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IT Worker Who Trained H-1B-Visa-Holding Replacement Aims For Congress (computerworld.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Computerworld: Craig Diangelo was an IT worker at Northeast Utilities in Connecticut until he completed training his H-1B-visa-holding replacement. He was one of about 200 who lost their jobs in 2014 after two India-based IT offshore outsourcing firms took over their work at what is now called Eversource. Diangelo, at first, was quiet, bound by severance agreements signed with the company. Then he started speaking out. Now, Diangelo is running for Congress. offering up a first-hand perspective on IT outsourcing that resonates with many other workers in his state. "I've seen the injustices that have been done to us," said Diangelo, who is not optimistic lawmakers will deliver on H-1B reform. "You can't let this matter die down, because when you stop talking about it nothing seems to get done." Diangelo isn't a one-issue candidate or political novice. He previously served two terms as an alderman in his hometown of New Britain and remains involved in city planning work. The 64-year-old has filed the necessary papers to run for office, has a campaign manager, a website and knows he has to raise an awful lot money to challenge Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Esty, now in her third term. But Diangelo has no illusions about his odds. Even so, he may be the only person to run for Congress, at least in recent times, who has trained his replacement. He went to college hoping to be come a teacher, but when that proved difficult, he wound up at Travelers Insurance in Hartford -- in the company's data processing center.
I'm amazed that he put up with training his own replacement for a whole 2 years.... are other softdev jobs really that hard to find in Connecticut?
Assuming not, its clearly a strong indicator of him having a very sheep-like mentality and nothing like the necessary cahones to ever be an effective Congressman.
Or did this guy decide, Fuck that, I took the money but the deal was so bad I'm just going to ignore my end of the agreement?
A man who wants to be in Congress so he can make laws for our country. Hmm...
Sad that so many US State Governors and Legislatures, Federal Senate and House representatives, Federal and State District Court Judges and Magistrates hate "those citizens", the legal USA citizens.
You don't find retail workers crying that they are forced to do hard work for $10 an hour. Nobody deserves a job. Nobody deserves anything more than the amount they are willing to do work for. You can't be in favor of preventing others from doing "your" job for less money than you and still claim to be in favor of capitalism. What you are asking for is welfare. This abuse by workers is the reason companies are going to have to automate as much as possible. If you want a company to pay you because you exist then get it by taxation not by forcing yourself onto a random company's payroll.
So everyone is happier to pay more for goods and services as long as it's made by the USA? You know that's what has to happen if you decide to not allow companies to use cheaper labour elsewhere. The difference is in the past it was just for components/goods now it's possible to do the same with services.
More goods and services for less money is bad?
If you reduce the cost of production, more things can (and will) get produced and shall be cheaper and more affordable worldwide.
That's bad somehow?
Lower cost of production = improved human condition.
Before it requires an angry voice, or automatic weapons fire, or SWAT teams, let people hear from him first.
I know this is slightly tangential, but it needs to be said. We need to stop the Trump administration from their planned crackdown on H-1B visas. Trump continues to push an agenda that cracks down on people of some ethnicities and religions. Cracking down on H-1B visas, which are often used by Indian workers, is really no different from Trump's attempts to implement a Muslim ban. Just as the courts have overturned Trump's attempts at a Muslim ban, they should block any attempt to restrict the H-1B visa program.
vote in your primaries. Gerrymandering means that guys like this don't have a chance in the General. But in the primary anything goes. Change your party affiliation to the one that's owns your district if you have to, but vote in your primary. Also, call your representative and remind them you'll be voting in their primary and if they don't put a stop to this crap you'll kick them out.
They're not afraid of losing the general. They _are_ afraid of their primaries.
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Hello fellow /.ers.
For years we've watched this happen over and over again. When are we going to draw the line in the sand? Trump *might* do some things, then again he might not do anything. He has no skin in the game so to speak. Here we finally have a candidate who's been through what many of us have been through. We need to make sure he has the support he needs to win. Hopefully he either knows how to run a campaign, or has people to do that stuff for him (Speaking as an IT guy that has done a TON of campaign volunteering)
To the Indian /.'ers.
This is nothing against you, but the way you've been leveraged to drive down US IT worker wages has been unfair to us. I know you're simply looking for a better life, but when you take that H1-B job, and you're being trained by the person you're replacing, just remember what karma is. This has happened over and over and over again. Besides hurting us, you're not getting any closer to being "American". Your visa is designed to turn you into a low wage indentured servant, it is not a path to citizenship. I've seen how you and your brothers get treated, and I can't imagine why you guys haven't risen up yourself to unchain yourselves from this oppression. My only guess is you come from someplace worse than here, and that fear of going back, and being called a "failure" by your family, your village also weighs heavily on your minds.
The 64 year old. Good lord. This is what the future is, eh? Maybe the issue is that you can't retire at 63. Maybe the issue is you expect or need the same job at that age. That's kinda messed up. You might as well want the same things as a union at that point. Yet I kind of doubt this guy is pro-union.
"Old man yells at systemd"
It can't be that much worse than what we have now. Just saying.
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start with lowering the age of Medicare eligibility. That is what keeps people working.
Also we need up the H1B min wage to stop it from being used to replace us worker with cheap ones chained to the job.
Two sentences worth of reasons for why he's running, a big Donate button, no party affiliation, no link to his stands on various issues, no standard candidate biography I could reach.
he may be a great candidate, but you'd never tell that from his website.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Well at least one part of the government is already doing what he wants - Trump's Administration Just Made It Harder to Get Work Visas
I couldn't tell what party he's with from his website but hopefully not with the Democrats, who have let the H1-B situation worsen for years while they collected huge donations from the companies involved in farming out these workers...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Guess he's not the technical kind of "IT worker" then.
Raise the age! Keep people working longer. It's absolutely idiotic that there is anyone who thinks retirement age should remain the same while life expectancy and medical care for the elderly continue to improve.
"95% of programmers from India unfit for software development jobs -most ‘memorize’ programming codes"
http://www.tremeritus.com/2017/04/30/95-of-programmers-from-india-unfit-for-software-development-jobs-most-memorize-programming-codes/
What could possibly go wrong...
Sure - as long as age employment statistics are kept and monitored and affirmative action like for women is enforced. Nobody wants to employ damaged goods.
The reason you don't see older folk lifting or working in Mac D's is Lawyers.
The cost of backs. RSI, muscle skeletal injuries is higher - the same reason you do not employ someone who has ever reported and injury or got compensation.
Older folk in ICT is rarer, because 'technicians' can be imported cheaper.
yeah, more money for the owners !!!
Running for Congress is stupid, complaining about your job is stupid, company that switches to overseas workers is stupid, fighting globalization is stupid, fighting anything because of your personal mishap is stupid.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
You don't want to enforce the illegal part of illegal immigration.
You don't want to enforce illegal handling of classified information if its your hoe mishandling.
You don't want to enforce lying under oath to Congress.
You don't want to enforce executive orders against Sanctuary Cities.
Why suddenly are you worried bout enforcing H1-B visa laws?
Either enforce the law or don't. When you pick and choose which laws based on how you feel, you have a dictatorship.
When you can't do, teach. When you can't teach, run for Congress. "He went to college hoping to be come a teacher, but when that proved difficult...."
Government increasing the supply of workers via a guest visa program is the exact opposite of a free market. This is a manipulated market where private industry influences government immigration policy to artificially increase a labor pool and suppress wages.
In a "free market" both labor and capital would be free to go where the most productive opportunities exist.
This fantasy land does not exist anywhere on planet earth. Many countries protect their native industries and workforces. Just try to get an IT job in Brazil or China.
America is not required to look after the standard of living of emerging nations - that is for the people and governments of those nations to do.
The influx of H1B visa guest workers is clearly hurting American workers and enriching a select few. Our current administration is committed to fixing this problem - and I applaud that.
Many countries have mandatory retirement ages around 65 - for one huge reason:
To make room in the workforce for new workers and to give them a path to building a career.
For every 70 year old that is working a job there is, most likely, a young person underemployed trying to pay off education debts.
A sensible retirement age has social benefits far beyond the elderly enjoying their golden years.
Do we really need to work everyone until they are dead?
Northeast Utilities did what lots of big companies do -- outsource their IT to some faceless consulting company. It goes in cycles -- a new CIO comes in, promises millions of dollars in savings, it gets done, people are usually disappointed and IT usually swings at least partially back in-house. I've experienced it twice working in a financial services company and an airline. There is very little one can do when the MBA crowd presents the board with a spreadsheet showing 50 or 60% savings on IT.
Those consulting companies should be the targets of any action. I actually think the H-1B as it was originally intended is a good "safety valve" to get a few very talented people into the country. I now work for a multinational company who has their own issues with offshoring, but has also used H-1Bs to move very key people to the US. What these outsourcing companies use it for is not that at all, and this abuse should be what's targeted. I would be fine with consulting companies using contractors, paying a little less, etc. as long as it was done fairly. What I've experienced is that the offshore company will bring in a few H-1B workers for the jobs that absolutely require a physical presence, as well as the "train your replacement" crew. This second group is who collects all the information, procedures, etc. from the soon-to-be-fired IT workers and sends it back to the offshore teams. H-1Bs are supposed to be high-level experts, not train-the-trainer guys.
That said, I'm really hoping I don't wind up like this guy, a few years away from retirement and unhireable. The covert age discrimination in IT and software dev is what needs to stop. Every other proper profession values experienced people -- newbie doctors aren't considered experts until they've seen a lot of things, and frankly had their egos checked by having a few patients die on them unexpectedly. Yet, in the Silicon Valley startup world, and corporate IT in general, 25-year-old "rockstars" who work 100 hour weeks to make up for inexperience are celebrated. Now, it is true that there are older people who have not kept current with things and basically done the exact same job for 20 years. The problem is that as I age, and continue to keep my skills current because I really like what I do, I'm lumped in with the same "too old, too expensive, can't hang with the bros" crowd.
I think that's one of the crappiest things companies do -- kicking out someone in their late 50s/early 60s to save money, knowing that they're never going to find a comparable job to bridge the gap between now and retirement. I've seen it happen many times...and people should save to defend against it. But at the same time, IT work or development is not like being a professional athlete, where you have a 10 year career at most and have to make all your money then.
Of course, the liberals on here will strenuously DENY that fact, but face it, the big IT firms are all run by loyal (and rich) Democrats. Money talks. Democrats are the true panderers to the rich and the American economy has suffered for it.
But hey, you libtards are still in denial of truth, which means more election losses for your failed ideology and that suits me just fine.
At least in the US, it's precisely because of education debts that people will be working into their 70s.
When student loans are eating into your paycheck as much as they are now, who could actually afford to save up enough money to retire by 65?
If the US provided a better social safety net or dealt with the ridiculous skyrocketing of student loan debt, then maybe we wouldn't be getting into a position where we have to keep working until we die unless we'd rather stop working and starve.
They should be careful with lowering the age. And this is coming from a left-leaning millennial.
The reason that I'm somewhat cautious about this is because my family comes from Taiwan where you are allowed to retire earlier and start collecting benefits at a younger age (as low as 55) as long as you accept a reduced payout until you reach the traditional retirement age. Many people, including some of my family members, rationalized it by thinking that it's better to retire early and take care of yourself, especially since retiring late is more likely to cause wear and tear that lead to an early death. This resulted in a loss of taxable income for the country for people that should have been working an additional 10-15 years and has greatly destabilized the system. This year, the benefits have been slashed upwards of 30%, even as far as 50% for certain cases, in order to keep the system sustainable.
This is somewhat reflected in the US social security system, where it used to be 10 people paying into the benefits of one recipient in the 1950s-1960s and how it's a ratio closer to 2 people paying into the benefits of one recipient today. Lowering the age needs to be balanced fiscally. It's one thing to socialize in order to help everyone, but it needs to be handled responsibly so that it doesn't end up screwing everyone when the system spirals into collapse.
Talking about Medicare not SS.
Keep the SS age at 65 but lower the Medicare age so that older people are less tied to the job and can take some more part time stuff / not be chained the office at 60+ with little hope of getting an new office job at that age. So they can F* boss I don't need this job you can take your H1B and shove it.
It's only an "injustice" if the company didn't offer you to keep your job at the rate the Indian company was offering. If you refused to work for so little, then that's on you. Nationality does NOT make one person better or more entitled than another!
Damn, Thought for a second that he would outsource congress with Visa's after training them.
At 62 years old, one would expect to have legacy knowledge of some significant skills that a company would want to keep..... I'm no spring chicken myself and have trained plenty of folks.... including H1-B employees. We've kept the real fireballs that learn fast and have plenty of motivation. I also recommend having a string of certifications running off the page in your signature. It also doesn't hurt if you can speak multiple languages. When I turn 60, I'll be getting ready for another CCNP level test toward another certification. Did I mention that I thrive in the IT environment? Honestly some of these International headhunters take terrible advantage of their H1-B consultants. We can definitely use the specialists that we've found via H1-B..... especially since we often have need for specialists who do not seem to be available locally. As they say (both about workers and spouses); "All the good ones are already taken".
Have to post anon here. The India H1b scheme is a disaster. I currently work in engineering support for a major software vendor for the emea team. I'm basically the support escalation engineers , escalation engineer.
What these large Fortune US companies are doing is outsource / offshore the IT to a 3rd party H1b shop. They then turn around and buy the most expensive enterprise support contracts with the vendors. This is their parachute, the amount of fuckery these H1b do to the systems is utterly mind blowing. It is all very clear , anfter the most fundamental of support cases they need that root cause analysis within the next hour , because you know they can't figure it out themselves and need to answer to mr x. This is saving these fortune companies $, this is how they downsize tco and still have the latest & greatest kit & software.
It's easy for a white collar programmer who probably lives in an urban area with higher life expectancy to say "raise the wage".
What about the blue collar workers who are struggling to make it to retirement, the lower working-class whose bodies are falling apart? Many of them already die before or shortly after retiring.
Cheap storage VM.
"But Diangelo has no illusions" - allusions is the correct word
TV-MA - the Beginning: "Ward, don't you think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night?"
Sounds like BAU horse shit for the business community and even the government. My entire department lost their jobs to outsourcing, replaced by IBM workers in Kishore, on Jan. 1 this year. That "laid off right before retirement" thing is right out of the USAF playbook too, they did that to thousands of people in the late 70s/80s.