Slashdot Mirror
Sun Sued Over H1-B Workers
heli0 writes "The Boston Globe is reporting: 'A lawsuit filed yesterday in California alleges computer giant Sun Microsystems Inc. laid off thousands of American high-tech workers in order to replace them with younger, lower-paid engineers from India.' Could this be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back?"
Low wages are not, those damned Indians will just use it to build more casinos...
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
The problem is that the corporations have been using every tactic to keep unions out of the skilled engineering field. Employees are fed propoganda that unions are counter-productive and that employees already have the benefits that unions have historically fought for for decades (health insurance, disability insurance, vacation time, retirement funds, etc). Corporations screen applicants for any history of union activities (there is no law against discriminating against union activists). If a union drive is detected, corporations will move to stifle it swiftly, even to the point of using any reason to dismiss the offending organizers in their hire. Walmart (and Continental Airlines) are just two corporations who are (was) notorious for their union-busting tactics.
Unions have a place to fight against corporate exploitation of labor, which is exactly what is going on here. Unions prospered since the late 1800s when exploitation was rampant in transportation (railroad, trucking), mining, garment making, assembly line, telecommunication, machining, foundry, civil labor, arts & entertainment, airline pilots, etc etc.
The problem today is that the unions can't get their foot in the door and they face a brainwashed labor pool biased against them. The corporations have been using pre-emptive attacks to fend off unions.
While there is no argument that unions have been riddled with corruption and overextension of their power, the same can be said of corporations riddled with campaign financing, intensive lobbying, accounting corruption (Enron, Worldcom, Tyco), and other manipulation of government law and finances. If there was ever a place for unions, now is the time.
Like I said, I'm not normally pro-union but I sure come off sounding like it.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
As a citizen of the US, I expect my government to do everything in their power to maintain my standard of living (which I acknowledge is superior to that of 90% of the rest of the rest of the world's population
God, you live in a dream world. Why don;t you go the whole hog and get the government to pay you just to exist? Have you considered that the only way to maintain a better standard of living and improve it is through competition, change and efficiency? That would mean that someone like you, obviously unenterprising and expecting others to do your work, would need to get fired.
And lets face it, Americans don;t live better that 90% of the worlds population. They may think so, but since they don't pay any attention to the rest of the world, they don;t realise that the quality of life for much of the rest of the western world is better than theirs. Where I live there is universal health coverage, unemplyment and sickness benefit that doesn;t stop after some arbitary time, less crime (espacial gun crime). Amercia is a brutal place. If you don't have money you're no-one and nothing.
You really outght to wake the fuck up...
Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
Like if I said "yanks" instead of "hindus", you'd be crying like you are right now. Uh-huh. Goddamn hippy.
PLEASE shut the hell up? Please?
And stop wearing that fucking "petrouli" oil. It makes you smell like like (asscrack and roadkill)^E+99.
Bowie J. Poag