MR. KIM BERRY
PROGRAMMERS GUILD
Sloan West Coast Program on Science and
Engineering Workers
The H-1B Program and Labor Certification:
Attestation and PERM
Friday, January 18, 2008
H-1b Influx is independent from labor
market – 2000-2004 record H-1b influx
Tech workforce's ranks shrinking
By Deborah Lohse and Mark Schwanhausser – San Jose Mercury News
Friday October 8, 2004
Battered by the technology bust, half of the Californians working in
tech in 2000 have left the field, a new landmark study of 1 million
workers shows. Nearly one-fourth of the tech workers have taken
non-technology jobs that often pay less, according to the study by
the Sphere Institute, a Bay Area public policy research firm. Another
28 percent have fallen off California's job rolls altogether.
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/9866921.htm
“MARKET-BASED CAP” WILL NOT WORK
H-1b Labor Certification Process is a
“Due Process Sham”
20 CFR 655.740 (1) Certification on labor condition
application. … the regional Certifying Officer shall certify
the labor condition application unless it falls within one of
[these categories]:
(i) When the Form ETA 9035 or 9035E is not properly
completed.
(ii) When the Form ETA 9035 or ETA 9035E contains obvious
inaccuracies.
What purpose does “posting at the job-site” serve? On what
basis could U.S. workers challenge a posted LCA? – IT
NEEDS TO BE ON A PUBLIC WEBSITE IN REAL TIME
Department of Labor does not try to
match U.S. workers for LCA jobs
Most Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) are filed
Electronically and thus are immediately in the DOL Database.
DOL does not release this list of 200,000 U.S. jobs (new and
renewal) until after the jobs have been filled by foreign
workers several months later. These U.S. jobs are never
opened to U.S. workers!
CONTRARY TO DOL MISSION:
The Department of Labor fosters and promotes the welfare
of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United
States by improving their working conditions, advancing
their opportunities for profitable employment.
http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/mission.htm
H-1b salary does not indicate a labor
shortage
Congresswoman Lofgren’s document acknowledges:
p.13: “Newly arriving H-1B nonimmigrants in
computer-related occupations had median annual
salaries of $50,000 in FY 2005, down from $55,000
in FY 2001.”
http://migration.ucdavis.edu/wcpsew/files/CRS_5=23=07pdf.pdf
Adjusted for inflation, $55,000 in 2001 = $60,652 in 2005, thus
over a 20% real drop in wages
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
Most H-1b fill average jobs at below
average pay
San Francisco Region LCAs granted in FY 2004
www.programmersguild.org/sfh1b/
The largest H-1b users admit to
underpaying their H-1b workers
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Vice President
Phiroz Vandrevala:
"Our wage per employee is 20-25 per cent less
than US wages for a similar employee. Typically,
for a TCS employee with five years experience, the
annual cost to the company is $60,000-70,000,
while a local American employee might cost
$80,000-100,000. “
http://programmersguild.blogspot.com/2007/05/india-now-denies-their-prior-admission.html
The Majority of LCAs are filed at DOL
SKILL LEVEL ONE
DOL LEVEL I
Beginning level employees who have a basic
understanding of the occupation through education
or experience. They perform routine or moderately
complex tasks that require limited exercise of
judgement… www.flcdatacenter.com/skill.aspx
Does that sound like "BEST AND BRIGHTEST”?
Detailed info about how prevailing wage is set is here:
www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb407549.htm
Examples of Level One “Prevailing
Wage”
Area Code: 41940
Area Title: SAN JOSE-SUNNYVALE-SANTA CLARA, CA
OES/SOC Code: 27-3022
OES/SOC Title: Reporters and Correspondents
Level 1 Wage: $14.34/hour - $29,827/year
www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?area=41940&code=27-3022.00&year=8&source=1
Area Code: 40900
Area Title: SACRAMENTO--ARDEN-ARCADE--ROSEVILLE,
CA
OES/SOC Code: 15-1031
OES/SOC Title: Computer Software Engineers, Applications
Level 1 Wage: $24.06/hour - $50,045/year
www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?area=40900&code=15-1031.00&year=8&source=1
H-1Bs are hired even when qualified
Americans are available
My personal observation:
In every case of an H-1b being hired that I've
witnessed in the past four years, there were plenty
of qualified American applicants available to fill the
job. Generally the H-1b was hired because they
had more of some arbitrary skill requirement (e.g.,
3 years of Oracle) or their bill rate was lower.
Americans are being displaced by H-1b’s
lack of U.S. worker recruitment
Testimonials collected from www.HireAmericansFirst.org
Exult
My husband lost his computer programming job when his company
imported cheaper programmers from India.
Lucent Technologies
I was displaced from my contract position in August 2001 while the
H-1B guest workers were retained.
PG&E (San Francisco)
My company was actively hiring Indian contractors through Tata and
Infosys at the time I was let go.
Cognizant
The company is phasing out American consultants, and later this
year, American employees of that company.
Testimonials – page 2
MMO and SnapOn
Replaced by H-1B. Spouse replaced by guest worker too.
General Electric Healthcare
I am now retired from GE Healtcare, Milwaukee. I was forced into
retirement at age 60, and eventually replaced by H-1B workers.
Several American engineers have been replaced at GE by H-1B
and green card workers.
AT&T/TATA
In October 2001 our office was notified that come Jan 1, 2002 the
office would be closed. Within days of the closing, foreign nations
were being bused in to the vacated center.
The University of Chicago
Laid off, lost valuable benefits while H-1b workers retained. Not
interviewed for 81 positions while at same time U.S. Labor Dept. of
Labor approved 208 foreign nationals to work at same employer
Testimonials – page 3
Lincoln Financial
Applied for an Actuate Developer job at company and was turned
down. However, they did hire a colleague of mine for the same
position who was an H-1B worker and who I had trained and
mentored at a previous employer.
Mastercard
In 2001, lost contract as company moved away from Americans to
H-1B contractors
McDonalds, Discover, and others
The issue I am facing is L-1s now more than H-1b visas. L-1 are
being used to bring a foreign workers over for training and then the
company eliminates higher cost employees and consultants.
Phillips Semiconductor
In 1998 I was replaced by an H-1b from India while working at
Phillips Semiconductor in Mountain View California.
Testimonials – page 4
Cognizant Technologies
Indian Consulting firms set up phony interviews with the objective of
gaining salary information.
PERM FAKE ADS
I applied for many positions listed in ads only to find out that the
position listed were mostly ads to justify H-1B positions of people
working for companies whose H-1B positions were being renewed.
IBS US (El Dorado Hills, California)
H-1B workers never complained about working weekends without
pay, as they were faced with losing their Visa if they lost their job.
Laid off in 2001 while H-1B holders were retained.
IBM
After 30 years as an IT professional, I cannot get so much as an
interview.
Testimonials – page 5
Anthem Blue Cross California
As a programmer at Anthem Blue Cross, I was among many who
were coerced into taking early retirement in lieu of losing our
retirement benefits. This made room for more H-1b visa
programmers from India.
Fiserv
Company laid off all American programmers and kept foreigners
H-1Bs and other visa holders.
WiPro & InfoSys
I just finished my M.S. Degree in Computer Science. I continue to
see U.S. Citizen's jobs outsourced or offshored or both to India and
China. My current company employs Wipro & InfoSys. They are
laying off U.S. workers and hiring "contractors" from these two
companies to do their job in the U.S. (under visa program) or in
India.
WHY ARE AMERICANS BEING DISPLACED
BY H-1B AND L-1 WORKERS?
BECAUSE
IT IS
LEGAL
There is no requirement to first
consider qualified U.S. worker
applicants
U.S. companies object to first considering
qualified American applicants
[Robert Hoffman, VP for government and public
affairs at Oracle and spokesman for Compete
America] says that a requirement for U.S.
companies to try to hire American workers first
doesn't make sense. "To focus on that is missing
the whole point of the program," he says. Hoffman
says that tech companies face a shortage of skilled
workers so they should have the latitude to hire
talented employees, wherever they're from.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/mar2007/db20070326_868213_page_2.htm
Business Week 3/27/2007: Immigration Reform: Americans First?
Indian Consulting Firms object to first
considering qualified American applicants
A requirement to hire Americans first would present
particular problems for Indian outsourcing companies that
operate in the U.S. Wipro and Infosys Technologies are
among the most active users of H-1B visas, typically to
bring Indian employees to work in their U.S. operations.
"That kind of proposal may not work," says Sridhar
Ramasubbu, chief financial officer for the Americas and
Europe at Wipro. "Companies need to go and get talent
wherever it is available."
(NOTE: Only a small fraction of their workforce consists of
U.S. workers.)
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/mar2007/db20070326_868213_page_2.htm
Business Week 3/27/2007: Immigration Reform: Americans First?
Industry opposes $1,200 annual fee to fund
$15,000 scholarships
In response to a Senate Bill that would have charged $1,200
per year for each H-1b worker - to be used to provide
$15,000 annual scholarships for American college students,
Oracle VP- CompeteAmerica Robert Hoffman said:
"We're open to paying a little more if that's what's
needed," Hoffman said. "But to more than triple the
fee is ludicrous."
After pressure from Compete America and others, the Senate
killed the fee increase.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-21601556.htm
They claim there is a shortage of Americans studying STEM, but then they
kill a nominal fee that would have provided substantial scholarships?
Intel Folsom has unreasonable Job
Requirements that exclude U.S. applicants
INTEL position 484041 (posted in 2005): Minimum seven years developing
web applications? Not many people have been consistently developing web
apps in Windows prior to 1998. Perhaps 90% of otherwise qualified
applicants are being filtered out by these arbitrary "qualifications":
Qualifications: You should possess a Master or a Bachelor of Science
degree in Computer Engineering or Computer Science with minimum five to
seven years of application development experience in Windows*-based web
applications. You must have recent IT-related work experience and
familiarity with IT business systems and processes. Additional qualifications
include:
-Must have experience in .NET* as a core competency as well as web development skills including
ASP*, Component Object Model (COM), Extensible Markup Language (XML) and/or XSL, and SQL*
server. Advanced scripting skills in Perl, and Windows* Scripting; Good understanding of relational
database design principles, data modeling and database programming; Advanced knowledge in
developing SQL* databases and of SQL* Enterprise Manager ; Software engineering skills
(requirements gathering, analysis, design, programming and/or development, testing, troubleshooting
and debugging skills) Strong Project Management skills, process and detail oriented and
documentation skills
-http://www.programmersguild.org/docs/intel_hiring_software_engineers_or_not.html
Intel sponsors H-1b workers while laying
off American Employees
More cuts at Intel's Folsom Campus
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2006/09/11/daily13.html
Another 61 employees at Intel Corp.'s Folsom campus will
receive layoff notices between now and Sept. 24, bringing the
total number of jobs cut here this summer to 191. Earlier this
summer in Folsom, 53 information-technology and humanresources employees received layoff notices and 77
management jobs were cut. Of the 191 layoffs, only the
management jobs were immediately cut. All other employees
are being "redeployed," meaning they get a chance to look
for another job within the company. If they don't find one
within two months, their jobs will be terminated.
Intel LCAs for Software Engineers FY 2005
Intel Claims that they are “not hiring
Software Engineers” in 2005
In May 2005 Intel acknowledges that many U.S. Software
Engineers are out of jobs, claims they are not hiring, but
then files dozens of LCAs for Software Engineers.
SYSTEM IS BACKWARD:
Hire First - Recruit Later
While there is no requirement to consider U.S.
applicants when hiring an H-1b, when they convert
to green card the position must be advertised to
demonstrate that “no qualified Americans are
available.”
This is the PERM recruiting of Cohen & Grigsby on
YouTube stating that “Our objective is to NOT find
a qualified and interested U.S. worker” and
proceeded to explain the means of excluding even
highly qualified Americans in order to get the
PERM application approved.
http://www.programmersguild.org/docs/youtube_media.html
Programmers Guild H-1b Reforms
• True prevailing wage of at least what average Americans
earn within the same job classifications.
• H-1b and L-1 LCAs only approved after the employer has
conducted good faith, transparent recruitment, and was
unable to find any qualified U.S. candidates, at any price.
• H-1b only granted to U.S. business entities with as direct
hires - not to consulting firms (Indian or otherwise) to be
re-shopped against American job seekers.
• H-1b to include a $1,200 annual fee that would be used
to fund $15,000 scholarships for American college students
in STEM programs - consistent with legislation that Senator
Sanders has introduced twice.
www.programmersguild.org