Clinton: It's 'Heartbreaking' When IT Workers Must Train H-1B Replacements (computerworld.com)

dcblogs writes: Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, on Monday criticized the replacement of U.S. IT workers with foreign labor but stopped short of offering a plan to fix it. In a videotaped interview with Vox, Clinton appears empathetic and sympathetic to IT workers who have trained their foreign replacements as a condition of severance. She mentioned IT layoffs at Disney, specifically. "The many stories of people training their replacements from some foreign country are heartbreaking, and it is obviously a cost-cutting measure to be able to pay people less than what you would pay an American worker," said Clinton in the interview. Keith Barrett, a former IT worker Disney who was among those replaced by contractors, was not happy with Clinton's comments."She starts off as if she understands the problem, but then dismisses it as collateral damage not of significant volume to address, and blends in the problem of illegal immigrant labor, which is mostly working in unskilled labor," said Barrett.

Comments

It's Heartbreaking you're not in Jail

[exabrial]

It's Heartbreaking you're not in Jail.

Re:It's Heartbreaking you're not in Jail

[bondsbw]

It's heartbreaking that this is news. I also don't like it, and I also don't have a plan to fix it, but you don't see me quoted in the news.

Re:It's Heartbreaking you're not in Jail

[ScentCone]

These Republican manufactured scandals never result in jail time.

You google up a list of people that did do jail time on behalf of the Clintons, as a result of their various scandals getting some investigation. Or the people who have had their lives or liberty altered for doing far less than she and her husband have.

Regardless, do you really think that the Republicans are so clever that they can secretly mind-control Hillary Clinton into disregarding the pleading of State Department IT and security people who tried to get her to use appropriate tools for her job? Do you really think she's so weak-willed that she allowed the Republicans to somehow cause her to lie, repeatedly, about what she did, when, how, and why she did it? Was it the Republicans that somehow tricked her into stonewalling FOIA requests, or somehow fooled her into deciding not to turn over her public records as she was supposed to when she left office?

Are you saying you really support a candidate that is so unable to think for herself that she's willing to act, and direct her staff to act, for years on end, in ways that if exposed would show her to be a foolish, lying, reckless, incompetent person unconcerned with the classified information she handled, and willing to destroy official documents for political reasons? That's your candidate? No wonder you're also willing to lie to support her: it's what she does, and thus what her supporters are forced to do if they're going to cheer for her and pretend they like her. No choice, really. If she's going to assert an alternate reality, you have to go along with it when you sign up to be her shill.

Re:It's Heartbreaking you're not in Jail

[tripleevenfall]

It's also amusing that like most on the American Left, Clinton thinks there should be no meaningful restrictions on immigration, neither should it be fettered by any sort of enforcement...

But because it plays well in the press, she'll make noises about H1B on occasion.

The only sort of immigration she's concerned about is *legal* immigration.

Re:It's Heartbreaking you're not in Jail

[MikeMo]

Sorry, no, they've consistently failed to make it *stick*. They've proved plenty.

Re:It's Heartbreaking you're not in Jail

[dbsnstuf]

The statutes in question do NOT require intent, only gross negligence. That is the way congress originally wrote them, with the intent of being able to prosecute under this slightly lower burden of proof.

It's heartbreaking that politicians don't do shit

[Bob the Super Hamste]

I find it heartbreaking that in these egregious cases politicians don't speak out against it as well as attorney generals don't prosecute people for violating the law. If you are training your replacement then it is obvious that there is an American capable of doing the job and that a H-1B holder should not have it. I have written my polished turds of elected representatives on this issue and from most I got a non response (thank you for contacting your congressman or senator form letter) or a letter blaming republicans for blocking last year's comprehensive immigration law that would have expanded the H-1B program (thanks Amy Klobuchar you ignorant senator of small things)

Re:Her lips moved...

[Archangel Michael]

I'm not sure what is more horrifying, that the AG said she broke criminal statutes and lied to the American People repeatedly, or that she was too incompetent to be Secretary of State.

Any sufficient level of incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

And for contrast

[Okian Warrior]

Clinton: It's 'Heartbreaking' When IT Workers Must Train H-1B Replacements

For contrast, here's what Donald Trump said recently

[Referring to problems within the Veteran's Administration] "I will pick up the phone and fix it myself"

Look at Hillary's positions and see if they give you a warm, fuzzy feeling of goodness.

Look at Trump's positions and see if they describe specific changes and actions.

Hillary is "stay the course", and Trump is "make changes".

Re:And for contrast

[scamper_22]

I've mentioned this to other people. I'm Canadian, but I catch Trump on the news.

Maybe he is lying. Maybe he is a complete buffoon. I really don't know.

What I do know is that he at least addresses people's biggest concerns.

Hilary's reaction is pretty much the same as every modern politician I've seen. Same as the progressives in Canada (Trudeau, Wynn...). It basically says, yes it is tragic, but we live in a globalized world now. At best, they throw in patriotic jargon about education and how we can out compete the other billions of people. And to top it off, they'll keep borrowing and taxing to keep their friends in the public sector and banking sector doing well. We're all just collateral damage.

Meanwhile I caught Trump's famous 'unhinged' mosquito speech and he talks about Carrier air conditioning moving their plants to Mexico and the pain of the workers.

Hey, maybe is just a fascist idiot, but if the mainstream politicians really don't give a crap and normal hardworking private sector people...well...he's looking like the only sane choice; now that Bernie is out; for anyone with such concerns.

Re:And for contrast

[ScentCone]

One doesn't have to like Trump to recognize that you're BSing.

1) Yes, some of his ventures have been failures. Just like MOST BUSINESSES, the majority of which fail. But more of his haven't. How are YOUR businesses doing? Your assertion that he's done nothing but bankrupt businesses is demonstrably false.

2) Screwed vendors? He runs large, sprawling businesses that buy goods and services from thousands of vendors and contractors. People line up to sell his businesses those things, and make money doing so. If he "screwed" more than a small number of them with which he was having disputes over the timing, quality, or delivery of those goods and services, he wouldn't be able to find anyone to sell his businesses what those businesses need to survive. There ARE businesses like that, or were ... since such businesses cannot exist for long. Cherry pick away! But your assertion that he's done nothing but screw vendors is demonstrably false.

3) Squander his inheritance? So, that should leave him with less money than he got from his family, right? Which is demonstrably not true, or even close to true. So again, you're lying.

There are plenty of things about him to dislike. Why lie about stuff that's plainly not true?

Anyone training their H1-B replacement has witness

[rahvin112]

Anyone training their H1-B replacement has witnessed a crime. This is an illegal abuse of the H1-B system and it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Any company, including groups like Tata should be in jail for what they are doing. Congress should put an automatic criminal penalty of $1million per employee and Justice should target any company that can be shown to be doing it.

Re:#BernOrBust

[Anonymous Coward]

It might be fun to say that Clinton and Trump are equally bad, but from where I'm standing that's just nuts.

We know pretty much exactly what we'll be getting from a Hillary presidency - eight more years of the same thing we got from Presidents Obama and Clinton.

With a Trump presidency what do we get? Four years of incoherent policy that shifts on a weekly basis.and wrecks relations with pretty much every foreign state (except maybe Russia, since Trump holds Putin in such high regard).

Paying you off

[sjbe]

Anyone training their H1-B replacement has witnessed a crime.

I would say anyone doing that has no spine. Yes you might have to give up a severance package. But if you take that package you are saying you can be bought for the cost of the package. Personally I prefer to not dig my own grave. Now if the severance package has two commas in the number that's a different story because then they aren't paying me to train my replacement, they are paying me to retire.

And yes, forcing people to train there replacements should be illegal without question. H1Bs are for when they cannot find domestic talent. If they are training their replacement then clearly the talent already exists domestically. You have to be a serious reptile to even ask people to do this sort of thing.

This is a Deal Breaker

[curmudgeon99]

I am a lifelong Democrat and it is Hillary's stance on the H-1B that will prevent me from voting for her. Seriously, she will not get my vote over this one issue. I even donated cash 8 times to President Obama's 2008 campaign but I will neither vote for her nor donate to her campaign over this one issue.

Re:This is a Deal Breaker

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Email or call her campaign. Tell them your name, that you donated 8 times to Obama, and you're not voting for her over this issue. They have giant tracking systems for public opinion. If all of /. did that, you'd see her take an anti H1B position very soon. After all, that's the upside to a focus-group driven candidate.

Re:Amazing argument

[ScentCone]

But we've already seen a Clinton in the White House so we have a pretty good idea what that would look like.

Yes indeed. A non-stop parade of deep corruption, routine law breaking, blatant lying over things both huge and trivial, and sleazy personal drama at every turn. Yay! Let's have some more of that.

Wrong.

[khasim]

No, there is nothing about you or your skills that is so unique that you cannot be replaced.

And if your severance package depends upon you teaching your replacement how to do your job (see Disney), you are even easier to replace.

I have skills that are useful and hard to find.

They may be useful, but they are not hard to find.

And yeah, I get that sucks. But the solution is to learn more skills so you can get the first type of job.

Unless you personally are working for Google or Facebook that kind of invalidates your position. You aren't so rare that Google is fighting to get you.

Look up "confirmation bias". You think that because your decisions have resulted in your position that anyone who has not achieved that position has made incorrect decisions. The reality is that when a company wants to cut their IT costs to save money, your skills will have nothing to do with their decision.

Corruption is nothing new

[sjbe]

Yes indeed. A non-stop parade of deep corruption, routine law breaking, blatant lying over things both huge and trivial, and sleazy personal drama at every turn. Yay! Let's have some more of that.

And that is different from any other administration how? Look into it and you'll find the Clinton's rap sheet to be (surprisingly) one of the shorter ones. Ronald Reagan's administration had FAR more indictments and convictions than Clinton's. Same with both Bush administrations. About the worst thing people can to pin on Bill Clinton is that he lied about a blowjob. I think the Clinton's can be pretty shady but sadly they aren't even close to the worst.

And if you think a Trump administration would be a paragon of honesty and decency you are delusional.

Re:It's heartbreaking that politicians don't do sh

[bmajik]

I don't have any evidence of Trump naming or implying any race at any time with any of his various immigration comments.

His focus has been on
- stopping _illegal_ immigration
- stopping the legal immigration of people that are at an increased risk of becoming terrorists
- reducing immigration that appears to have a negative effect on American jobs

There is a tremendous amount of racial confirmation bias about Trump, in part because that's what the left always resorts to, and because he hasn't adopted SJW phrases and talking points.

Contrastingly, there is historical evidence of him breaking _down_ racial and other bigotry barriers in his personal and business life.