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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2013)
Top 10 users of H-1B guest worker program are offshore outsourcing firms By RON HIRA The H-1B ‘non-immigrant’ tempo- rary foreign guest worker program is called a valuable tool for employers to attract and retain the “best and bright- est” immigrants in the science, technol- ogy, engineering, and math fields. Be- cause employers may petition for permanent residence for their H-1B em- ployees, the visa is sometimes de- scribed as a “bridge to immigration” that will keep the smartest foreign STEM workers in the U.S. permanently and thus improve the nation’s competi- tiveness. In part, that’s how senators Orin Hatch (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Coons (R-Del.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), explain their new bill — known as the “I-Squared Act” — that would more than quadruple the size of the H-1B program (to 300,000). [The U.S. currently makes 85,000 H-1B visas available annually, but more can be approved for operations with ex- emptions, such as universities and non- profit research organizations. In fiscal year 2012, for instance, 134,780 H-1B petition requests were approved.] However, for the biggest users of the Fishing derby for Guide Dogs May 4 The third annual Salmon Fishing Derby will be held Saturday, May 4, on the docks at RiverPlace Marina, behind the RiverPlace Hotel in downtown Portland. The event, sponsored by Machinists District W24, is a fundraiser for Guide Dogs of America (GDA). The International Association of Machinists founded GDA in 1948 in Syl- mar, California, to train and provide guide dogs to the blind, free of charge. The organization receives no government funding. To breed, raise and train one guide dog costs $38,000. In two years, the Machinists District W24 derby has raised $24,000. Entry is $200 per person, with a limit of four anglers per boat. Boats are staffed with professional fishing guides. This year a limited number of anglers can use their own boats. Registration is $100 per angler. Prizes are awarded for biggest fish and most fish landed. Following the derby there will be a luncheon and raffle. The deadline to register is April 5. Sponsorship space also is available, ranging from $100 for a Bronze sponsor all the way to $1,500 for a Diamond sponsor. For more information or to register, go to www.iamw24.org or email com- municator@iamw24.org. program, this view is false: In 2012, the 10 employers receiving the largest num- ber of H-1B visas were all in the busi- ness of outsourcing and offshoring high-tech American jobs. Many of the jobs that went to H-1B workers should have instead gone to U.S. workers, but employers are not required to recruit them before applying for an H-1B, and can even replace their U.S. workers with H-1Bs. The top 10 H-1B employers were granted an astonishing 40,170 visas; nearly half the total annual quota. There are two reasons these firms hire H-1Bs instead of Americans: 1) an H-1B worker can legally be paid less than a U.S. worker in the same occupation and locality; 2) the H-1B worker learns the job and then rotates back to the home coun- try and takes the work with him. That’s why the H-1B was dubbed the “Out- sourcing Visa” by the former Com- merce Minister of India, Kamal Nath. Rather than keeping jobs from leav- ing our shores, the H-1B does the op- posite, by facilitating offshoring and providing employers with cheap, tem- porary labor — while reducing job op- portunities for American high-tech workers in the process. The I-Squared Act does nothing to protect against this, while vastly ex- panding the size of a deeply flawed pro- gram that accelerates the offshoring of American high-tech jobs and reduces America’s future capacity to innovate. H-1B visa approvals Company Cognizant Tata Infosys Wipro Accenture HCL America Mahindra Group (incl Satyam) IBM Larsen & Toubro Deloitte 2012 9281 7469 5600 4304 4037 2070 2011 5095 1659 3360 2803 1304 930 1963 1846 1832 1668 404 987 1156 798 Employers with the most new H-1B visa application approvals in fiscal year 2012. Source: Computerworld analysis of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service data. Some company divisions were combined, such as IBM Corp. and IBM India, Tata consulting and engi- neering groups, etc. (Editor’s Note: Ron Hira is a re- search associate for the Economic Pol- icy Institute.) ...Immigration reform links labor, U.S. Chamber (From Page 1) 1. An independent commission to assess and manage future immigration, based on labor market shortages that are determined on the basis of actual need; 2. A secure and effective worker au- thorization mechanism; 3. Rational operational control of the border; 4. Adjustment of status for the cur- rent undocumented population; and 5. Improvement, not expansion, of temporary worker programs. Bearing those principles in mind, la- bor leaders met with representatives of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Jan- uary and February to discuss how to fix immigration in a way that benefits both workers and employers, with a focus on less-skilled occupations. “American workers should have a first crack at available jobs,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in their Feb. 21 joint statement. But in instances when employers are not able to fill job openings with Amer- ican workers, they said, businesses should be able to hire foreign workers while fully protecting the wages and working conditions of U.S. and immi- grant workers. “Among other things, this requires a new kind of worker visa program that does not keep all workers in a perma- nent temporary status, provides labor mobility in a way that still gives Amer- ican workers a first shot at available $17 a month coverage includes: jobs, and that automatically adjusts as the American economy expands and contracts,” the joint statement said. On Feb. 19, the Oregon AFL-CIO held a press conference outside the U.S. immigration office in Northwest Port- land. As a show of unity, Oregon AFL- CIO President Tom Chamberlain stood alongside Francisco Lopez of the im- migrant rights group CAUSA, Brenda Mendoza of the farmworker advocacy group PCUN, and Hugo Nicolas, an un- documented immigrant from Mexico who was brought by his parents to the United States at age 11. Chamberlain said the Oregon labor movement has spent the last 18 months building rela- tionships with immigrants rights organ- izations. “Immigration reform is a family is- sue, it’s a workers issue, and it’s an American issue,” Chamberlain said. “We are not a nation that treats people as second class citizens. We’re not a na- tion that allows an immigration policy that allows for the exploitation of work- ers. That’s not what this country’s about.” On March 5, the Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Board will consider a resolu- tion calling on Congress to pass “com- mon-sense immigration reform” re- flecting the AFL-CIO and Change to Win federation joint principles, and committing the Oregon AFL-CIO to communicate that position to Oregon’s congressional delegation. Low Prices! www.legalshield.com/info/randallnix MARCH 1, 2013 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 PAGE 5
