We hadn’t finished congratulating each other on winning the latest round in the battle of Senate Bill S386 when we started seeing encouraging news about our “loyal opposition” in this fight.
It appears Immigration Voice (IV), the group that spent up to $70 million to get this legislation passed, may be looking to fire their lobbyist Leon Fresco, the guy in DC who had done more for them than any other lobbyist.
It all played out in one Facebook post, where the group grills Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) for objecting to S386, saying that his action was unfair to their members, who have been working at jobs in the US for years.
The lengthy facebook rant continues … “We will find other advocates/lobbyists and we will find another General Counsel, if that is what it comes down to.”
Why am I mentioning this?
For years, American tech workers sat on the sidelines and did a lot of complaining – but they failed to take part in the democratic process. It’s often been said that watching a bill move through Congress is a little bit like watching sausage being made. It’s not pretty – but that’s the system we have.
Our democracy depends on people standing up and speaking their truth. And our relatively small group of people made their voices heard in the last week of September – and we were able to stop this bill.
An added bonus of our decision to stand up and fight – our enemies are fighting with each other!
It was all almost too easy. We just had to decide join together and work in a unified way.
Let’s be clear … We don’t wish the Indians working in the US on Visas bad fortune. Most of the people we’ve met are kind, intelligent and empathetic. Still, they have to realize they are participating in a job market where the IT oligarchs have pit them against US workers and workers from other countries around the world. As long as they can force us all to compete for jobs here in America, wages have nowhere to go but down. You can almost hear people like Jeff Bezos laughing themselves silly while we bicker over this bill.
This country was once known as a place where workers got a fair deal. We had a thriving middle class and there were workplace rules that allowed parents to go home after putting in 8 hours and spend time with their kids, coach a sports team or lead a Cub Scout troop. The rest of the world looked to us on what life could be like for average people.
People like Bezos don’t want it this way. It interferes with their stock price – and their personal fortunes. They’d rather have us at our desks churning out code 12 hours a day.
I invite the people of Immigration Voice to join us in our fight. None of us are opposed to immigration. It’s a healthy part of any thriving nation. Let’s work together to create an immigration system that works for everyone!
Note: the fight is not over on S386, although some are saying that this bill is doomed, others are saying they will try to sneak this into the Department of Homeland Security’s funding bill later this year. US Techworkers will continue to lead this fight – but they need your help! Please consider making a recurring donation to them, so they can continue educating our leaders on how bills like S386 and others negatively impact American workers.