Joe Biden’s administration has put an 18-month delay on a proposed pay increase for Indian IT workers in the US, reversing a Trump administration executive order that significantly boosted their wages.
The decision will freeze H1-B workers wages at the 17th percentile of their profession’s distribution, compared to the 45th percentile that Trump secured. This was a huge bump in pay that many Visa workers eagerly anticipated.
“This wasn’t all about us having bigger paychecks. It was an acknowledgement that we were more than just a shadow workforce with no rights,” said Ravi, a Stamford-based IT workers who was afraid to give his full name for fear of ending up on NASSCOM’s black list. “Finally, we were getting the respect that we deserve.”
The Department of Labor’s decision came, despite Biden’s promise for America to become a beacon of hope for immigrants from all over the world. The aging Democrat, whose leads a political party that claims to represent the average working person, appears to have caved to businesses that have made billions exploiting Indian workers.
You’ll find out how 200 low-caste workers were brought over from India by a religious group to build a massive marble temple – all for $1.20/hour! Most of the time, they were forced to work 12-hour days and 7 days a week.
Some might ask themselves: “This is the greatest country in the world … How could this happen here?”
The mainstream media has become lap dogs to Big Tech and the pharmaceutical companies. But some days, a voice representing hundreds of thousands of minority college graduates in the United States is allowed to shine through.
Pedro Gonzalez, an editor at Newsweek, wrote a blistering critique of the US visa system, calling it “morally and ethically wrong” and a program that “systematically discriminates against American citizens while exploiting foreign workers, resulting in an upward wealth transfer”
Wow!
I am absolutely blown away by Mr. Gonzalez’s writing! Not only does he get it, he breaks it down into simple terms. Our immigration system only benefits the richest 1% of our country. And it leaves the rest of us in America to scramble and fight against each other for rapidly dwindling opportunities.
“The perpetuation of the immigration status quo is morally unjustifiable, and virtually every argument for maintaining it melts away in light of the relevant facts. For example, there is no critical labor shortage justifying the mass import of visa workers demanded by the tech industry and its allies,” Mr. Gonzalez wrote.
We believe this young man has a very bright future ahead of him and we will be following his career.
You have to read the story (click on the link above)! He nails all the right points and paints a bleak picture for our country if status quo remains …
“Young college graduates are waking up to one of the worst job markets in recent history after already having borne the brunt of the COVID-19 economy. Employers have little reason to invest in training them—or even hiring them, in the first instance—when there is a steady flow of cheaper guest workers available,” Mr. Gonzalez wrote
Are you listening Governor Lamont? Young minorities in CT have mortgaged their future to attend college – and your sweet deals with the likes of Infosys are slamming the door shut on their future.
Ms. Rosenthal showed in graphic terms how this Visa program ballooned since 2008 and how it is now more popular with Corporate American than the H1-B program.
So many more people have heard of the H-1B but they are not familiar with OPT. Everyone should know that there is no minimum wage requirement for workers in the OPT program.
Sit back and think about that for a moment. NO MINIMUM WAGE REQUIREMENT!
Workers in this program are more like indentured servants than they are human beings with dignity and rights endowed by our creator. They often work 12-14 hour days for years, in the hopes that their employer will sponsor them for an H-1B visa.
Is America still “the land of the Free?”
The presence of a workforce like this suppresses wages and limits job oportunites for Americans.
“(In 2018) the U.S. had between 96,000 and 143,000 openings in IT occupations that typically went to candidates with a bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science or engineering, they found. So, OPT participants accounted for anywhere from one-third to one-half of new hires. If you add H-1B candidates, up to two-thirds of openings went to guest workers,” Ms. Rosenthal wrote.
These numbers are probably much worse in our current Covid recession.
All of this shows how messed up our immigration system. The companies who benefit from this massive influx of cheap labor can’t even make sure their workplaces follow US workplace laws.
Mahatma Gandhi fought to eradicate the caste system in India. It was a terribly unjust system that subjected millions to abject poverty. Membership in a caste determined your outcome in life.
America has always prided itself on being a place where any person can be successful, no matter your familial background or circumstances.
We should not tolerate caste systems in our country. And we should do everything we can to penalize the institutions that enable them. If Big Tech can’t ensure that every human being working for them is being treated fairly – under American workplace rules – they shouldn’t be granted any Visas.
We just barely got over celebrating the fact that Indian IT workers in the US would be getting paid like their American counterparts when we got word of a wave of lawsuits being filed against the DHS and DOL for making this happen.
But we didn’t think the backlash would be so quick – and so severe.
No less than three separate lawsuits have been filed in US courts to protest the rule changes in just the last couple of weeks – and more are expected.
The fact that this litigation was mobilized so quickly can mean only one thing: these companies would rather pay a whole army of lawyers to win this case – and prop up a system that exploits foreign workers and displaces Americans in the workplace – than simply pay people what they’re worth.
For years, those who fought back against our broken immigration system were dismissed as racists. But, just as equal pay was finally codified, Big Tech started crying foul.
Many who have been fighting against the abuse of foreign workers in the US initially looked to the Democratic party for help on this issue – but they’ve been disappointed again and again.
US Techworkers (USTW) is credited with being the major force in helping to right the wrongs of our current immigration system – and making them known to Trump. They stood up and fought back, after seeing so many American IT workers sent to the unemployment lines.
If you’ve witnessed – or have been a victim of – the abuses of the exploitation, fraud, discrimination, and displacement wrought by the H1-B visa program, click the link above. US Techworkers wants to hear your story.
Over the next couple of months, they will compile these stories and present them to the judges presiding over these lawsuits.
“Join us by becoming witness to the abuses you encountered on the job or in search of work. When you step forward now and join us in beating back the lawsuits, we have a good chance to win and win big!,” wrote Kevin Lynn, Founder of US Techworkers.
Under new rules outlined by the Department of Labor and Homeland Security, Visa workers in the US will get a significant bump in pay and put them in the same ballpark as American workers.
“Under the new rule, the required wage level for entry-level workers would rise to the 45th percentile of their profession’s distribution, from the current requirement of the 17th percentile. The requirement for the highest-skilled workers would rise to the 95th percentile, from the 67th percentile,” according to a recent Washington Post story.
And it appears that what’s good for Indian workers will also be good for American workers too. The change will leave American companies with no motivation to replace US IT workers with foreign workers, simply on the basis of cost.
“We have entered an era in which economic security is an integral part of homeland security. Put simply, economic security is homeland security. In response, we must do everything we can within the bounds of the law to make sure the American worker is put first,” said Acting Secretary Chad Wolf.
This is great news for American workers, as the country struggles with the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression.
But with workers on both sides winning out in this new deal, it was only a matter of time before some in Washington tried to have it nixed
“While most Americans hail the White House’s action to improve U.S. workers’ standards of living, the usual suspects – immigration lawyers and advocacy lobbies – went ballistic, and threatened legal action, wrote Joe Guzzardi in a recent US Techworker article.
Perhaps it’s an irony that it took a Republican like President Trump to usher in changes that help average workers. After all, this is something the Democratic party used to champion.
But there is no denying that Trump has proven himself a friend of the American workers and gave props to him before the upcoming election.
“Three decades of U.S. worker displacement is an injustice that President Trump wants to end.”
US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that will STOP outsourcing of US government jobs to foreign workers. He also fired an executive that has recently been trying to send hundreds of employees of the Tennessee Valley Authority to the unemployment lines.
“So, let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board. If you betray American workers, then you will hear two simple words ‘you’re fired. You’re fired.”
Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump and US Techworkers Founder Kevin Lynn
The scene at the Cabinet Room of the White House Monday morning was a huge victory for US Techworkers Founder Kevin Lynn, who had been working with IT workers at the TVA to fight for their jobs. The TVA sent notices to hundreds in June, saying their time at the company was over … And, to add insult to injury, they were expected to train their foreign replacements on their way out. (Sounds familiar, right?)
What eventually moved Trump to act was a television ad Kevin placed on Fox News during prime time (see below). Trump viewed it and became lived after seeing TVA CEO Jeff Lyash’s $8 million salary. Trump became even more incensed when he heard that hundreds were going to lose their jobs – through no fault of their own – during the Covid 19 pandemic.
“If the TVA does not move swiftly to reverse their decision to rehire their workers then more board members will be removed”, Trump said.
Many of you have already met Kevin. He attended our Hartford rally in January of 2019 and has been a big supporter of our group ever since.
Kevin attended the signing of the Executive Order with some of the TVA workers who, up until today, thought they were going to be jobless. They thanked the President for having the courage to act in favor of American workers.
“I’m shaking right now,” said one worker, who mentioned that his wife was pregnant. “I really appreciate this!”
The TVA is a federally owned corporation created in 1933 to provide flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region that was hard hit by the Great Depression. The region covers most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky as well as small sections of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
The success of the TVA IT workers is mainly due to their decision to join together to fight. Sadly, many IT workers never fight back against being replaced with foreign workers. They take the severance package and walk into unemployment and uncertain future alone.
But the TVA workers had the courage to reach out and form a coalition. I spoke with Kevin and he said the workers did everything they could to bolster’s each other’s spirits during the fight.
“This was a true team effort,” Kevin said. “If each of these workers tried to fight this along, we’d see a lot of people filing for unemployment now.”
The victory proves the effectiveness of the US Techworkers organization – and their ability to deliver victories for workers.
If you are an American workers and you believe you will be replaced by a foreign worker, you should really reach out to US Techworkers. Every call is confidential and all you need is the courage to speak up!!
As Black Lives Matter protests rage across the state and country, Governor Ned Lamont continues to support policies that oppress American minorities in the workplace.
Lamont has asked for a special session in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. But even if changes are made in our state’s justice system, things won’t change for CT minorities in STEM occupations.
An interesting offshoot of the Black Lives Matter protests has been the #shutdownstemmovement . It aims to fight systemic racism in the field and, among other things, change hiring practices.
Even before American companies started to ramp up the use of male Visa workers from India in their IT departments, American women and minorities were woefully under-represented in this field.
It’s really a shameful waste, because minority STEM workers are some of the most innovative and skillful programmers and security professionals in the game. But they continually get passed up for job opportunities and venture capital money.
And this has become a big deal, as a pandemic-fueled recession has raised the unemployment rate to a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
And while all this is going on, an India-based IT outsourcing firm (Infosys) is raking in millions in CT taxpayer funds, as they stack their Hartford offices with workers from India. Infosys will get $18M over the next several years if they hire over 2,000 people in Hartford. But Gov. Lamont did not insist on contract language that would require the hiring of Americans.
So, as workers in Connecticut contemplate the possibility of long-term unemployment, more and more foreign workers enter the state – and it’s all being sponsored with tax dollars.
While Infosys denies the widespread use of foreign workers, they refuse to publicly reveal the Amercan vs. non-American breakdown of their workforce.
This is not surprising to us. Our sources are telling us that they are hiring mostly foreign workers who hold OPT, L-1 and B-1 Visas.
This fits a pattern of the company’s past practices. They have an absolutely horrendous record of hiring Americans. Their offices in America are largely staffed by Indians . In fact, they paid a $34M fine for rigging the Visa system to bring in even more foreign workers.
With a track record like this, you’d have to wonder why state leaders would encourage Infosys to set up shop in CT. But Ned Lamont – before he became governor – was one of the architects of the deal! He sold Infosys on the idea of coming to Hartford – and later bragged about it on the campaign trail, offering it up as evidence of his business acumen.
US Techworkers, a group that advocates for the rights of American tech professionalis, has well documented this phenomenon and is actively lobbying our leaders in our nation’s capital. Most recently, they’ve been instrumental in blocking the passage of recent legislation that would award India nearly all Green Cards issued by our country over the next 10 years. They’ve also debunked the myth – a skills shortage – that has been the excuse for bringing in more and more foreign workers.
Eric Weinstein, Managing Partner of Thiel Capital, has been railing against the discrimination of Americans in STEM for years. He believes Visa programs should be shut down immediately and the myth of a worker shortage is a “sham.”
We’ll end this piece by asking Governor Lamont one simple question: Do black lives matter in hiring?
The Coronavirus has taken its toll on the health of our nation – and our economy.
Just last week, a record 3.2 million peoplefiled for unemployment benefits as businesses struggled under the stay-at-home order issued by most state governments. No less than five of my techie friends got pink slips and had to turn in their laptops.
This development comes at a time of year when the federal government announces the latest round of 85,000 new foreign workers who score H-1B Visas from a lottery conducted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is scheduled to happen on Wednesday, April 1st and its the most highly anticipated day on the calendar for the India-based IT outsourcing firms that have displaced Americans by the millions.
Each H1-B visa recipient gets to stay in the country for a term of three years – but this can be extended to an indefinite time period if they are awaiting approvals on a Green Card application. At least one news source says there are over 800,000 workers in this cue.
So, combined with new H-1Bs being awarded and the foreing workers waiting for Green Cards, that makes over 1 million foreign workers in our country doing jobs Americans can do.
In light of all the hardship American workers will have to endure over the coming months and years, we will be joining US Techworkers in writing members of Congress to suspend this year’s H-1B Visa lottery. It just doesn’t make any sense to be bringing in any more foreign workers when so many of our brothers and sisters are out of work at this time.
If you’ve lost your job – or you’ve seen any of your family or friends lose their jobs over the last week – I encourage you to join us in this letter-writing campaign. Besides, with this ongoing quarantine in place, it’s not as if you don’t have the time!
Unless we say something to our elected representatives, they won’t know the pain we are all feeling. And, unless we reach out to them, they won’t necessarily know the backlash they will face if they support the rights of foreign workers over those of American citizens. It’s crazy they don’t know what we are all going through, despite the stories in the mainstream media.
It was unfortunate that just last week that, one draft of the Coronavirus relief legislation considered by Congress included language that would have automatically renewed H-1B Visas for tens of thousands of foreign workers. Fortunately, after a letter-writing campaign led by legendary activists Steve Pushor, Roger Ross and Kevin Lynn, this was deleted from the final version of the bill.
It’s true. American workers face a bleak outlook. The country has never shut down like this before and there are likely thousand upon thousands of new job cuts coming. We ask you to join us in contacting our elected representatives in Washington, DC.
This link has all the contact info for your CT senators and congressmen.
Still hurting from the recent impeachment attempt, President Trump rarely grants face time to Democrat governors. But, when a very tiny window of opportunity opened for our CT Governor, Ned Lamont made sure to beg for more H-1B Visa workers.
Speaking on WTIC, Lamont recounted his “18-second” meeting with Trump, in which he pushed for even more immigrant workers.
Lamont could have taken the time to speak to Trump about anything … How to bring jobs back to CT … How to attack the opiate crisis … How to solve our state budget deficits … The list goes on and on.
But, instead, he chose to speak to the President about what is apparently is most important to him – advocating for the rights of foreign workers.
The full interview can be heard here on the February 13th edition of the Ray and Joe D: Ask The Governor show. The sound clip above takes place at 41:20 of the show.
Lamont is the architect of the deal that brought Infosys to Hartford. On the campaign trail for Governor, Lamont bragged that it would bring 2,000 jobs to the Hartford area – at a cost of $14M to the state. But the Governor has never promised those jobs would go to citizens of CT – or even US citizens.
