FA Question:
How will foreign (H-1B) IT workers controlling our critical infrastructure
maintain the “security” of the Smart Grid promised by DHS?
Southern California Edison’s replacement
of IT workers with H-1B workers is
getting attention from one U.S. lawmaker who is in a positon to influence
immigration law.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who heads the Senate’s immigration
subcommittee and has emerged as a strong critic of the H-1B visa, cited
SCE’s layoffs in a speech in the Senate on Thursday.
“Apparently, Southern California Edison — a power company
rooted in the United States of America… [and] a quasi-almost-government entity
under the regulatory powers of the State [is] terminating the employment
of people who have been with them for a number of years,” said Sessions.
The utility, Southern California’s largest, is cutting
about 500 IT workers, 100 of them through voluntary departures and others
through layoffs. The layoffs have been happening in phases since August. A
group was due to be laid off today, and another group is scheduled to go on
March 6. The company says the layoffs will be completed by the end of the March.
SCE “is transitioning those positions to foreign employees
who have come in under the H-1B visa program for the sole purpose of taking
a job. They are not coming under the immigration policy where they would
move from green card into permanent residence and into citizenship. They
come solely for a limited period of time to take a job, and they work for less
pay too often,” said Sessions.
The layoffs began after SCE began transitioning some of
its IT work to two India-based IT services firms, Infosys and Tata Consultancy
Services.
Sessions, on the floor of the Senate, read parts of
Computerworld’s story about the workers — along with some of their quotes —
while adding in his own observations.
Sessions criticized President Barack Obama’s support
for an increase in the H-1B cap, but some in his own party support
an H-1B cap hike.
“What is in the interest of American workers at a time
when we are laying off large numbers of workers — skilled and unskilled?”
said Sessions. “Do we really need massive increases in foreign workers? Do
we need to pass legislation that would double the number of guest workers
that come into the country at this time? I think not.”
Here is a partial transcript of Session’s remarks from the
Congressional Record:
“Here is a dramatic article in Computerworld about the
big power company in California–Southern California Edison. What have they
done recently? Information technology workers at Southern California
Edison are being laid off and replaced by workers from India. Some employees
are training their H-1B visa-holding replacements, and many have already lost
their jobs. The employees are upset and they say they can’t understand how
H-1B guest workers can be used to replace them since they are already doing
the job now.
“Apparently, Southern California Edison — a power company
rooted in the United States of America — is converting, laying off, and terminating
the employment of people who have been with them for a number of years.
Southern California Edison is transitioning those positions to foreign
employees who have come in under the H-1B visa program for the sole purpose
of taking a job. They are not coming under the immigration policy where
they would move from green card into permanent residence and into citizenship.
They come solely for a limited period of time to take a job, and they work for
less pay too often.
“This is what one person said: ‘They are bringing in people
with a couple of years’ experience to replace us and then we have to train
them,’ said one long-time IT worker. ‘It’s demoralizing and in a way I kind
of felt betrayed by the company.”
“I bet he did. Continuing to quote from the article:
“SCE, Southern California’s largest utility — which is a
quasi-almost-government entity under the regulatory powers of the State —
has confirmed the layoffs and the hiring of Infosys, based in Bangalore,
and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Mumbai. They are two of the largest
users of H-1B visas.
“Apparently, what happens is these companies sign up
workers in — in this case — India, and they call up the big power company and
say: Look, we have all these young people who have an education, and your
salaries are real generous to them, they like your salaries, and we will just
send them over on H-1B visas. They can stay 3 years and then return to their
country and you can get rid of all those American workers. Maybe you will
not have to pay such high retirement or health care benefits.
“The article goes on to say: Computerworld interviewed, separately, four affected SCE
IT employees. They agreed to talk on the condition that their names not be
used. The IT employees at SCE are ‘beyond furious,’ said a second IT worker.
The H-1B program ‘was supposed to be for projects and jobs that American
workers could not fill,’ this worker said. ‘But we’re doing our job. It’s not
like they are bringing in these guys for new positions that nobody
can fill.’
“It goes on to say: ‘Not one of these jobs being filled by
India was a job that an Edison employee wasn’t already performing,”
he said.
“It goes on to talk about this. Professor Ron Hira, who
studied this in great depth and has written about this problem for some
time, made some comments on it, too: The SCE outsourcing ‘is one more case,
in a long line of them, of injustice where American workers are being
replaced by H-1B’s,’ said Ron Hira, a public policy professor at Howard University,
and a researcher on offshore outsourcing. Adding to the injustice, American
workers are being forced to do ‘knowledge transfer,’ an ugly euphemism for
being forced to train their foreign replacements.’
“He goes on to say: ‘Americans should be outraged that
most of our politicians have sat idly by while outsourcing firms have
hijacked the guest worker programs.”
“So the guest worker program is supposed to help businesses.
If they can’t get people to work, then they can apply to this program, which
has some limits. Yet the President proposes doubling the number of people
who can come in with H-1B visas to work. He wants to double that number. He
has been demanding that. But Mr. Hira said:
“‘The majority of the H-1B program is now being used to
replace Americans and to facilitate offshoring of high wage jobs.’
“So this is a pretty thorough article in Computerworld, and it is a growing
problem in the high-tech industry.”
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http://agenda21news.com/2015/03/southern-california-edison-layoffs-get-u-s-senate-attention/#more-5025
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