Former Disney IT Worker To Congress: How Can You Allow This?
Source: ComputerWorld
At a congressional hearing today on the H-1B visa's impact on high-skilled workers, the first person to testify was Leo Perrero, a former Disney IT worker. He was overcome with emotion for parts of it, pausing to gather himself as he told the story of how he was replaced by a foreign visa holder.
It was a hearing with an emotional punch.
Perrero testified after Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) displayed a giant photo of small American flags, which were flown indoors by IT workers at Northeast Utilities (now Eversource Energy).
Eversource Energy IT workers "were forced to train their foreign replacements -- and this was done, apparently," within the current law, said Sessions.
Read more: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/594806/former-disney-it-worker-congress-how-can-allow/
Laid Off Disney Worker Breaks Down in Tears Before Senate Panel
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Trajan
(19,089 posts)Sessions might be playing to the TeaHadist contingent in the GOP, but it is completely against type to complain about ONSHORING IT workers ... The GOP and mindless Third Way sycophants had been promoting this nonsense for decades ...
LiberalArkie
(15,716 posts)can't touch it because of the Clintons support of the H1B.
tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)
MH1
(17,600 posts)I support Dems due to other issues and I despise most of the GOP platform. That said, Democrats need to get their act together on the skilled visa issues and grow a fucking spine.
And we need to figure out how to either get money out of politics or make it ineffective. Because that's the real problem, and not just on this issue.
LiberalArkie
(15,716 posts)elections. Why vote for a GOP-Lite candidate when you can vote for a real GOP candidate.
dmr
(28,347 posts)
Kittycat
(10,493 posts)As long as we continue to let the third way/gop lite candidates advance, we're preventing support and funding to legitimate, democratic candidates who aren't corrupted by lobbyists, and who answer to us.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)A lot of corporate money is involved, and Congress loves those juicy corporate moneyburgers.
appalachiablue
(41,138 posts)
LiberalArkie
(15,716 posts)Republicans are though.
mpcamb
(2,871 posts)Their "true concern" for the American worker and their antipathy for foreigners.
Never mind that only the 2nd has any ring of truth.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)as shown here. So I'm optimistic that this kind of outrageousness will be coming to an end.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)GATS was signed in 1995, its now international law, so no more Congress r Senate anything required, also remember, we lost Fast Track and now everything is on autopilot.
"Rich" Americans are often actually kind of poor and often cannot educate their children because of stagnating wages and economic recession that seems to deepen over time.
and they cannot afford an adequate education. People from other countries often got free education in the years before they signed WTO GATS- wealthy famalies can buy an education cheaper aboad. The US is against free education, we say its stealing from business.
See European University Association's protest statement here Corporate profit is more important. Trade deals carve our positions in stone forever. Future proofing the future.
So we cant supply the low wage workers high skill low debt workers business wants. Americans want too much money, also they get old, they get families etc, they cant work 60 hour weeks forever.
Competition, remember!
In any case, Enter TiSA- which will liberalise services, trading jobs for market access in rapidly growing Asia and Africa.. will likely be decided long before the election. Its being taken out of the hands of fickle politicians and voters.
TiSA, TPP, TTIP likely will be signed before the election so they render the results of the election moot to a great degree, because corporations get a legal right, and WTO has the power to change national laws.. Also, its specifically not immigration, the visas say "non-immigrant" they stay for five years, maybe at the most. Then they go home. Pay may be very low. But they get experience.
The goal is to lower costs and increase international trade, maximizing the value in the supply chains.
Here are Indias arguments for more Mode Four in countries like the USA that are WTO members.
______cut here_______
http://commerce.nic.in/wto_sub/Invest/sub_invest-W39.htm
1. India would like to make this contribution under the Working Group's Checklist of Issues indent on the relationship between the mobility of capital and the mobility of labour.
2. Capital and labour are two basic and complementary factors of production in addition to other factors like land and technology. In any production process, capital is required to provide the resources, finance, equipment, infrastructural support, etc. to help labour produce goods and services, while labour is required to utilize capital resources and other factors for producing such goods and services. Hence, capital requires labour as an integral factor of production while labour is seldom capable of producing without capital.
3. Both the mobility of capital and the mobility of labour are accepted as delivery modes for trade and investment in goods and services. If capital is mobile and flows across countries and regions, it is a natural corollary that labour must also have comparable mobility. A liberal integrated approach is necessary to the mobility of labour as part of the free global flows of capital, goods and services.
4. Both the mobility of capital and labour are two sides of the same coin and yet are being treated as two separate water-tight compartments. This is essentially because we have not yet appreciated the complementary and critical role of the relationship. The countries with a relative advantage in capital resources are keen on promoting the mobility of capital vis-à-vis the countries which are looking for opportunities to export labour services, given their relative advantage in such resources. Although the basic economics of the mobility of capital and labour call for cooperation amongst countries based on competitive advantage and relative scarcity of resources, polarization of the issues has led to controversies in international forums. The fact remains that there is a two-way relationship between capital and labour and any discussion on the mobility of capital remains incomplete without appropriate investigation into the scope for the mobility of labour.
5. Presently, both the mobility of capital and labour are affected by barriers against their free flow. For understanding the differential nature of barriers relating to the mobility of capital and labour, take as an example the GATS Schedules. While doing this one must keep in mind that in the GATS, Mode Four, namely, movement on natural persons, was treated as the balancing factor, from the point of view of manpower surplus but capital deficit countries, for Mode Three, namely, commercial presence. Compared to the larger issue of mobility of capital and mobility of labour, what we are dealing with in the GATS is limited mobility of capital and limited mobility of skilled manpower. However, the GATS enables us to have a comparison of the differential nature of barriers relating to the mobility of capital and labour. Some of the limitations listed in the different schedules of commitments under the GATS on market access and national treatment are worth looking at by the Working Group, for the purpose of understanding the nature and scope of such limitations.
6. As regards the intensity of barriers, the weaker partner is, obviously, labour, which has not received adequate coverage under the Uruguay Round. The deal has been mostly done in a manner by "keeping out" mobility of all categories of labour except higher category of personnel and business visitors. For instance, the framework of the GATS does not encourage mobility of labour as a mode of delivery for exporting services. For the sake of clarity, we would like to once again emphasize that the free mobility of labour in the context of free mobility of investment is not in any way relatable or comparable to Mode Four.
7. Not ensuring the mobility of labour as a complementary and critical factor to the mobility of capital can have far-reaching consequences on production frontiers, scales and scope of production and associated costs. If the mobility of capital is encouraged without the mobility of labour, then it is not difficult to visualize several consequences. Production frontiers of global firms would get affected by severe crunch of labour and achievable scale and scope economies would get constrained by labour shortage. As a result the global firms may be forced to adopt one of the following alternatives:
- work with lower supply of labour or inferior quality of labour with lowered scales of production;
- forego economies of scope thus foregoing the benefits of combining two or multiple production processes;
- look for technology to displace labour as much as it is possible;
- employ illegal migrants;
- spend funds, in the medium to long run, on training of local labour, as a substitute.
8. Such choices, forced on global firms, are not always easy, nor cheap, and often risky as well. Such steps would adversely affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the capital employed by the firms, slow down global trade and investment and also reflect on the futility of WTO's role as a facilitator for bringing a package deal for augmenting global trade and investment.
9. At present, mostly higher level professionals are allowed under the GATS for rendering services abroad. Whereas, in reality, there is a huge shortage of different categories of labour (including professional, managerial and administrative work force) in the global workplace for which one basic reason lies in the difficulties regarding mobility of labour. This implies that without guarantees for reasonable mobility of labour, either the mobility of capital faces constraints of different categories of labour flows or manages to attract labour through informal or illegal channels resulting in loss of predictability and stability from the perspective of labour exporting countries.
10. With informal movement of labour (including illegal movement of labour) coming to the rescue of capital flows to a country, international business gets deprived of any guarantee for appropriate movement of labour. Such business also runs the risk of facing major labour constraints with sudden changes in the policy of the country concerned.
11. Cost-wise, guarantees for mobility of labour is a cheaper option. In many countries ready-made answers to labour shortage seldom exist.
12. The following are some of our suggestions for the consideration of the Working Group:
(i) It is important for the Working Group on the Relationship between Trade and Investment to hold discussions to explore the nature and extent of issues in labour resources faced by different sectors. The Working Group can consider ways to overcome the labour crunch and improve productivity of capital by improving the mobility of labour.
(ii) Even if the Working Group considers ways for the mobility of capital, there is little or no guarantee that appropriate labour inputs would become available for utilization of that capital. Hence, the Working Group can help align grassroots realities and suggest easy mobility of selected categories of labour apart from the higher categories of personnel for which most Member countries of the WTO have already undertaken commitments under the GATS. For complementing immediate production purposes, the Working Group can suggest ways for selected labour to move from surplus regions to deficit regions. The Working Group should be able to consider degrees of mobility of labour under the aegis of the WTO.
cascadiance
(19,537 posts)The door has been Bernie for you to OWN this issue with the American work force!
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)as well as the GOP.
LiberalArkie
(15,716 posts)could happen to Disney. And it will. The H1B's have no loyalty to a company or the U.S..
Baobab
(4,667 posts)This is what consultants tell business owners about non-core competency IT support jobs.
https://hbr.org/2003/05/it-doesnt-matter
KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)Eom
antigop
(12,778 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)And his most important point needs to be driven home. We need to change congress to be a group of people who are actually working for the American people. We need to GOTV.
antigop
(12,778 posts)
Cassiopeia
(2,603 posts)Hillary want MORE H1B workers here as well.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Its not immigration, maybe for three to five years, and the cost might be a quarter or even less f what a conventional employee would cost.
The trade deals in the pipeline hope to vastly expand tis kind of international trade in services. its not slavery, everything is legal. They are not prisoners. Just people desperate for jobs. they have families to feed.
Read up on trade in services. Its really popular in the Middle East.
Corporations push these secret trade deals because its more profitable to pay somebody $50 a day than a few hundred or even thousand, especially if they have an advanced degree.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)The kind of classic example of that is, e.g., Marriott likes to train its staff at its five-stars all over the world, so a concierge from Vienna might do a year in New York, or whatever. It definitely needs to be watched, but it's not even remotely the numbers or the dangers that the H visa system has proven itself to be.
Ironically, H-2A visas, for agricultural guest workers, at least on paper look like they would be more exploitable than H-1B visas, but that doesn't really seem to be the case in the end; and for that matter there's generally a shortfall of applicants for H-2's every year.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)I worked in a hotel like that once..
It was a fun job and lots of great food to eat, free food..
I nver ate so much rich stuff..
Soooo.
Basically, services are around 70% of all jobs, everything you cannot drop on your foot.
And yes, they would be skilled jobs. These deals are fabulous opportunities for people rich, job poor countries like Bangladesh. For example, Bengladeshi nurses.
This paper which you can find on Google Scholar, is an outline of TiSA
A Plurilateral Agenda for Services?
Assessing the case for a Trade in
Services Agreement (TISA)
Pierre Sauvé*
Abstract
This paper explores a number of procedural and substantive considerations arising from ongoing attempts to
craft a plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) among the so-called “Really Good Friends of
Services” coalition of WTO Members. The paper suggests that considerable scope exists to move forward
a multilateral negotiating agenda on services that both the digital revolution and a continued surge of
preferential rule-making has rendered increasingly obsolete. As the most significant attempt to date to craft
a GATS Article V-compatible PTA in services, TISA offers considerable promise. The paper, however,
cautions that the case for embedding TISA into the architecture of WTO rules alongside the General
Agreement on Trade in Services or in its place is weak on both procedural and substantive grounds to
the extent that the ongoing talks take place behind doors that remain closed even to the WTO Secretariat,
let alone to many of the world’s leading developing country suppliers of services, and involve potentially
significant departures from GATS rules liable to complicate any hoped for multilateral migratory journey.
Key words: WTO, GATS, trade in services, plurilateral agreements, critical mass negotiations, preferential
trade liberalization.
----
Here is a basic outline of how its seen by neoliberal economics. Notice the use of the key phrase "efficiency"
For a deeper understanding of how migration could equalize the price of labour in two trading
countries, consider figure one (from Senior Nello, 2005:145): There are two countries, Home
and Foreign. The total quantity of labour in the two countries is shown by the distance OhOf.
Before a fully free migration is allowed the distribution of labor is OhL in Home and OfL in
Foreign. The marginal product of labour is higher in Home than in foreign because the
capital/labor ratio is higher in Home. This is shown in the figure by the higher position of the
MPLh curve compared to the MPLf curve. Because of this the wage is higher in Home, at Wh
compared with the wage in Foreign at Wf. In short: Home symbolizes a developed country with
high automatization and high wages and Foreign a less developed country with abundant supply
of labour, low automatization and low wages. If migration is fully free between the two
countries and the workers are identical workers will migrate from Foreign to Home in pursuit of
higher wages. The migration will finally result in an equalized capital/labor ratio in the two
countries and thus equal marginal products of labor and equal wages, illustrated in the figure by
the wage level W' which could be seen as the world market price of labor as the world only
consists of the two countries Home and Foreign. The migration is illustrated in the figure by the
distance LL' which is the amount of workers that will move from Foreign to Home so that the
new distribution of labour becomes OhL' in Home and L'Of in Foreign.
Wages will thus decrease in Home and increase in Foreign resulting in a loss for the indigenous
workers in Home illustrated in the figure by the area a but a gain for the capital owners of the
areas a+b. In Foreign the workers get an increased income of areas c+d+e while the capital
6
owners lose areas d+e. The result in total is a net gain for the two countries by areas b+c which
is a gain resulting from higher efficiency in the use of the total resources of the two countries.
"efficiency" seems to mean "more money is made, and it doesnt mater how".
i.e. it can be a suaage factory but as long as the already rich make more money, everything is justified,
In other words, its okay to break promises and lie now. Thats a core part of neoliberalism, the neverending dishonesty to start these deals and once started they can never be stopped.
Even dissolution of a country doesnt stop them. Presidential elections or national laws of any kind are totally irrelevant. Otherwise what would be the point.
The point I am making is that even God wont be able to help us if these things pass. These L1 visas will explode into the millions.
The lure of all that money to be made in these times will literally make it happen. Corruption is very powerful. Lots and lots of effort has gone into setting this up. 20 years of work.
Its likely that the whole health care scheme was all for this so that we would let them do it. After all, people will be desperate for health care when Obamacare is too expensive right, and single payer is GATS illegal *Uh cough* "politically infeasable" he heh..
Its an emergency, a natioal emergency, thats what they will say. But the fact is its been planned for a long time bt they couldnt do it without the jobs as bait. Now with FAst Track they can put millions of jobs on the table. Using the GATS Article I:3 (b) and (c) test.
Obama built his career in Chicago on exactly this kind of thing.
https://bigham.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/the-late-robert-fitch-on-obama-the-change-they-believe-in/
Cases in investor state disputes are supranational so even if the US were to dissolve int states the companie would still have a right to do business here forever and ever and ever.
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=18904f5a-1dc3-48c1-8d8d-177da064a50b
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Every time a foreign student comes to college in the US, for instance, is a service export.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Does that mean the whole planet should be illiterate by mid century ?
"what's the point of educating them if they arent making me rich" ?
Or "It will only give people unrealistic expectations!" (Two opinions I have argued over with people I thought were fellow Dems
The point is- we have never needed public higher education more than we do now, Same with healthcare.. Because as I said, the job as we know it was largely a creature of the labor-scarce 20th century.
By midcentury, scientists are predicting, machines will do all the work.
See http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/ru-wmc021016.php
We have to grow up.
Grow beyond our current narrow kind of thinking.
Otherwise, none of the future scientists we need would even make it to grad school. As nobody will have an income, outside of the shrinking numbers of ultra rich. People will be ultra rich or ultra poor, no in between.
Frankly, the world would probably not survive, because of wars for the right to drink water and breathe air. Some people want to privatize water, claiming its the "white gold" of the21st century. Another big mistake.
Can you imagine seeing the President on TV saying "we're sorry, our Ponzi scheme collapsed and we have to give all of your water to Absurdistan" Good luck!
8 track mind
(1,638 posts)Is the $64,000 question.
Bluestar
(1,400 posts)it needs to be fixed. Indian companies like Tata and Infosys base their entire business model on HIB and they (and tech management) have been screwing American workers for years.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)[link:http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/a_pulled_scoop_shows_us_booste.php|A Pulled Scoop Shows U.S. Fought to Keep Haitian Wages Down
]
"Two years ago, Haiti unanimously passed a law sharply raising its minimum wage to 61 cents an hour. That doesn’t sound like much (and it isn’t), but it was two and a half times the then-minimum of 24 cents an hour.
This infuriated contractors for (UPDATE: I originally wrote that the companies themselves did this here, but The Nation wrote that it was contractors for the companies, so I’ve added “contractors for” here) American corporations like Hanes and Levi Strauss that pay Haitians slave wages to sew their clothes. They said they would only fork over a seven-cent-an-hour increase, and they got the State Department involved. The U.S. ambassador put pressure on Haiti’s president, who duly carved out a $3 a day minimum wage for textile companies (the U.S. minimum wage, which itself is very low, works out to $58 a day).
The Nation:
Still the US Embassy wasn’t pleased. A deputy chief of mission, David E. Lindwall, said the $5 per day minimum “did not take economic reality into account” but was a populist measure aimed at appealing to “the unemployed and underpaid masses.”
--------
Around fifteen years ago the US supported the WTO nullifying the wishes of the whole country of El Salvador which had just come out of decades of US supported right wing dictatorships and death squads, when they finally had a democratic government that wasnt a tool of the US, they voted to raise a 36 cent an hour minimum wage to 60 cents. Not so fst, they had signed a trade deal a few months earlier.. the WTO nipped that one in the bud.
Thats what America stands for right there. Low wages and coercive trade policy. Didn't you all get the memo?
And the there is this little business.
We should all become better informed on these things..
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Also, what would happen if all those people had to go home and clean up corruption instead of being sent oversea away from their families?
Wouldnt that be better for both countries?
It seems to me that business leaders - who often have no clue as to what really keeps their companies profitable technically (unfortunately those are the jobs consultants tell them to outsource) are doing their best to negate the importance of technical literacy in our society.
They want their syncophants in "government" to abuse the rapidly vanishing trust wrongly placed in them by our own people so that the vlue of investment people make in their skills is captured by others in the prime of teir working lives, leaving them nothing.
For every self taught engineer who makes >$150,000 a year (comparing them to Congresspeople is not meaningful because they dont get bribes) there are probably 50 midlevel systadmins making maybe $60k a year who also are going to lose their jobs. They are the people who keep companies going. They are the ones who literally solve 9 out of 10 technical problems - No amount of just graduated college students are going to replace them, no matter how many degrees they have, they just dont have practical real life experience.
The economists whine about "the holdout problem" in eminent domain (people asking for the value that they need to get for their homes in order to stay in their communities when a city attempts to take their neighborhood and give it to some favored developer, often because of bribery.)
But they made the INVESTMENT in their homes, they predicted that that area would increase in value, why arent they treated as if they were any other INVESTOR and their rights respected?
The same things with skills. Otherwise we all should just pack up now and move somewhere else where peoples rights are respected.
The politicians of both countries are trying to hide their own ineptitude.
As real jobs dry up, we're seeing more and more CHURNING. Thats what all this is, churning, its a parasitic activity by greedy, narcisssistic politicians, with exaggerated views of their own importance, many of whom have no clue about what the people whose lives they are ruining ae all about, all they care is that some campaign contributor wants them to make less or no money when they have worked their whole lives to build up the skills they have.
Its time for incumbents to step aside! In both India and here.
Imagien after TiSA, and cross broder data flows, etc, millions of Indians are going to have to reverse their wake and sleeping schedule and work entirely at night. So they can virtually "be"the back office employees of companies in the USA. Thats very very unhealthy.
Complete automation would likely be better. Then those Indians could get real skills that would carry them into the 21st century and not become trapped in office work which is a dead end street.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Drip. Drip. Drip.
I can still see in my head those pictures of Clinton with her Tata and Infosys friends. Just like all the Republicans, too.
They're steadily turning the U.S. into just another a Central/South American country.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Don't be fooled by the crocodile tears. Big changes are coming with TiSA deal.
SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)It is "We the People" that have allowed this by voting third way.
No More
Baobab
(4,667 posts)They laugh at us all behind their backs over drinks with their lobbyist pals after each performance.
"Divide and conquer"
Seriously.
You know how they figure out what positions to take? Its not common sense, thats for sure.
"Shifting the Overton window"
I think I started to wake up a few years ago when a friend in advertising told me that their industry was all agaga about some paper about robotic cockroaches influencing real cockroach behavior and that that information was driving millions and millions of lobbyists spending on fake bloggers. Millions a day.
Thats what our 'democracy' has become now. A made for TV parody of itself.
christx30
(6,241 posts)to do this? HB-1 visas are for when a company is unable to find qualified workers in the country, and has to go overseas to find someone to fill that gap. Since they are laying off people, and forcing them to train their replacements, that requirement isn't being met. These guest workers need to be deported, and the American workers reinstated.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Its done by means of the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, see this Power Point - In the US these would be L1, not H1B visas-
See "Necessity Tests" https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/workshop_march04_e/sess2_dale_e.ppt
See this also: "Conflicts between US immigration law and GATS MFN obligation"
>*"to do this? HB-1 visas are for when a company is unable to find qualified workers in the country, and has to go overseas to find someone to fill that gap. Since they are laying off people, and forcing them to train their replacements, that requirement isn't being met. These guest workers need to be deported, and the American workers reinstated. "*
They are here legally, filling those jobs because they won competitive bidding. The WTO to ensure that Members have a level playing field has been establishing:
https://www.google.com/search?q=disciplines+on+domestic+regulation
Low wages are their competitive advantage. Once a treaty is signed their corporations get a legal right to perform the work (Google "national treatment" "most favored nation" and so on )
This is the new freedom from discrimination. The old kind of rule against racial or sex discrimination may even now be deemed to be "discrimination" if it restricts trade.. everything is reversed.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)Jobs are posted saying "H-1B".
All they have to do is file a statement saying there is a labor shortage.
Here's a research report done for the Boston Fed:
http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/neppc/policyreports/2014/neppcpr1401.pdf
Baobab
(4,667 posts)there wont be wage parity (need to pay US wages such as a prevailing wage, however its possible that the higher of the two countries minimum wages may apply, although proposals for that kind of wage parity are controversial because its argued by the developing countries that minimum wages are put in place as a trade barrier to keep their firms who would be entitled to perform a contract by being the winning low bidders, out. ) , or economic needs tests (for example, needing to certify that there were no citizens of the nation who could do the job, that will be forbidden), nor will there be necessity tests (basically similar to economic needs tests) also the amount of workers wont be under national control (countries will have to issue the visas, also any other regulation that has the effect of reducing services trade will be challenge-able) , it will be an entitlement to international firms that are the lowest qualified bidders.
For the developing country arguments for expanded cross border trade in services see http://tradeinservices.net generally.
The three trade deals all endorse a set of "disciplines on domestic regulation" that prioritize the granting of special permissions to international businesses which are intended to push wages down to international norms to maximize the value in the Supply chains" (basically increase profits to an optimal level completely disregarding the losses to the indigenous workers in the developed country, The deals basically assert something like "money is everything" in order to eliminate any residual 20th century legal expectations that money is not everything, for example, these deals consistently avoid any moral considerations besides ones that make it clearer that considerations of what is right and what is wrong should strictly enforce whatever is best for large corporate interests and international investors and disregard all else.
Since the concept of living wages is separate from the concept of supply and demand the deals endorse supply and demand in every possible situation. The concept of living wages or sustainability is alien to the ideology immprtalized permanently in these "agreements".
WTO - GATS was the beginning, in 1995, now three new huge trade deals will basically lock down the future and legitimize further radical "progressive liberalisation" .
Link: the following is a well written essay from Canada about TPP and Canadian health care but from it a lot of non-country specific information can be inferred. DONT EXPECT TO SEE ANYTHING LIKE THIS IN THE US, it wont happen. news on these deals is being deleted from web sites as quickly as it appears.
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2016/02/Major_Complications.pdf
Basically, this has been cooking for more than 20 years, ever since GATS in 1995, trade deals that are swapping service jobs for services concessions.
See
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/global/06955.pdf
http://www.tilj.org/content/journal/42/num1/Worster55.pdf
TiSA is the successor/addition to GATS- In order to put what will eventually be millions of currently stable, mostly public sector jobs on the bargaining table crises had to be created, so they did. Without other people's jobs to put on the table, they complained for a long time that they did not have enough "water" (trade deal leverage to extract the favorable terms they wanted) , in other words, leverage with developing countries like India that are expected to continue growing for at least another five or ten years as automation there catches up with the developed countries.
You may also want to read about GATS, the WTO India and the ending of the right to educatiin there, and what they want in return.
Read up on the proposed Trade Facilitation Agreement on Services.
Note that all of these trade deals once enacted preempt Presidential orders, and Federal, state and local laws, operatiung on the supranational corporations v. nations level..
WilmywoodNCparalegal
(2,654 posts)and the Republicans are obviously using ignorance about a visa that is highly complex to their advantage, coupled with taking advantage of former workers.
As an immigration professional and as an immigrant, it offends me that DU has fell for this Republican ploy hook, line and sinker. The facts are more complex.
Firstly, the majority of these workers - which do not work for Disney but for a vendor of Disney's - are not on H-1B visas, but on L-1B visas.
Unlike H-1B visas, L-1B visas do not have any prevailing wage requirement (something the H-1B does have); do not have a minimum of bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent requirement (which the H-1B does have); do not require a petitioner/employer to post the wages for the job offered in public spaces through something known as LCA - Labor Condition Application (something the H-1B does have); and so on.
While the H-1B visa program is not perfect, it is not the evil that is portrayed to be. In fact, most H-1B workers (over 75% according to some statistics) remain in the U.S. permanently becoming permanent residents (i.e.: getting green cards) and eventually U.S. citizens.
Most H-1B workers build lives in the U.S. and contribute greatly to the economy. Many H-1B workers have founded start-ups and businesses of all kinds.
Many research institutions and universities would not last long without H-1B researchers. H-1B workers are not just found in IT - they are accountants, teachers, professors, architects, translators/interpreters, and so on.
Ethical employers use the prevailing wage that is freely available online from the Department of Labor. H-1B regulations require that the compensation offered to the foreign national must be equal to or above the prevailing wage for the geographical location or locations where the foreign national will work.
This information has to be posted in two public spaces where the individual will work. This form, which is issued by the DOL, is known as the LCA. On the LCA, there are phone numbers and e-mail addresses where people can report any violation and/or fraud they see.
Moreover, these LCAs are public and you can search through them on the DOL website. Employers who do not follow these regulations (among others) are prosecuted severely.
Is it a perfect visa? Of course not. Is it the evil that ComputerWorld and the Republicans make it out to be? Absolutely not.
I used to post much more on DU, especially on immigration topics. But that was when DU still had members who could be engaged in discussions without harassing those with different opinions or knowledge.
I would only hope that you look at facts, educate yourself on the various types of visas that exist, and stop demonizing immigrants - who are often highly skilled or extraordinary individuals.
The bigger irony is that those who come to the U.S. perhaps without inspection (a/k/a 'illegally') to do non-skilled or low-skilled work often using fraudulent documentation are ok for some on DU. Whereas those who come to the U.S. with inspection on visas for highly skilled and extraordinary or outstanding ability - most of whom will end up becoming U.S. citizens - are unwelcomed.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)H1B are a diversion. The 'cover story' to hide the trade deal visas.
Did you read my post?
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Its a fake manufactured "crisis" created by them.
Its like that with health care too. The crisis was so they could "solve" it by throwing the nations health care professionals out of their jobs and keep the insurance companies who because they are denying care and creating teirs, make the system unworkable. To preserve the broken system they have lied their way into a deep hole, and feel compelled to lie their way out of it.
This all started with GATS which tries to future proof the future, like some six year old would do.
KT2000
(20,581 posts)MH1
(17,600 posts)I work in IT and see the H-1B (YES, H-1B) situation up close.
That "foreign equivalent" is complete, total, steaming bullshit if you ask me.
I have seen people with alleged "master" degree from some "school" in India that don't know the most basic things that degree should encompass.
For all I know these degrees are given to the people from sending in a check to the address on the inside of a matchbook cover. For their knowledge of fundamentals, it might as well be.
Speaking of work, I have to go back to it. Maybe later I'll address a few other "misconceptions" about the H-1B visa program.
Disclaimer: I have met some foreign workers who are VERY good, and certainly decent people. My objection to the current state of the H-1B program is due to its misuse and abuse that results in reduced opportunities for Americans. NOT because I have anything against the individuals from specific countries. (Although, as with any group of people, there are certainly some assholes in the mix.)
they have a VERY loose definition of the word TALENTED or QUALIFIED
OhioChick
(23,218 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016145056
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)also why our gov won't raise the federal minimum wage because the foreign visa workers have to be paid the federal minimum.
Every resort out there used to hire local employees, especially for summer seasonal work & work in the lower medical fields and today the hiring trend is opposite.
Phlem
(6,323 posts)It's been going on foe quite a while.
Been talking about it for quite a while.
Nothing has changed and will get worse with Clinton, Guaranteed.
Why has no one clued into this?
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)Phlem
(6,323 posts)There was tech outsourcing going on During NAFTA to top it all off. There was a great article here about it that I'll post if I can fin it.
Here's one during the time.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=336767&mesg_id=336797
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)hollysmom
(5,946 posts)I monitored all projects over 2 million dollars and a lot of the staffing was on these projects, so i prepared a power point presentation for the president of my division, which he would not watch. he asked for the summary.
Summary: US employees cost 90 an hour (including benefits), the imported workers cost 30 an hour. The US workers produce 5 times the amount of work. Many US employees had to redo the work of the outsourced workers. (they did not know the language, by the times they became proficient, their company switched them out).
but he told me it didn't matter, because the company got huge tax breaks for creating new work/jobs and did not get hurt for ending some jobs with massive layoffs. They defined the rework of the system of new work when it was really just remodelling,so to speak. They were just changing the platform from mainframe to UNIX, it was the same system written the same poor way and poor design.
H1B is an excellent idea if it were used as it was meant to be used, to bring in teachers, not to take jobs and undercut salaries
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Hillary has supported the outsourcing and exportation of jobs. She supports H1-B visas.
For that reason alone, I do not understand how any American can support her.
H1-B visas and "free" trade are killing our economy and destroying our country.
If you think I am wrong, I assure you, you will learn too late just how right I am.
Disney is to be a major beneficiary of the TPP.
If the TPP passes, it will be like rewarding Disney for throwing away American jobs and hiring cheaper H1-B visa holders.
The result of this trend in our economy will be disastrous. If you think Flint is bad, wait until Flints pop up everywhere.
When we can no longer afford the infrastructure that keeps us and our children healthy, you will know that companies like Disney have had their way and destroyed our job market, our economy and our country.
Disney is just one of many greedy companies to abandon American workers to a fate of poverty.
Vote for Hillary, and this is the future you are voting for. Hillary has supported H1-B visas and strongly. She may deny it now, but don't believe her for a minute.