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After Uproar, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times previously reported that Disney made laid-off workers train their foreign replacements. The Times now reports that Disney has reversed its decision to lay off the workers and canceled training of the replacements. This follows public uproar, two investigations by the Department of Labor into outsourcing firms, complaints to the Justice Department, and calls for an investigation into the H-1B Visa program by Senator Bill Nelson. One of the workers said, "We were told our jobs were continuing and we should consider it as if nothing had happened until further notice." A former Disney employee who was forced to take an early retirement shared his personal thoughts on the matter in a Google+ post.
Which ironically will give them the exact justification to bring in the contractors -
What does quitting do other than fulfilling what management wanted all along??
like a doomesday counter or a count that shows the number of accident free days at work.
but this would be a constant reminder and a bloody nose to disney, how evil this h1b policy is and how evil DISNEY is.
'its been X days since disney last laid off US workers'. and when they do more evil shit, that counter gets reset (or, rather, its timestamp does).
too many ignorant americans have NO IDEA how fucked up disney is. they believe the hype and drink the koolaid and continue to buy their crotchfruit more and more disney merch.
people need to realize how evil this company is and that they are NOT worth giving your money to under any circumstances at all.
a public counter that stays up (yeah, disney has lots of lawyers so not sure how you can keep it running under pressure of lawsuit, even though it would be fair to have this be told about them) would really keep this issue alive, long after disney has buried it in the news.
disney should be the poster child of what is wrong with h1b. no one but us techies realize the h1b problem. the world needs to see this (at least the US does). disney might be the proper wake-up call to finally make people realize how badly we have sold our own people out ;(
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
The board should direct the termination of the executive responsible in such a way that it is termination for failing to abide by Disney, Florida and federal labor guidelines so that they don't get a severance. Since most of the employees are still there, there's no wrongful termination lawsuit they can bring against Disney so the risk to Disney by admitting that they caught an executive violating the rules and acted accordingly should be small.
A company I used to work for in Orlando needed animators.
We got 300 applications from people at Disney. They referred to it as Mauschwitz.
I sent Disney a mail to the office of the CEO and complained about the terrible treatment of those American workers (I am not American BTW) but I did get a reply and I like to think that everyone who did the same helped with the cause.
People laughed when I said I had done it, but it proves I did a tiny bit to help some jobs and I feel good, damnit :)
http://www.writeitfor.us - Writing IT for the IT generation.
I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?
Good. You know it would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
Not just interviewing, unionizing. If I was told me and my coworkers were being fired in 90 days and were to train our replacements, I'd gather up my coworkers and tell them we want a year's salary as a bonus now or we all walk that afternoon. Especially if they later try to pull this shit- I'd be demanding huge raises/bonuses to stick around for any time at all.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I work for another company that has been doing this sort of thing for a long time. But instead of laying off employees and bringing on H1B's, they are bringing on recent college graduates that are also only H!B's and then making working conditions unbearable until the old timers here just leave out of frustration. There is such a high turn over rate here that we have all but stopped acknowledging when people leave. I am currently training 2 people and an expecting a third and I have to do this in addition to all other tasks that are assigned to me.
I miss the days when I could go to a first round in-person interview and get the job before walking out of the door. I am looking, but I am not having so much luck.
I think the problem is that many silicon Valley companies are employing these same sorts of strategies. Driving down wages by bringing in H1B's. Its like the management team reads in a business journal how all their competitors are doing this and they think that they have to do it too to keep up with the jones'. I think this is unethical and at worst, probably of questionable legality. theH1b program was designed to provide workers to supplement the workforce here because there weren't enough engineers to fill available positions. Now, the system is being used to replace engineers here with cheaper labor. This is not consistent with the intent of the provisions of H1b.
It is interesting to note that some of Disney's most well-known films are based on public domain works, while Disney has been one of the biggest factors in eliminating the public domain altogether.