent, red faced, and apoplectic. Before I left I told everyone to remember that employee performance reviews were coming around for the management teams and to remember the poor management shown thus far.

I have complaints filed with the DOJ, INS, State of Minnesota, Hennepin County, and am contemplating filing a civil lawsuit.

I have read on this site some articles written by H-1B visa workers who claim the American Technical workers to be lazy, uneducated, greedy, and just plain nasty to H-1B visa workers. What a load of pure crap! Here's some news for those scabs-I worked 70 Hours plus per week as an exempt employee. I busted my ass 6 days a week to implement technical solutions your H-1B consulting companies wouldn't touch because of the technical complexity and need for real hard core technical smarts gained from experience, not just pumped into your head in a technical cram for the job interview. I have worked with some super smart H-1B software engineers in the past, I have also worked with H-1B visa 'Technical Engineers' who couldn't figure out how to subnet a simple IP based network.

If you H-1B visa workers feel as if you are indentured servants, or technical slaves then just leave, go home, take off, vamoose, to the great egress! If you feel like a indentured servant or technical slave, your work will reflect it. Yes, the work really does reflect how a worker feels about his/her employment. That's probably why I had to re-engineer, re-scale and re-subnet every network and server installation a H-1B Consultant Company designed for my last employer. Sometimes cheaper is just that: cheaper, not better! If you feel like a slave or feel like everyone is nasty to you because you are a poor immigrant H-1B visa worker, go back home. Feeling crappy all of the time is just not worth it!

H1-B

Intracorp, a subsidiary of CIGNA HealthCare, employs many H1-Bs. There is no way that the number of them coincides with the number of job postings. This glut of bodies eliminates the chances of employees securing a new or better position. 

The slipshod work of these visa holders is partially responsible for CIGNA's ineffective systems. The remainder goes to management who amazingly seem to keep their jobs. 

ComputerWorld's claim of CIGNA as the 39th best place to work in IT is fraudulent. They do not train and why should they when they can bring in visa holders?

Discriminated in 3 directions

I think I am being discriminated against in 3 directions; namely Age, Sex and as a US tech person. I am a 55 years old female and have been a software developer for 25 years. Here is my story.

I was laid off from a tech company on Oct 23, 2001. Since then, I have been applying for a tech job and have sent out hundreds of resumes. Within the last year; I got only 3 phone interviews and no job offer. I am trying very hard to understand my predicament and wonder if I can ever get back a tech job again.

To give you a little bit of my background. I am a US citizen. I have a B.S. in Math and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering. I have been working as a software developer since 1976 and have done all kinds of projects. To make the story short, I have made a few local friends in the programming chat rooms. Among them, some are H-1B programmers from India. They have no US degrees and have much less work experience than I have. However, they could find programming contract work. One of them even submits my resume to his supervisor but with no result. This person programs Visual Basic. I have done several Visual Basic projects and in fact I am teaching Object Oriented Programming in Visual Basic. I know that it is not my lack of experience that stops me from being hired. It is because many companies are using H-1B programmers because they are willing to work with a lot less money. Since my resume submissions were never replied by any hiring manager, I can't tell them I am willing to work on the H-1B salary. 

My sources of income now are unemployment checks, part time teaching and the sales commission from the web site that I have built for an e-retail. The unemployment benefits will run out. The teaching is only a part time job. As for the e-retail, so far the items are not selling due to lack to money to advertise and other factors.

I am not against imported workers if the US citizens are protected. H-1B serves its purpose when there were a lot of tech jobs. However, when the job market is tight, the US citizens are being discriminated against. The government has no rule that the companies have to lay off H-1B workers first before laying off citizens. The government has to re-examine the policy. Companies that use H-1B tech workers know that US tech workers are willing to work less in a tight job market. However, they still prefer H-1B workers because the workers can't complain about long hours and lack of benefits. Essentially, the companies are holding the workers hostage. Many of the H-1B workers do not have college degrees. Some consulting firms do not hire US workers because they get a bigger cut of the fee from hiring H-1B. Therefore, in their job listing, they include a long list of qualifications. The list is so long that it is impossible for anyone to be qualified on every item.

I have nieces and nephews who are in college. I used to advice them to study computer science. I have changed my mind. Unless they plan to move to India, I am telling them not to go into computer science. 

It is not true that US workers are not as productive as imported workers. Many of us work very hard and have excellent job records. My accomplishments include being the first and only developer for a successful startup. Many of my fellow US workers also have excellent work history. If not, our country would not have become so technologically advanced.

I am angry with my government. Not only it allows the terrorists to come in to kill US citizens. It also allows foreign workers to take away US jobs. 

Thanks for reading my gripes.

Winnie

Silverline and Intelligroup

I was working for a product company (dot com) that was having financial and managerial problems, so I started looking around for another job...

I got recruited by a company called Intelligroup.. Intelligroup was in the process of spinning off their Internet business into a seperate unit, and they were going to call this new company Seranova. I noticed there were a lot of Indian people in the management structure, but I didn' think much about it, never having heard of h-1b or worker visas... I assumed they had just immigrated to the US, gotten jobs for Intelligroup, and now were being given responsibility for a division of the company.

There was a group of high level architects I met with my first week in the company.. we tried to implement and push the agenda we had been asked to devise, but the management weren't interested in devoting resources to building intellectual capitol, just in billiable hours for bodies. 

So we started going out on projects... The architect and a sales guy or project manager (depending on the state of the negotiations) would go to the client with a proposal.. We (the architects) would look through internal resumes given to us to determine which people would be acceptable for a project. After the first few turned out to be completely fraudulent, I tried to send them back and get replacements, but instead of recalling the people who didn't know the skills, they just sent more people. In the entire time I worked for Seranova/Silverline, I never reviewed a resume of anyone who was on an h-1b visa who could actually do the work their resume implied. 

At times the other architects and I would get so fed up, we would just do all the work ourselves, (weekends and 12 hour days, unpaid of course). Meanwhile "management" would make us responsible for the project without giving us any capable resources. This went on for a while, until first the Sales staff, who weren't getting any of thier promised commision money, quit. Then, as there weren't any american sales staff, and no one else american would work for them, they couldn't get any contracts, so they started holding up paychecks..about 1/2 the architects and 2/3 of the american programmers quit. 

As I understand it, at that point they started defaulting on all their promised payments to intelligroup, as well as not paying the 401K fund or insurance premiums. They they laid off the rest of the american programmers, and then the rest of the american architects. 

When I got laid off, I tried to get my 401K money to allow my family to survive in the interrum till I could find another job. That's when I found out that the employee contributions (taken directly from my paycheck before taxes) had not been deposited into the 401K fund for 6 months, and none of the employer contributions had ever been deposited. 

I tried to discuss the matter with senior Seranova management, but I was told that they were all incommunicado, and would be leaving the country soon. So I called my lawyer, the DOL, the DOJ and the FBI.

They weren't much help, as Seranova had been purchased (quietly) by Silverline, was therefore an Indian company, not an american one, and not subject to any US laws. I had my lawyer write a very pressing letter anyway, and they finally agreed to give me the money that was taken from my paycheck so I wouldn't press charges for fraud and theft. 

As I was unemployed, I was paying my $600/month to COBRA for insurance coverage...I thought my payments were going directly to BlueCross/BlueShield... 2 months later I found out that our insurance had been cancelled retro-actively for the past 6 months. Blue cross stated that they had repeatedly asked Silverline for the insurance payments (which were also coming out of our paychecks) but since Silverline had purchased the company, they had not made a single insurance payment at all. They had taken my $600 a month (with no job) from the COBRA company and simply moved it offshore for themselves. They had done this to all the americans they had laid off. 

By this point the senior management were already out of the US. I called all the agencies again... the DOL and DOJ said I had a case for fraud and violations of US labor laws, but since they were an Indian company.. that's right, nothing could be done. The DOL guy actually suggested I declare bankruptcy so I wouldn't have to face the medical bills. I called my lawyer again, got ahold of 20 or 30 other people who were also doing the COBRA thing, some internal documents, and threatened a class action suit... I guess they got tired of me calling India and waking them up, 'cause they agreed to send enough money back to the US to bring the insurance up to the current month so we could cancel it gracefully.

The last I heard from one of the two americans left in the NJ office, the americans hadn't been paid in 4 months, and the indians hadn't been paid in 6. Even their h-1b staff was being evicted from their 12 poeple in a 2 bdrm apartments. I don't know what their situation is, I'm just glad I got away from them before they could do any more damage to me, or I could unwittingly do any more damage to the clients by participating in the charade. That was about 2 years ago. 

If you are reading this.. and some company is trying to recruit you.. check the LCA database.. find out what you're getting into or you could be the next american they get to be a front for their body shopping activities.

Editors Note: For more on Silverline go to H1BNews

In the ranks of the un-employed engineers...

My name is Joe Patterson and I was laid off from Nortel Networks in July of 2001 where I worked as a Data Network Sales Engineer. Since that time, I have been unable to secure employment in my area of expertise, electrical engineering and telecommunications. I found myself unable to even get a job at a gas station. Many employers would see my resume and simply not call because I was "over qualified". Although clearly qualified for a number of jobs I applied for, I was still unable to even get so much as a call, much less an interview. 

As a result, I lost my home and practically everything I owned in less than a year's time. With shame, I had to move back to my home state and reside in a small apartment on my parent's property. What I worked to achieve for seven years after graduating from the University of Alabama in Huntsville with a BS in Engineering, simply vaporized. I truly believe my fate was due in very large part to the unleashing of the H-1B visa program and it's lies that American citizens can't fill the number of high tech jobs that are "in demand" by employers.

Finally, in August, I managed to get a Research Assistantship at the University of Alabama in Huntsville where I am currently working toward a MS in Electrical Engineering. It pays a small salary, albeit a far cry from what I was making, and it pays my tuition. I am grateful to have it, yet bitter. I feel I only received this assistantship due to a recommendation by a person that shall remain un-named. Since then I have learned from various individuals at the school, that they are in great need of American citizens with good spoken English to fill jobs as Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants. It's quite ironic considering the number of foreign students enrolled in the engineering programs there and one has to wonder why.

Answer: Student and H-1B visas. I am a minority in a sea of foreign students. 

To make matters worse, I learned that most of these students have jobs at companies I now dream about working for. Yet there is no job for me, the American citizen.

I am disgusted that our Congress has allowed this treasonous act to take place in the false pretense that companies are in need of high-tech labor beyond the supply. It appears they are in need of high-tech labor, just not American labor. Are the companies themselves to blame? I also say yes. I am confident many have lobbied for such action against the well-trained American scientists and engineers so that they can lower their costs. 

Shame on the congress and shame on the companies who have sold out these hard working American scientists and engineers. I often ask this question: Would the nations that these people come from allow American citizens to flood in like a broken dam and take their jobs? I think not. It's high time something is done about this "evil" being perpetrated upon the noble workers of America.

I sometimes hear someone say "but they are better trained, better workers than US citizens". I won't say what that makes me feel like saying to them,but I think you know.

I have printed and signed the petition and gave you the right to proudly display my name on your website. I wish you the best of luck in ending this travesty against our fellow engineers. I would certainly appreciate your organization keeping me posted on the latest in this battle. I plan to visit your site frequently and direct all technical citizens to it.

Sincerely,
Joe Patterson

h1-B horror story

I've got a story for you... 

I had a contract job working for that bastion of americanism.. Disney. They said they wanted to bring me on full time.. I was thrilled.. Permanent job,benefits, and right near home..

That was on monday. On wednesday, they told me they'd changed their mind, they were going to replace me with two h1-b contractors, because their combined hourly rate was 1/3 of mine. Oh, and by the way, could I train them to take over my job? 

So I spent a week and a half training these guys (no choice, the family has to eat). I talked to them.. Neither had ever SEEN a computer prior to purchasing their h1-Bs in bangalore for ~$4500. Their inital resumes were fraudulent when they came to the US, and still contained lots of fraudulent material. They had about 1 year of programming experience between them. They were living with 4 other h1-Bs in a communal apartment, and their expenses were paid. Here's the really fun part.. they'll get to retire in a maximum of 6 years!! They explained to me that with the money they bankroll in India, they can easily retire back there on the interest in 5-6 years of working on h1-B status. 

To add insult to injury, I then was informed that the "boss" of my department at Disney who influenced the decision was also indian, and he had never seen a computer prior to getting his h1-b five years ago.

No wonder the indian government is all for this program.. no wonder they and our corportate bean counters are throwing money at washington to keep it going.. 

Maybe we could work a reciprocal deal with some other country where we could take our untrained young high school graduates and send them over there to make the equivalent of $100,000/year? No.. no country in their right mind would screw their own citizens that badly...

H1B Companies

Similar to the candy bar, ice cream and coke story, I interviewed at the Hartford Insurance Group. Two H1B's and two Americans.

The outcome was I'm not an H1B.A maojority of their IT area is H1B.

Another company, CIGNA isnurance and also INA.Had their CEO's do telaconferences stating they were sending the work to India. If India and Pakistan went to war. The work was going to Bosnia. They want to insure us and make profits yet they refuse to employ us.

I interviewed with Arbella Insurance. I interviewed with a H1B and a Korean. Before the interview the contract recruiter stated they might be insecure due to my qualifications. Guess what, I wasn't a fit... Wonder why?

I have received emails from companies in India, Russia, etc. Willing to work for 5.00 to 8.00 dollars per hour.

Your correct about interviews. The H1B's call you to interview you getting into the tiniest detail, yet they never see the big picture. Someone has to correct their work.

But.... No jobs for Americans. Unless you'll do contract work for 35.00 an hour.

Lost Job to H1B 

My best friend, -- a US Citizen and Veteran ( Marine) --  was a programmer for the Kansas Department of Revenue. He and an entire department was replaced by several hundred private contractor hired H1B workers. 

He was forced to change jobs over the next 8 years as he was repeatedly replaced by contract H1B workers who were paid less and kept as partime while working at several different jobs for the contractor, thus not eligible for major benefits. 

H1B holders and 911

I worked for a company that provides revenue control systems for major airport parking. After completing a multimillion-dollar project for non other than Port Authority of NY & NJ and another at Washington Dulles, I lost my job because I complained about being the only American programmer in my department. I only did that after receiving an email from one of the H1B holders on 9/25/01. I swear to god, the email had an image of the statue of liberty with a vial on her face. There was another image with a mosque at ground zero and one with George Bush dressed up as the Taliban. 

I was replaced by an Indian nation on an H1B when I had finished my work on the project and the Port was satisfied. In the year that followed the email incident, they hire many people, but none of them were American. I could go on and on about the reverse discrimination I experienced in that company, but

.

Novistar -- Houston Texas

I am an observer, a recruiter in the houston area that is familiar with a disturbing situation. I was not layed off nor ever employed by this company.

HOWEVER, I am a tax payer, I pay for unemployment costs that are skyrocketing. I also see salaries plummeting, which effects commissions and everyones ability to buy things, put money into the economy, etc.

Two months ago, 3 good, solid oracle dba's were layed off by Novistar in Houston Texas. An H1-B was retained. Knowing the skill levels of all parties, he was not the most talented, but 'ok' -- he was the cheapest. He is now working 12 hour days and cant quit because he needs the sponsor. One month ago Novistar started looking for a new dba. They did not contact the employees that had just been layed off. (layed off for financial based reasons, none had been let go for performance reasons). All had been 
employeed for at least a year and all had seniority over the H1. Novistar did not look to hire a dba at the market rate -- They offered about half what they were paying for people the previous month.The currently employed H1 was unable to renew his visa because of the layoffs, but he can stay for the next year. Novistar is activly weeding thru applicants with preference given to H1's. They know they can work them to death, pay them nothing, and let them go with little or no financial impact. Its a disgrace.

Many firms in town refuse to do business with this company -- unfortunatly, there are many firms that have lost all pretext of morality in search of the almighty $. People are commodities, sad that they have become disposable.

I regret that leaving my name is not a good idea -- reprecussions would probably follow, and none of us can afford that right now.

Verizon

First of all I would like to say what an informative site you have and keep up the good work.

I would like to direct you to one of the largest companies in the US which blatantly turns a blind eye to the hiring practices of its IT division. Verizon Communications is one of the largest employers of H1-B employees in the nation. 

As with many companies mentioned in your website, Verizon has a habit of laying off American Citizens before H1-B workers in its IT department. It also discriminates in the hiring of American Citizens. When a department is in need of new IT workers they have approved recruiting agencies which submit lists of candidates for employment. The list will almost always contain 90%+ Indian H1-B's. They use recruiting companies to do their dirty work for them in order to make it more difficult to hold Verizon accountable for their discriminatory hiring practices. I have been in positions which require me to fill internal IT positions and found NO issues finding qualified American workers. The notion that there is a shortage in the US is pure propaganda.

I have read many articles which mention the expertise of the H1-B employees as par with the American's. I can say for a fact that the statement is untrue and again shows the propaganda that is used by the US CEO's. I work with many H1-B's which are great workers, intelligent, and call friend. But the majority posses below average skills set, have no appropriate degree corresponding to their work, and quite frankly came over on falsified resumes. The bottom line is they are cheaper and therefore more profitable for the company. But then again so is slavery and sweatshops and they are both rightfully illegal.

I personally know of many American IT professionals of different races, ethnicities, religious which are un-employed and unable to acquire meaningful employment. The common denominator is they are American and they are discriminated in their own country.

I think it's important we as American citizens take a very serious look at different methods to expose the rising issue of discriminatory practices in the IT world. Below are a few suggestions:

• Write our State and Federal Representative.
• Write our local and national news programs. Be direct, ask for their help.
• Organize protests against your local company which continue to discriminate against American citizens. Be as visible as possible. Companies hate to have picketers. This only exposes their actions.
• Consult legal counsel for advice in gathering information for possible litigation. Remember, company's employee a staff of lawyers to help hide their actions.

And finally never keep quite. Tell your friends, family, and co-workers of the rising issue. Most people are just not well informed of the problem.

Proud American IT Worker.

My A MotoExperience

Until recently, I was a staff Engineer with Motorola (IL). I was part of a RIF effecting 7 thousand high-tech American workers.

I have 20 years of work experience (5 at Motorola); I hold a BS and a MSc in Electrical Engineering; I hold 8 patents and 4 refereed publications.

During my 5 years at Motorola, I was exposed to some of the most distigusting lapses in ethical judgement that one could imagine.

I have witnessed how senior Motorola mgt has:

(1) transferred sensitive nuclear hardening technology to the Chinese government;
(2) ignored known acts of espionage from its H1B workers;
(3) established an entire division for hiring and retaining H1B workers;
(4) established a system of employee evaluation that allows H1B workers to favor other H1Bs;
(5) threatened me with the loss of my wife's job is response to my claims of unfairness;
(6) maintained a secret job-list accessible only to its temporary workers;
(7) continues to advertise for engineers (this while it is laying off American workers);
(8) prevented displaced workers from getting access to internal jobs;
(9) evaluated American engineers by the number of H1Bs they train;
(10) constructed a 5-year employment cycle to rob employees of pension savings;

As you know, some of the above behavors are simply illegal, others are acts
of treason.

My recent experience with H1-B abuse

Having a degree in economics, I certainly understand and sympathize with the economic incentives companies have to seek the lowest cost source of labor. But the H1-B program was intended to help companies staff their technology groups in the boom times, but now in the downturn, some companies are putting H1-Bs at the head of the line because they are inexpensive relative to U.S. citizen workers, and that is a clear violation of the Federal law.

Here's what happened to me recently:

In early September, I was invited into the offices of Matrix, a career search firm located at 4851 LBJ Freeway, Suite 700, Dallas, Texas 75244, where I met with Nancy Dykes, who is a recruiter employed by Matrix. 

Matrix provides searches of qualified technical workers for its corporate clients that engage its services. Matrix was engaged by Vartec, a telecommunications company located at 1600 Viceroy Drive, Dallas 75235, to act as Vartec’s agent to perform a search for qualified individuals.

After discussing my qualifications for the specific job at Vartec, and agreeing upon my suitability based upon my several years of prior experience with the required skills, the conversation then turned to the compensation I desired. After citing my most recent hourly rate, Nancy Dykes said that her client Vartec was looking for H1-Bs for the position, and that H1-Bs would work for a lower wage than Americans, and suggested that for that reason, I should lower my salary expectations. 

Nancy Dykes contacted me two weeks later regarding another position. During our conversation, I asked about the status of the position at Vartec. Nancy said, “Oh, they were looking for an H1-B”. I told Nancy that the Federal law regarding the hiring of H1-Bs required Vartec to first make a diligent search for a U.S. citizen to fill the position before the law permits them to hire an H1-B, and that even then, the compensation level must be comparable to that which a U.S. citizen would be paid for the position. Nancy replied “I take that back. Actually, they didn’t want to hire an H1-B!” Given all of Nancy’s previous comments regarding her client’s intentions to specifically seek out H1-B candidates for the position, I found her sudden retraction implausible.

I have since had a conversation with a former contract employee with prior work experience within the technology group at Vartec. He told me that Vartec makes heavy use of H1-B workers within its computer department.

I have been in contact with our U.S. Senator, Phil Gramm. Senator Gramm has verified for me that federal law is clear when it states that companies must first make a serious effort to recruit American workers and must also prove that they have not laid of any U.S. workers within 90 days before or after engaging an H1-B worker. And, additionally, the employer is required to pay the H1-B worker wages comparable to those offered to U.S. citizens. According to Senator Gramm, these provisions in the law are there to ensure that American professionals are not disadvantages by foreign workers. And the burden of proof is on the company to prove their compliance.

Given the massive layoffs of technology workers in the Dallas area that are U.S. citizens, it seems improbable to me that Vartec was unable to find a U.S. citizen to fill the position. And, especially given the comments on two occasions I have cited of the agent Nancy Dykes who they engaged to perform their search, and given Vartec’s past pattern of giving hiring preference to H1-Bs, it is clear to me that Vartec is engaging in a practice that violates Federal law, and that Matrix, acting as its agent in performing the searches, is also in violation of that law.

I had a similar experience with another recruiting firm last year, when I sent my resume then phoned the recruiter in response to a job posting for which I was qualified. The recruiter offered me some friendly advice "Don't bother. We posted the job an hour ago and already have 50 H1-B resumes. You'd be wasting your time". I appreciated the advice, and found a job elsewhere. I did not expect I would again run into the same circumvention of Federal law, especially not in such a flagrant manner as I experienced with Matrix and Vartec.

With kind regards,

James Lee Stakelum
Irving, Tex

Sham Interview

Let me tell you about the job interview that I had today. I was set to interview with a national real-estate company by the name of ProLogisitics Corporation that does business allocations for manufacturing and warehouses here in the southwest region of the country. Before I went to the interview, I had talked in depth with the personnel lady in regard to the position that was open and what it entailed as far as the job description and what the needed skills were. She told me that she needed someone with ASP.NET, Oracle, SQL SERVER 7.0/ 2000 and VB. So I spent the last several days spending many, many hours on end until I was blue in the face prepping myself on all the skills that I had learned and haven't been able to use since I have been out of work for over a year now. I went back over my PL/SQL and relearned all that stuff over again that I had learned on the job and during my Oracle certification training. I also went back through and prepped myself very, very heavily for my VB and my ASP as well. 

Well, when I showed up for the interview, the personnel lady took me back to a conference room and waiting for me were -------- you guessed it ----- two H1B visa guys from India. They sat me down and then they started asking me questions about my resume and my background for a very few short minutes. Then they started throwing all kinds of very tough technical questions at me like crazy. I answered them and just totally smoked their asses big time. But what I found very disconcerting about this whole affair was, that while they were asking me these questions, one of the H1B visa guys from India was slumped back in his chair in a very cavalier posture with his arms folded across his chest and was eating chocolate candy bars. The other H1B visa guy was doing the same thing but he was slurping on a bottle of coke and bowl of ice cream. I just wish I could eat chocolate candy bars and ice cream on a job interview! It was just infuriating to say the least! When I first walked into that conference room today and saw two H1B visa holders sitting there eating chocolate candy bars and ice cream and slurping on bottles of coke, I just nearly wanted to turn around and tell the HR lady that I don't interviews with H1B visa holders and then walk out the front office door and go home. But I didn't, discretion being the better part of valor. When the interview was all over, and they figured out that they couldn't trip me up on technical questions the head H1B visa guy gave me back flip of his hand and wrist and said, "that will be all, we'll call you if we want to setup a second interview." 

I have been out of work for over year now and I have been on about 8 or 9 interviews and this same kind of scenario that I went through today has been played out at least 5 or 6 times out of those 8 or 9 interviews that I have been on since that time. It is absolutely maddening. I mean, I am infinitely qualified and I have all kinds of training and education to back up everything that I have done and I have years and years of experience in this particular field and in the last year since I have been unemployed, I have had to put up with this stupid bullcrap! Sometimes I come home from these interviews like this and I just want to scream. It really ticks me off. You know full good and well, that my chances of my getting this job are about good as an icecube's chance in hell. I am infinitely qualified for this job and for some of the other jobs that I have interviewed for and yet I get turned down time and time again. Why because I am unqualified? No, because I am discriminated against big time! This interview today was nothing more than a rigged game and anyone who can't see that is just being totally ignorant to the world. To make matters worse, some people(who shall remain nameless) wonder why I am so angry and have such hostility towards the H1B visa program (and to people who hire them) and to all this bullcrap free trade and globalization. Have them go through what I went through today and what I have gone through in the past year and see if they have same attitude about the H1B program. Maybe if certain people could walk a mile in my moccassins they might not be able to dismiss me so cavalierly as being a whiney hot head that is full of dribble!

Illegal Workers

(Names and phone numbers removed by ZaZona.com

This is to report a network of illegal immigration fraud committed by certain foreign nationals in the name of highly skilled labor H1b Visas.

As you know a H1b visa holder is permitted into this country to work in the highly skilled computer programming job for which the H1b visa is intended. When they cannot find such a job they are to leave the country in 7 days.

There is a company based in Phoenix called "IndSoft Inc" located on Indian School Road in Phoenix, whose main line of business is to gain entry into the United states for illegal people by apply for H1b visa to foreign nationals who do not have the required criteria for certain sums of monies $5000.

The illegal entrants generate fake documents, fake educational qualifications and to obtain the H1b visa. Once they gain entry into the country they get into illegal jobs by working for cash. They avoid taxes. Their aim is to keep working and living in the USA till they apply for a green card after several years.

An H1b visa holder is supposed to work in a highly skilled job (Software programming)

But these people are neither qualified for nor ever have the intention to do so. They get into the jobs in restaurants, convenient stores, etc misusing the H1b visa.

The following people have recently gained entrance into the country in the guise of H1b visa through the company IndSoft. (names removed)

The following people and also their spouses (who are dependentsH4 Visa ) work.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. there are at least 200 such people working in various 7-11 stores in Phoenix.

SK is a H4(dependent Visa holder) who is not supposed to do any kind of work but coolly works depriving regular Americans of their right to work, while SP is a H1b holder who has faked documents and fake computer experience is now

Working in 7-11 stores in the below address, while her husband who is a dependent H4 visa is working in another 7-11 stores. They will soon to extend their present Visa and eventually settle down in the USA illegally.

Some of them have even purchased brand new cars under mortgage. Some of them are actually dependants of other Visa holders who are not allowed to work in the country.

These people defy all laws and are merrily making tax-free money through illegal living and working in the country.

More illegal H1b visa holders are working in the Glendale ,Scottsdale area and on Thomas road, McDowell road

Phoenix has become a haven for these illegal people for all their activities; more illegal H1b visa holders are flocking towards phoenix as these people have spread the message of illegal work availability and cool life in phoenix. Many more people are ready to rush into phoenix for search of cool life.

Why are H1b visas issued? Are they just mere loopholes in the system for these people to exploit our economy and jobs? Do the Phoenix immigration dept ever care to look into these illegal acts. What is the Dept of Labor doing?

When we Citizens go to these stores and ask for work the storeowners who themselves are once illegal immigrants) say "WE ARE NOT HIRING NOW" while the truth is they want to only hire illegal people for half the pay.

These people are highly organized cheaters so they will have their foxy answers ready when questioned. Unless a thorough inquiry is held it will be difficult to catch them.

We request the Phoenix Immigration department and the Department of labor to investigate into these illegal activities and take necessary action so that regular Americans can find work.

As a software programmer working in Wall Street area (CitiBank - Solomon Smith Barney) I saw the whole September 11 terror attack. I came home covered with the ashes of my fellow citizens. I did not expect to experience what happened after that. The first week after employees returned to work, many were let go. The process continued until Xmas. The company let go mostly US citizens. The H1 workers were cheaper and probably have their green cards by now.

Viva la Capitalism US Style!

Real Reason

I sympathize with the people who have written their stories. I’m on an H1b and do earn $45/hr and not $10/hr. The main reason I earn that rate is that I, like may of my H1b brethren work our ass off and provide concrete results. 

The People who are complaining against the H1b workers are the ones whom their companies were trying to get rid off for a long time, but could not do so for various reasons. There are a whole lot of Americans in every companys IT shops who do proud for their companies. Companies are utilizing this economy slowdown to clean up its workforce and to cut down the costs. 

Of Course there are a lot of H1b weasels who speak broken English. But Every H1b is a graduate, unlike most Americans who are high school dropouts.

You are complaining only about the H1bs, because they are taking your jobs. You are also talking about offshore development taking away your jobs. Have you ever complained about the jobs Americans are losing to sweatshops in China etc. from where you get your consumables?

Think again! If America did not want us, we wouldnt be able to come here.

Chandra

Training Scams

This the biggest IT training scandal I have ever seen. Recently being laid off by Verizon,I decided to upgrade my skills. I was decided to take training courses in an Institute called Digital Corp. in DC Metro area. The state unemplyment office gives upto $10000 for such technical training. The check is cut in the name of the training institute that was chosen by me based on some marketing people they employ. But guess, what ... my training was delayed by two weeks as they had no instructor. Finally, I came to know they were awaiting arrival of a H1 worker to conduct courses. I left after the first course when I felt the teacher[older looking, smart move one must look senior to teach] had no real experience and was being coached and himself studying to get Oracle certification!!!

What a waste of govt. money. Do INS know they employ such fraud workers? It is high time INS puts some high bar when getting foreign workers. A statement like college degree is too low for granting such visas, atleast they need to say degree a related field. I find many workers come in here with degrees in Art, history etc and they try to pass certifications like MSCS, OCP, CCNA to get green cards. Can they not be replaced by US workers?

Providian Financial

Please add Providian Financial to the list of companies which prefers to keep H1B people employed and let citizens go. Most of IT people in Providian Financial are H1Visa's and when the layoff time came Providian choose to let the citizen's go. As my boss put it in a private conversation with the salary they pay me as Sr. Oracle DBA they could keep three H1B visa DBA's. I am mad as hell after 10yrs of IT experience and becoming a Sr. in my field, I am without a work while all the H1B visa workers are having our jobs. If you ask me they need to let go of all the H1B visa workers in the field which is not so hot now like IT and employ the people who are in this country as citizen with experience and without a job. Do not get me wrong I do not have anything against H1B visa workers, all I am saying when economy is not good and there is not that much work going around government should be more concern about people of that country then others. Ofcourse that is only if government is not being effected by corporations which rather to pay less salary and have a slave.

VIA-Telecom

I would like to ramain ananomous as some of the information was given to me in confidence!

I was an employee at VIA-Telecom. VIA-Telecom (yes the Taiwanese company that is beating the pants of Intel on motherboard chipsets) purchased the CDMA unit from LSI April 19th 2002. Poeple laid off like myself, were told by LSI that VIA wasn'g going to be making me an offer. Approximatly 20 people were laid off of over 100 people. In the San Diego office that had about 100 people (some were up in Melpitas), there were about 5 H1-B's and I think 1 L1. They were all made offers by VIA.

I was told while haveing lunch with one of the people that is left that they are still hiring some H1's ... in fact they passed over a good AMERICAN software guy and gave preference to 2 H1's.

another horror story

I work in the IT division of a major airline. In the fall of 2001, we suffered massive layoffs. My director (Indian) came to our staff meeting and asked if there were any questions about the current situation. I opened my big mouth and said "Why were so many U.S. citizens laid off, while so many non-U.S. citizens were kept?" He was furious and told me to meet him in his office -- with my manager. Later, in his office, he raged at me and told me that was an "inappropriate question" and it was "illegal" to discuss that issue because it was against the Equal Employment Opportunities Act to discriminate. I told him I wasn't singling out any race, religion or culture, just the state of whether one is a U.S. citizen or not. He told me if I didn't like working here, I could hand in my badge immediately. He also wanted to know WHY I asked the question. I told him "everyone is talking about it; we all want to know." He demanded I tell him WHO was talking about it. I refused, of course, to name names. He then said anyone who talks about this can be fired. I told him this was still a free country and that, as far as I know, the 1st amendment is still in force. He said I was lowering morale just by asking the question! I replied that morale couldn't possibly be any lower anyway. (I was wrong about that. It's lower now than ever.) The bottom line: I kept my badge, but was passed over for a promotion that was due me. Oh, and by the way, there is no language in the EEO that mentions citizenship. Also by the way, I am a woman. I wonder if he would have treated me the same had I been a man . . .

I'm sorry I can't give you my name -- I still need my job! But I WILL sign your Petition To Abolish H-1B, and I WILL pass it around!! 

H1B visas

In the 32 months since I graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Systems Engineering, I have worked hard to get a job, any job,related to my engineering degree, and have applied for thousands and gotten none. I am $ 25,000 in debt to student loans only for this degree, and todays research, attached below, tell the whole story about how H1B visas ruined my chances of success if any kind. Today I cannot eat or pay bills, including rent and soon will be homeless.

Publicly available government documents show that; there were 74,551 H1B Visas Granted in Computer Related Occupations in FY 2000
(Note that there is no separate category for Electrical Engineers)

From H1B Report on Demographic Characteristics;
58.7 % of all H1B visas are granted to people holding a Bachelors Degree
+2.4 %(add lower degrees)
-----
61.1 % Percentage total of H1B visas in FY 2000 awarded to people holding a bachelors degree or less

74,551 (Total Computer Related H1B Visas) * 61.1 % = 45,551

45,551 Estimated Computer Professionals with a Bachelors Degree or Lower

Granted H1B visas in FY 2000

U.S. Department of Education Statistics Report, NCES 20002-130, shows;
The following number of Bachelors Degrees were awarded in the United States if FY 2000;

36,195 Computer Science and related degrees
+4,488 Computer Engineering Degrees
------
40,683 Computer Related Occupations Bachelors degrees awarded in the United States in FY2000

45,551 Computer Related Occupations were being filled by H1B Visa recipients imported into the United States in FY2000

These figures suggest that for every Computer Systems Engineering or Computer Science student graduating with a bachelors degree, 112% of his/her job opportunities are lost, during the year of graduation, to imported H1B professionals due to lack of interest by US companies to hire new graduates and provide them with on the job training.

You can't make a patriot out of a hungry man.

Shocked!

I am one of those folks that is normally not against immigration. But I've got a real problem with immigrants that do not intend on staying. But it is customary in this contray to honor the "we were here first" rule and not bump ahead in line.

That said, I've got an even bigger problem with organizations that hire H1-Bs and say they're doing it because there is a shortage of IT workers or because the labor is cheaper! Both, near as I can figure are a crock! I was SHOCKED seeing that as an IT worker with many, many more years experience that the H1-Bs with 2-5 years experience are earning what I do (close to 6 figures).

But we haven't even touched on the off-shore code sweat shops that DO undercut our wages!

The place I work for is on the list, alright. It is a not for profit (ha ha) trade association that is mandated by government regulations to be the sole authority to accredit physicians testing laboratories, hospital labs and labs at military institutions. They can't loose $$$! ...not with the health care industry raping us too. (but at least I have a job).

If I got more specific, and someone hear read this, I won't have a job for long. 

Please do not print my name.

I have lost my well paying job at Provision to H1 visa employees. Provision chooses to layoff citizens while keeping H1 Visa workers. In the Database Administrator group which had 31 employees 26 are H1 visa's and Provision chooses to layoff citizens. 

How could US workers loose their jobs due to reduction of forces in a company due to bad economy while H1 visa workers are still keeping their jobs? This matter is a concern for most of IT workers which are loosing their well paying jobs to workers from outside the country. This should be a law when during bad economy US citizen work should be saved and not Foreign workers.

pair

New trend in jobs... 

I am an Indian who is a Permanent Resident. I did my Bachelors at the best university in India ( Indian Institute of Technology ), got my Masters degree at a top-20 university here in the States. I have lived in this country for 9 years now. My company ( software ) recently decided to move our product division's development to India - just after a product release !!!. So we wont have a job in a month's time - when the transition is done. I feel mad at this move, but it makes sense from a business perspective. But one thing I feel mad about is that NONE OF THE EMPLOYERS SEEM TO OFFER TO KEEP THE JOB IN RETURN FOR A PAY-CUT. I dont mind getting paid half of my salary ( temporarily ) till things get better, rather than lose my job completely.

I have seen all kinds of H-1B workers. From the cheats ( learning stuff on which they claimed to be experts ) to really good ones. I dont know where and how does one differentiate between them. As somebody ( an American ) pointed out to me, the software industry is going through a phase similar to the manufacturing industry in the US few decades ago. And we should not forget the fact that all these jobs that were created in the 90s in the IT industry was because of innovation. But unfortunately, there has been no significant innovation in the IT industry in the past few years. And all public corporations in this country seem to function just to please Wall Street. And we are partially responsible for this for having invested deeply in this market, and lost most of it to cheats in Enron, WorldCom etc. 

padhu

L Visa Holders Have No Protection 

After investigating my own husband's exclusion from his employers pension plan after being transferred on an Intra Company Transfer Visa (L1B) almost five years ago, I have discovered that it is permitted under ERISA to exclude foreign workers from an employers pension plan. According to EEOC and The Office of the Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices, US Department of Justice, this is neither National Origin discrimination or discrimination on the basis of being a non-Citizen. The two terms are defined quite differently by the EEOC and the Office of the Special Counsel. 

The Pension Counseling Clinic with The University of Alabama School of Law reviewed my situation and the conclusion was that it is permitted under ERISA to 'exclude a certain percentage of non-highly compensated employees as long as certain minimum requirements are met' and that 'the exclusion of non-resident aliens is not unlawful as the plan still passes the minimum coverage test as required by ERISA'. 

The conclusion of the FSCO, Financial Services Commission of Ontario, Canada, came to the conclusion that Canadian citizens can be transferred to the United States by their employers and that pension laws in the Province of Ontario do not protect these workers from fraudulent claims made by their employers in the transfer agreement.

Conclusion: There is no protection for workers transferred from Canada to the United States. 

Recommendation: If you are a worker being transferred by your employer from Canada to the United States, get a binding legal agreement drawn up by at attorney. If your employer doesn't like this, tell him to go to hell.

It is better to be unemployed in Canada then it is to be an indentured servant in the United States. 

Celeste Walker

$9/hour for JAVA

It's finally time to bag this profession.

I just saw three different offers on DICE for $15/hour. This is a flat contract rate without benefits or job security. This probably equates to a $9/hour job with benefits. Roughly the same as unskilled workers. 

The opening in Sacramento wanted Cobol, C++, Java, VB and MS SQL experience: all for $15/hour on contract. No job security, no benefits, no future.

Obviously these openings are aimed at H-1B workers. The ridiculous pay offer itself is an open admission to soliciting cheap foreign labor and is an obvious violation to the spirit of the H-1B regulations.

Where will it stop? $10 per hour for Java programmers? $5 per hour??!!

Well, I saw this coming - and it is happening faster than even I anticipated. Mealy mouthed programmers have been too frightened to organize while others have been hoodwinked into chasing unrelated issues - such as fighting immigration amnesty for unskilled, largely illiterate, Latino "Illegals". By golly, they fight like mad to save jobs for American melon pickers - yet they are afraid to question their own employers' use of H-1B workers. The H-1B immigration lawyers must be laughing up a storm at these misled and largely ineffective "activists".

The people I feel most sorry for are the young American techies. The guys and gals who dedicated their costly advanced education to IT just a couple years ago - amidst the luring whirlwind of advertisements promising a rewarding career in IT. Now they are entering a job market where experienced veterans are paid the equivalent of $9/hour. Where does this leave them? 

An IT ad from a year or two ago sticks out in my memory - a guy at a burger job who states that his "future is so bright that he needs to wear shades". Chances are, the coworker he was taunting will be earning just as much flipping burgers.

Ramon

Shanghighed in SF

Just finished a project in SF for JP Morgan/Chase. My first day, I noticed that virtually everyone on my team was H1b--except for myself (I have worked with many H1b's some of them actually competent). It seems that they had already had "three rounds" of lay-offs in IT.

After the first week, I submitted my time-sheet(billable hours) for 52 hours: there was a major communications problem between our site and NYC and I spent some long nights on the phone with NYC where, it turned out, the problem originated. As soon as I turn in the time sheet, the operations lead (a rather obsequious Australian H1b), nervously indicates that no on is "allowed" to bill over 40 hours!!  The reason started to become clear: most of these guys didn't know what the h*ll they were doing.  During my miserable six months there, I corrected and/or prevented countless config/implementation errors that these "experts" had made.

When my contract was up, I quit--even though the Director asked me to stay on until I got the "rest of the guys up to par". No thanks. These companies want CHEAP labor regardless of quality(which may explain the current demise of many). And don't count on the politicians to help--they're still kissing as much corporate posterior as before.

Another area to look at

I have lived and worked in the Atlanta area for the last 15+ years, and I have seen a shrinkage of available contracts and full time positions here. I remember when I first came here the positions would fill several pages of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and now there might be one column. I also remember that the salaries we got were up to the standards of the profession. The time it took me to get a contract was a matter of days, now it has turned into months. 

This problem has grown so big that even the state of Georgia has 50% of its IT staff as H-1B people, not to mention the other departments.  So, where does that put me? I have a contract with LOWE'S companies in Wilkesboro N.C., and even here the H-1B people make up about 25% of the IT staff, and LOWE'S is bringing in even more. I am so furious at these foreigners that I do not speak to them, and I find myself wishing them ill. I also finding myself wishing we could ship them all back. (I would spring for a one way ticket on the slowest boat back to India). 

So, now we have nothing in Atlanta, and according to some friends in N.C., nothing in Charlotte, Raliegh, Ashville, and Winston-Salem. The problem is all H-1B related. 

I also wonder if the problems faced by Enron, and Worldcom was caused by the H-1B programmers they brought in? I have cleaned up so many messes created by these folks, that I wonder if the books of these companies, and others are so grossly misstated because of programming problems. As an example, LOWE'S tax system is going through a major change. They are using OS-390 COBOL, and it is common knowledge that this compiler can do a number to the data if you are not careful. I have discovered that much of the accounting data is in bad shape(invalid fields), and when I brought this up to the Hindu team leader, his comment was that it really doesn't matter. THIS WAS LIVE PRODUCTION DATA!!!!! So, now I wonder if LOWE'S books are accurate.

I could go on forever about this, but it goes to prove you get what you pay for, and it is obvious that the CEO's of these H-1B sponsors still don't get it.
Dan Willmann
s32bn1be1@juno.com

H1B story

I am an independent consultant working in the Bay Area. Since March I have been unemployed because Most projects have been outsourced to Indian Companies like InfoSys. We were required to interview them And train them even though they didn’t have any experience or faked their experience. One thing though

I see a lot of news on TV about the bad economy but never about citizens being replaced by H1-Bs.

Maybe we should contact the news channels instead of our congressman and they can investigate this.

If you want to fax your congressman and senators you can do it online at this website: www.NumbersUSA.COM

Unemployed Veteran

H1B story

Thanks for the site; it's a great resource. I work for Charles Schwab in San Francisco, California. It is one of the biggest IT shops in the Bay Area. Like Sun, Schwab is also selling out to India. Besides all the on-site H1Bs (who fill about 30% of the cubes in our building), Schwab has now begun an aggressive campaign to outsource its programming and web development to Indian body shops in Bangalore, India. The first wave of Indians arrived a couple of months ago. We were instructed to train them. Once trained, the first wave will in turn go back to Bangalore and train legions of additional Indians, all of whom are being groomed to take our jobs.

Employees in other Schwab groups have already been "displaced" and gone into the "Talent Movement Program". This is a transition pool where employees go while Schwab tries to find them another job. Not where you want to be, because Schwab has clearly told us that there will be no guarantees that any displaced employee will remain at Schwab.

We have to fight this trend if we are going to save our industry. Why should Americans have to go back to college and start all over in a new profession while Indians take our jobs?

I urge you to call and write your representatives. Support the pro-American ones like Tom Tancredo and Bob Stump. Let the pro-Foreigner ones (see the list on this site) know that you have worked very, very hard to build your career from scratch and you don't want to give your job and industry away to a foreigner.

Husband replaced by H-1B Visa holder

My family and I live in the Silicon Valley, and my engineer husband, age 45+ with TWENTY years of IT experience, was very recently dumped by Sun Microsystems and replaced 3 days later by an H-1B visa holder, who also happens to be 20+ years younger.

So, Sun Microsystems not only doesn't value American workers, they also age discriminate, since the ONLY people replaced in his department were 45 yrs. old and older, and of course, all were replaced by 20-something H-1B visa workers. They don't speak English, and Sun they had the audacity to call our home, and ask my husband if he would "train" them to pick up with the project where his team left off - FOR FREE. Well, suffice to say, that the air in our house hasn't been that blue in quite a while. However, after spending MILLIONS of dollars on this particular project, and then FIRING all of the engineers who were developing it, Sun is now left with a couple of non-English speaking trolls, who sit all day and scratch their heads, trying to figure out how to get the thing to work.

The HALL OF SHAME award not only goes to Sun Microsystems, but also goes to our local congress person, Zoe Lofgren, who not only refuses to take our telephone calls on this one, but has never responded to any of our mail requests for help either. Good thing that we have a LOOOONNNNGGG memory, because when re-election rolls around, and the next time "The Party" calls asking for yet another campaign donation from us, or that we purchase tickets to another political fundraiser, we will remember how aptly we were served by those currently in office.

He has no offers in sight (gee, I guess 20 yrs. of experience can't compete with $10 per hour H-1Bs these days) we've got young kids still at home, a mortgage to pay, and don't know what we're gonna do either.

Maybe we'll apply to be airport screeners at the San Jose airport - one of the few positions these days with PREFERENCE for American citizens.

TM Charter

True Story of an H-1B

I am on H1-B visa. It is very easy to blame us for people getting laid off but put your self in our shoes and then you shall realize how hard it is for us. When we look for jobs it is always American citizens preferred.

We face lots of hurdles and racial discrimination. I came in 1999 and have been harassed by a lot of employers from them .Due to all the pressures and deceiption by the employers who make us work and take all the money I even lost my first baby due to miscarriage.

I was working in a startup called Boniva Software Inc in Santa Clara, California. They made us work day and night and we were not allowed to have weekends off. They called us in the middle of the night and we were always supposed to respond no matter what time it was though I was just a developer.

We never received our pay in time and instead we were treated badly by the CEO and he took it for granted that we were his free slaves.

When he laid me off he gave me 2 days of notice and leave alone serverence pay or anything my 2 months salary was pending. When I went to ask from him he humiliated me, but later after constantly calling him for 6 months and telling him that I shall inform INS he finally gave it to me.

The salary was my right and that too he did not want to pay for me.

This is just a story of one of us. Employers take us for granted as their free slaves. We are harassed, humiliated, discriminated every step of the way. We are not slaves, rather we represent the best Engineers of India. It is our right to be treated equally and get proper rights for our services.

Sushmita