Microsoft, Intel Firings Stir Resentment Over Visas (Update1)Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.’s plan to eliminate U.S. workers after lobbying for more foreigner visas is stirring resentment among lawmakers and employees.As many as 5,000 employees are being shown the door at Microsoft, which uses more H1-B guest-worker visas than any other U.S. company. Some employees and politicians say Microsoft should get rid of foreigners first.“If they lay people off, are they going to think of America first or are they going to think of the world first?” Chuck Grassley, a Republican Senator from Iowa, said in an interview. He sent a letter to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer the day after Microsoft announced the job cuts last month, demanding Ballmer fire visa holders first.Across the technology industry, some of the biggest users of H1-B visas are cutting jobs, including Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. The firings at Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, came less than a year after Chairman Bill Gates lobbied Congress for an expansion of the visa program.Even before Microsoft announced the cuts, its first-ever companywide layoffs, comments on a blog run by an anonymous Microsoft worker angrily debated getting rid of guest workers first. The author of the Mini-Microsoft blog eventually had to censor and then completely block all arguments about visas, after the conversation “got downright nasty.”New HiresMicrosoft is hiring 2,000 to 3,000 workers over the next 18 months, offsetting the job cuts. Some of those will certainly be on H1-B visas, said Ginny Terzano, a spokeswoman for the Redmond, Washington-based company. She declined to comment on how many workers laid off are on visas. Laid-off Microsoft employees aren’t always a good fit for new positions, she said.“If you have a laid off General Motors engineer, that doesn’t qualify them for a job as a software engineer,” Terzano said. “It’s the same with some of the people laid off at our company.”Microsoft fell 17 cents to $17.74 at 9:39 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares tumbled 45 percent last year.The slumping economy and rising unemployment may make it harder for technology companies to persuade the government to expand the H1-B program, designed to attract workers in areas such as science and technology. Since the annual number of H1-B visas issued dropped to 65,000 in 2004 from 195,000 in previous years, the program has been oversubscribed before each year even began. In 2008, the government reached the maximum number of applications just one week after it began accepting them.‘Best Talent’Asked about whether some companies may back off from lobbying for more H1-B visas, Intel Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith said that could happen as hiring drops. Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, is closing five older plants by year- end, affecting as many as 6,000 jobs.“Our strategy has always been to hire the best talent we can hire anywhere in the world,” Smith said in an interview this month. “It’s the fuel that moves our industry forward.”Companies like Microsoft, which sent Gates to persuade Congress to ease visa restrictions in March, could be forced to curb those efforts, said Microsoft Vice President Dan’l Lewin.“People probably will be a lot more cautious about how public they are, but it’s not going to go away as an issue,” he said. “You need the people.”Stimulus BillOpponents of the program are using the economy and job cuts as a way to up the volume of the debate. The Senate added an amendment co-authored by Grassley to the economic stimulus bill signed this week that restricts the hiring of H1-B visa holders at more than 300 banks receiving government bailout funds.Even Zoe Lofgren, a congresswoman representing San Jose, California, said in an interview that U.S. companies slashing jobs should keep Americans where possible. She introduced legislation in 2008 to make it easier for foreign students studying for advanced degrees to stay in the country.While workers on H1-B visas aren’t included in a law that protects green-card holders from employment discrimination, Grassley’s demand that Microsoft fire foreigners first may still violate civil rights laws, said Howard Chang, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.Transportation CostsForeigners face severe difficulties when they are fired because their visas are tied to their employer, said Paul Soreff, a Seattle lawyer and former chairman of the Washington Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. While employers must pay for a visa holder’s ticket home, transporting other family members and their possessions falls on the worker.Still, Grassley has supporters among groups that lobby for technology workers, such as the Programmers Guild and the Alliance for IBM. IBM has cut about 4,000 jobs, based on separation agreements dated last month. IBM spokesman Ian Colley didn’t return a call seeking comment.“Nobody wants to be cold-hearted -- they’re workers just like us,” said Lee Conrad, national coordinator of the IBM group, which is seeking union recognition. “But IBM is making long-term employees walk the plank. The H1-B people should be cut first.”=============and what the heck is going on in Kentucky?<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1980 -- 2/19/2009 >>>>>Lexington, Kentucky just hired a bunch of H-1B school teachers in Kentuckyto teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) classes.Importing Filipino teachers is nothing new as this newsletter has beenreporting about it for years. The article below calls what is going on atrend:Recruiting foreign teachers to fill critical shortage areas has beena trend in American elementary and secondary education for about adecade.Of course as we all know there are many unemployed and underemployed STEMsin the U.S. that are qualified and willing to teach these subjects inschool. The problem is that the schools won't hire them, even if they getcertified to teach. Schools want teachers that are young, cheap, compliant,and of course multi-lingual.The news article below contains a contradiction that can be difficult tocatch if you don't pay attention. Read this paragraph in the front part ofthe article that says they can't find "certified teachers".Home, for Dacles, is Manila, the Philippines. Now, however, he isone of 16 Filipino teachers working in the Fayette County PublicSchools, all recruited from overseas to teach in subject areassuch as math, science and special education, where certifiedteachers often are hard to find.Later in the article it says the Filipinos aren't certified to teach thosesubjects either! In other words, they are no more qualified than Americansto teach the subject. In most cases the Filipinos are less qualifiedbecause they got their educations in substandard schools and diploma millsin the Philippines.Kentucky shuns American teachers but it is more than happy to giveFilipinos fast track certifications so that they can get into theclassrooms quickly.As a result, the school system sometimes had to get emergencycertifications for people to teach STEM classes even thoughthey lacked background in those subjects, he said.For those of you that think Indian when you hear the word "bodyshop",perhaps this will broaden your outlook because many countries besides Indiahave set up shop here to import foreign labor. The bodyshop Kentucky hiredto import the teachers is called "Avenida International Consultants", whichsupposedly covers the cost of getting the teachers certified in Kentuckyand it pays for the other expenses related to travel and moving. What thearticle forgot to mention is that this bodyshop is infamous for takingtraining money and visa fees out of the pockets of their Filipinoemployees. That company has had lawsuits against their blatant indenturedlabor policies but it hasn't put them out of business -- in fact it appearsthat they are doing better than ever.Avenida International Consultants is owned by a slaver named LigayaAvenida. Her clients include West Contra Costa Unified, San Jose Unified,Oakland Unified School District, West Palm Beach, Florida, RavenswoodUnified, California, Memphis Unified, Columbia Public Schools, andBaltimore.Here is Avenida's website, and if you want to read more about her look upthese newsletters in the archive:http://www.ligayaavenida.com/2005-01-10 Baltimore Schools Circumvent H-1B limits2005-01-11 Ligaya Avenida imports Filipino teachers for California+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/700367.htmlPosted on Thu, Feb. 19, 2009Filipino teachers recruited for hard-to-fill jobs in LexingtonBy Jim Warrenjwarren@herald-leader.comArnold Dacles has had to make some adjustments during his first year ofteaching science at Leestown Middle School, particularly during the recentwintry weather.

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  • Not just tech jobs!!
    See this video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc9IGnH6MIc&feature=email
  • Yeah. I'm none too happy with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or the local Chambers of Commerce either. They have been lobbying for years for these Visa programs. IMO, they are in large part responsible for the mess we're in now. They pretty much shot themselves in the foot with all the crap. Their own greed has contributed to our country moving from capitalist towar socialism. And they still want to bring in more immigrants. Sometimes you have to clean out your own house of rodents and pest before you can attack the bigger problems.
  • http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvfL0sYDKOlh4NGbr...

    Microsoft has to hit up laid-off workers for money
    By JESSICA MINTZ – 1 hour ago

    SEATTLE (AP) — A few weeks after launching the first wide-scale layoffs in its history, Microsoft Corp. admits it screwed up a key part of the plan.

    The company is asking some laid-off employees for a portion of their severance back, saying an administrative glitch caused the software maker to pay them too much.

    Lou Gellos, a Microsoft spokesman, would not say how many of the 1,400 workers let go in January were overpaid, or by how much. Microsoft has said severance would be calculated by length of service and position in the company.

    The Redmond, Wash.-based software maker is asking former employees for reimbursement, by check or money order, within two weeks, according to a redacted letter posted by the technology blog TechCrunch. Gellos confirmed the letter's authenticity.

    With the recession biting into sales of Microsoft's core Office and Windows software, Microsoft said in January it would let up to 5,000 of its 94,000 employees go, the only mass layoff in its 34-year history.

    Shares of Microsoft sank 54 cents, or 3 percent, to $17.46 in afternoon trading amid a broader sell-off Monday.
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