Tech Worker Groups Boycott IBM, Infosys, Manpower

itwbennett writes: "Three U.S. tech worker groups have launched a labor boycott of IBM, Infosys and Manpower, saying the companies have engaged in a pattern that discourages U.S. workers from applying for U.S. IT jobs by tailoring employment ads toward overseas workers. For its part, Infosys disputed the charges, saying that 'it is incorrect to allude that we exclude or discourage U.S. workers. Today, we are recruiting for over 440 active openings across 20 states in the U.S.' Representatives from IBM and Manpower didn't respond to requests for comment on the boycott."

Comments

Pay versus billing rate.

[pigiron]

Anyone who has worked for any of the three should know by now that they pay their IT workers about 20 to 30% of what they bill the client at best. Avoid body shops like the plague if you want to make decent money.

Re:Pay versus billing rate.

[Anonymous Coward]

would you suffer for 6 years away from family & friends, living like an indentured servant in a nice neighborhood (relative to india), but afterwards you would have enough money to easily buy 3-4 nice homes in a good neighborhood?

consider that many americans risk their life & limb with the military and they don't get that much money.

Re:Pay versus billing rate.

[KingOfBLASH]

Believe it or not, an employee's "cost" is not the same as his or her salary.

While I have no idea if 20% - 30% is fair, consider that on top of your salary they pay:

1. Benefits like health insurance
2. Real estate -- that cube you work in isn't free
3. Equipment, electricity, and utilities (like some nice fat internet pipes)
4. Managers
5. Support staff
6. Software licensing fees
7. Profit margin -- you didn't think you worked for the march of dimes, did you?

I remember one project I worked on where my employer billed our client several million a year for three of us. Our client would often jokingly refer to us as the "million dollar men" when we came on site, and not so jokingly whenever it was time to renegotiate the fee schedule. However, our three salaries were actually a small part of the actual bill -- most of that was chewed up by things like equipment and software licensing fees.

Re:Did someone just figure this out *NOW*??

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone figured it out a decade ago. The difference between these guys and people who just bitch about it in slashdot, are that these guys are the first to have the balls to try and do something about, however ineffectual it may wind up being.

Not very useful

[russotto]

American IT workers boycotting firms which don't hire Americans? They're not even going to notice.

Re:Nativism

[LifesABeach]

How about removing the tax loop holes that allow this nonsense to happen?

Re:What does IBM do these days anyway?

[idontgno]

Selling "nothing" for a high hourly billable over an extended contract term is the pinnacle of selling. Don't minimize IBM's profit-generating prowess in this respect.

Re:Nativism

[pigiron]

Because it's OUR fucking country and birthright you stupid fuck! NO Asian country would ever consider doing this. They actively discriminate against foreigners.

Infosys

[Anonymous Coward]

I am an Indian, and I say this with shame.

Indian companies only want to milk America dry and all the while to get rich in the process. They don't care about American workers one iota. That is Indian mentality in general. They live like parasites which feed off host systems until the host dies and then move on to another host. There is no sense of morality, integrity and fairness in the blood. Everything is fair game, if it makes ME rich/happy/satisfied. That is a typical Indian, hence the shitty Indian infrastructure, the constant gaming of the system, the constant backstabbing of the fellow workers. If you are an Indian, and you disagree, you are either a rare breed or you are lying through your teeth.

I wish H1-B visas' would be stopped immediately. There is no freaking shortage of American workers and it is all about making sure that American companies are able to fatten stockholder wallets, and Indian companies making sure America is bled dry while they become the global power house.

Re:Did someone just figure this out *NOW*??

[CodeArtisan]

So what you're saying is the second anyone infringes on the rights of a group you belong to you automatically band together in protest, even if it's at the potential expense of your livlihood?

Yes. It's called being in a union and something the corporations (with government assistance) eradicated to the point of almost extinction around the same time this behavior began.

Re:I'd be more impressed if I heard of any of them

[Anonymous Coward]

I know there are a lot of reservations about unions, but it is dammed if you do and double dammed if you don't.

Without a union, you can watch all the jobs go overseas until the customers start to bail. Then you can watch them try to re-boot with "tiger teams" on shore, but only the leads will still be present, and the new on-shore teams will balk at the utter lack of code quality. If the on-shore team manages to clean up the code, they'll be rewarded by being let go again (for another trip on the merry go round).

It's enough to make you want to join a union so at least you can benefit from the revenue stream you created.

All goes away once H1B goes away

[Gothmolly]

Don't bitch at the companies, bitch at the corrupt US officials who allow the practice.

Re:Nativism

[jedidiah]

> Someone explain to me why people who just happened to be born in the bounds of an arbitrary nation should have ANY advantages over someone who was not.

That's the best argument for elminating the H1B visa actually.

You think those Indians are being done some kind of favor? They are not. They are being allowed to become part of an underclass. If we were to be true to your rhetoric, anyone we saw fit to import for their skills would be the equal to any other man rather than at the mercy of his importer.

Creating an underclass is the kind of thing that "Maya Angelou would object to".