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Disney Replaces Longtime IT Staff With H-1B Workers
Lucas123 writes: Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of eight co-chairs of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a leading group advocating for an increase in the H-1B visa cap. Last Friday, the partnership was a sponsor of an H-1B briefing at the U.S. Capitol for congressional staffers. The briefing was closed to the press. One of the briefing documents obtained after the meeting stated, "H-1B workers complement — instead of displace — U.S. Workers." Last October, however, Disney laid off at least 135 IT staff (though employees say it was hundreds more), many of them longtime workers. Disney then replaced them with H-1B contractors that company said could better "focus on future innovation and new capabilities." The fired workers believe the primary motivation behind Disney's action was cost-cutting. "Some of these folks were literally flown in the day before to take over the exact same job I was doing," one former employee said. Disney officials promised new job opportunities as a result of the restructuring, but the former staff interviewed by Computerworld said they knew of few co-workers who had landed one of the new jobs. Use of visa workers in a layoff is a public policy issue, particularly for Disney. Ten U.S. senators are currently seeking a federal investigation into displacement of IT workers by H-1B-using contractors. Kim Berry, president of the Programmer's Guild, said Congress should protect American workers by mandating that positions can only be filled by H-1B workers when no qualified American — at any wage — can be found to fill the position."
companies to run with minimal staff and still "produce" as much if not more than before. Yet we still run around with the fiction of the "work week" and a "career"... These concepts are obsolete. It's time for the leisure society with resources for all. To deny this is to say we don't have the technology to do so.
Yet we have the technology to outsource everything. But this only benefits the few. If it benefits all, then it's wrong.
"We were running low on our 'being an asshole' quota this month. Now be sure to continue to watch as your wives and kids demand and purchase our products, chumps."
Mind you, that was just frustration talking... because seriously, what is anyone going to do about this?
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Why does America still wallow in a recession? It is by those that beat the drum for the H1B harvest.
The H1-B program should be changed such that only the company that is the end recipient of the work product of the H1-B worker can apply for a visa.
Those companies that provide on-site engineers to other companies should not qualify for H1-B visa sponsorship. In this way many abuses would be stopped.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
The issue really isn't the fact that the H1Bs are taking over 'native' STEM positions, it is that Disney et. al. is flat out lying about it.
Remember, the H1B program is an immigration loophole set up by the government for certain purposes (allowing non citizens to work in the US when there are no qualified citizens). It was not designed to be a welfare program for big companies. Even for 'easily replaced' employees.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The fired workers believe the primary motivation behind Disney's action was cost-cutting.
Is there anyone who believes that wasn't the primary motivation? Even the corporate spin: "focus on future innovation" is standard corporate-speak for "spending money elsewhere."
It's not even 'spin,' that is the most straightforward way to interpret Disney's corporate statement.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
With out them we can be replaced by contractors and it's the contract firm that is the one useing the H1B's
Seriously, this H-1B shit needs to stop now. Until we're at 99% employment rate for whatever field we're importing workers for, they need to be shipped back to whatever country they came from. This is worse than the illegal imigrant, because these guys are diaplacing current American workers and taking jobs we have people dyeing to fill.
Every single one of those fired need to get together and file a class action against Disney, and this needs to be posted all over the social sites. Disney is no more a family company than Jack the Ripper was an exceptional lover. This needs to backlash on them, and hard.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
sure, blame the employees for this.
to even suggest that the employees had ANY part in this other than having western style expenses like american healthcare, rent, food, gas - you know, luxuries - is dishonest or outright fraudulent.
shill much for The Man?
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
so, you admit openly to brazenly breaking the law?
please turn yourself in and the rest of your firm.
(I do hate you, you are scum for selling out your own people. and like the cops that turn a blind eye on the thin blue line, you are just as guilty of helping to ruin the middle classs as those cops are of protecting their own even when laws are being broken by them).
its scumbags like you that nod, smile and keep letting the system crush our country.
and yes, I'm one of those who has been out of work WAY too long because I'm a white guy in the bay area and that means I'm 'too expensive'. people like you have helped keep me OUT of work.
I hold you responsible for a part of it. how do you sleep at night? dammit!!
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Posting AC because, you know... This is going to be unpopular, but It's the trajectory that I see in Tech management in large enterprises.
This isn't shocking. I built my career during the IT and dot-com boom, moved into management, and then into executive positions. I fear this path is no longer available.
Why? Young companies need competent tech workers who can perform, and they need them fast. Once the company scales and competition eats into margins and profitability, they cut cost, that means firing expensive domestic workers and using overseas/contract headcount. Disney is doing the mechanically rational thing for a mature public company.
"Fucking evil management", you say? Well, grow up kiddies. This is what the board, shareholders, and investors demand - increased YoY profitability, which can be achieved, partly, by cutting costs.
This will continue. It will get worse. It's a race to the bottom, so get used to it. The barriers to becoming an IT worker have vanished, and people can work globally. You don't like it? Unionize or advocate trade barriers (which IT will not do), but business will seek the lowest cost option to achieve their business objectives.
Oh, and just wait until AI/automation scales up... My prediction: IT as a profession won't be around in 5 years.
Load of gabage,
A decade ago I believe the scary posts like yours and wife demanded I quit programming as Indians would have these jobs by now. Worse mistake EVER! I would have been rich if I did not major in business. Going back into IT now but man 10 years of experience gone and starting over the past few years sucked.
It is 2015 and we were told by 2010 no IT would exist. Well much of it is coming back as demand is rising due to failed outsourcing attemps and management realizing with IE 6 and XP last year they fucked up by being shoe strung budgets that hampered their basic infrastructures for too long. Programmers today are pulling in $65,000 a year WITH 0 EXPERIENCE!
http://saveie6.com/
quoting this wonderful gem:
Several of these workers, in interviews, said they didn't want to appear as xenophobic, but couldn't help but to observe, as one did, that "there were times when I didn't hear English spoken" in the hallways. As the layoff date neared, "I really felt like a foreigner in that building," the worker said.
I'll go ahead and name names: I used to work at cisco. I have said many times that I could walk down the hallway at any random cisco san jose building and for most of the day, not hear a single word spoken in english (in hallways or breakrooms).
is this what we want to see IN AN AMERICAN COMPANY??
I don't dislike indians. I like the culture, love the food, think people from india are fine and decent, overall. but why should it be 'normal' to walk down the hallway of a san jose, california company and not hear english for hours and hours at a time?
I should have had a gopro cam or something on me and taped what a typical day was like, there (when I still worked there; they canned my ass not too long ago). I would then send a copy to the congresscritters who think that there are not ENOUGH foreign workers in the US. maybe they want me to go a full week between hearing english in an american company?
if I go thru an interview and hear 'not a cultural match' one more time, I swear to zeus I'm going to go postal. I'm nearly at the end of my rope, here....
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
you witnessed crimes (you know that) and did nothing to stop it.
do you REALLY want me to godwin you here? I'm sure you're not stupid. you knew better and yet stood by and allowed it.
sorry to have to keep saying it, but you are scum. sleep well mr scumbag.
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you bring up a good point.
what IS the role of a government? isn't it to promote the well-being or safety of its people?
are h1b's citizens where they get the same level of protection as those who were born here or got citizenship the long/slow/hard way?
why do we owe anyone else a job? its often asked 'why do US companies owe US workers jobs?' but I turn it around, why should US companies NOT support their own people, FIRST ??
find me another country that offers anything close to this h1b bullshit to foreigners coming to their shores to work. name one country - just one - that thinks its own citizens should be 2nd to 'guest workers'. ONLY the US fits that description.
we start wars with the presumption of keeping americans safe. we collect taxes to pay for infrastructure to benefit those who live here. there are many examples of what countries do for their own people. that's kind of the whole point of 'membership'; by being an american, I should have priority in employment over those who have paid NO dues here and have no vested interest - whatsoever - in the long-term success and stability of our country.
but my country sold me out. I can go months (or much longer) without getting a job offer and I have decades of useful IT experience. is that right? does that sound like my country is taking care of me? sure doesn't sound like that to me, from where I sit.
republicans - democrats - none of them lift a finger to help the struggling middle class. as far as I'm concerned, we have nothing but traitors in congress, these days.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Lesson 1 - try not to work in a place where they use fucking stupid euphemisms for employees such as "cast members".
It's a bit of a clue that either employees are not valued as long term staff or that somewhere there is a total idiot drafting policies insisting on what employees with be called.
"But it's showbusiness!" someone may exclaim - but no that does not fit because camera operators etc are not "cast members" - which means this is some weird shit for appearance sake and other arbitrary shit is bound to happen.
Being anti-H-1B is progressive. Progressives generally believe that corporate abuse of workers is bad, and H-1Bs represent the ultimate pathway to worker abuse, by creating a class of people who cannot afford to demand equal pay (because if their employer terminates them, they have to leave the U.S.), who have a harder time moving from company to company (or at least who perceive themselves to have a harder time, which in practice is basically the same thing), and who therefore will end up working for substandard wages by local standards.
And then those H-1B workers end up depending on government subsidies, low-income housing, etc. because the cost of living in high-tech areas is based on typical salaries, not H-1B salaries. In effect, everyone else in the area pays to support these people, solely because their employers were too cheap to pay them properly.
Progressives tend to take a dim view of turning our country into a caste system. Just saying.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
The H1B program is making the problem worse. The corporations have the choice of training an American or hiring a fully trained foreigner.
The problem with that statement is that the foreigner is not going to be fully trained.
The kinds of places that you get H-1B workers (457 visas in Australia) from are the kind of places that have trouble with the word no. So it's an exercise for the listener to determine if "yes" means "yes I do" or "yes I don't".
However once they have the contract, that doesn't matter (to the off-shore provider).
Any Indian who is fully qualified is making plans to get a proper job in the US, Europe, Canada or Australia (well maybe not Australia any more) and not trying to work for an off-shoring consultancy. These people know that they can get the same as an American or European worker and have no desire to be abused by cheapskates.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
That and the access to affordable contraception.
Progressives tend to take a dim view of turning our country into a caste system. Just saying.
While simultaneously supporting policies that turn our country into a caste system. Something like 80% of the "Obama recovery" has went to the top 10%.
It's mind-boggling to me that anybody would use the word "Progressive" in any manner other than derogatory, anyway, given what the Progressives stood for 100 years ago.
Do you have ESP?
The real problem here is that IT is regarded as something like a janitorial service, rather than an integral business function. That's a recipe for a slow burn into the ground. There is plenty of cog work to be done, sure. But if you don't use IT to actually change how you do business, you're not doing IT.
I'm not surprised then that Disney is only making money by buying IP, and riding old IP. They're organizationally prohibited of producing something new.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.