Congress has been too busy taking bribes to do anything about the H-1B loop hole or the mass replacement of U.S. IT workers with much lower paid H-1B visa workers. Worse yet how this oppression helps turn otherwise good people into people with terrorist sympathies. They work each day making $60K or less right beside people who are making $160K or more doing the same job. The visa workers who are salaried also end up having to work quite a bit of overtime.
Featured image by Tapan Newpane from Pixabay
Technical Professional Unions
Well the United Steelworkers have actually begun doing something about it. They created the PATP (Pittsburgh Association of Technical Professionals) which will hopefully have a Florida branch soon so they can go after Disney. Hopefully you clicked on the link and read the short article. The workers, with help of PATP, petitioned the National Labor Board to unionize. With luck the vote will be scheduled before the end of the year.
H-1B Replace American Workers
Big name companies like Disney have been using the H-1B loop hole for years to mass replace U.S. citizens with foreign labor paid dramatically below market wages.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there must be many more workers near the min salary than the max salary to pull the average salary down so low. Back in 2016 I wrote a post here linking to a Yahoo story about how IT graduates are starting out north of $100K at many of these same companies. Here’s the 2019 salary article. Since Google is the company being targeted by this particular unionizing effort let’s take a look at what the article says about them.
Great American Oppressors
This information is available on the Internet so you know the H-1B worker has access to it. Just how warm and happy towards America do you think a worker pulling down a smidge over $58K doing the same job right next to the U.S. worker feels? Nah, it won’t grate on them at all. It won’t start them thinking the terrorists are right. Hearing their coworkers talk about how much the company stock they are paid is now worth won’t further grind away at them or plant the “Great American Oppressors” thought in their minds. It won’t encourage any of them to send part of their meager earnings back to actively fund/support terrorist activities. No, not at all. I’m sure the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee would never have published anything about Alternative Remittance Systems (ARS) being used to fund terrorism.
Movies to Understand How Bad Things Were
I believe it is fitting that unions are attempting to right this wrongful abuse. After all, many of the workers being exploited during early union days in America were immigrants. Kids today do not have an understanding of just how bad things were or just how bad today’s workers are still exploited. Here are some movies for your rental list.
The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal
This one is not about unions directly but speaks to the severe oppression immigrants faced in New York’s “Five Points.”
H-1B Oppressive Living
This brings me to one final point many/most of you choose to ignore each and every day. Do the tech H-1B visa workers at your company all stay in one or more extended stay hotels? Have some form of company provided “shuttle” to bring them back and forth? It has been my experience this is generally the case in the most oppressive shops. They will be four or more deep in one extended stay hotel room. Why? Because they aren’t paid enough to afford their own place. Yeah, you might be able to tell yourself “they are only doing that until they can find a place they like” but that only works for the first three months. What do you tell yourself when they’ve been living like that for a year?
Happy Labor Day Weekend!
