Lou Dobbs had three excellent reports about Nielsen replacing American workers at the Oldsmar location. The three videos on Youtube and the transcripts are below,

So far mainstream media has ignored this story. Is there anyone in Florida who could get more media coverage of this travesty? Perhaps WKMB (the station that did the Mike Emmons/Siemens stories) would take this on if prodded by Florida residents. In case you don’t know about the Siemens story, go to this web page and search for “WKMG”.

If anyone in Florida sees local TV news coverage of the Nielsen story, please record it and then contact me.

Nielsen replaces workers with H-1Bs from Tata Part 1

(more…)

The Nielsen Company in Oldsmar, Florida is replacing some of its workers with H-1Bs that contract with the bodyshop Tata (TCS). Nielsen employees who lose their jobs are required to train their Indian replacements in order to retain their severance and pension payments.

All of this got the attention of city council members, but not in the way we would hope. Mayor Jim Ronecker  [Email him] makes no distinction between the citizens who are losing their jobs and the foreigners who are replacing them — he only cares that more workers are coming to Oldsmar to increase the tax base.

His [Ronecker] hope is that as Nielsen consolidates its global workload, it will bring more jobs to Oldsmar–whether they are filled by contractors or not. “At the end of the day, in a couple of short years, we’re going to have a lot more workers than we could ever have envisioned in Oldsmar,” he said.[Nielsen gives up incentives from Oldsmar, By
Theresa Blackwell, St. Petersburg Times, June 20, 2008]

Ronecker showed his true colors here, and it’s not red, white, and blue!

“It’s a global company. It’s not all about America anymore, and we’re right in the middle of it.” [VDARE.com note: In fact,what Mayor Ronecker is right in the middle of is America.]

Eric Seidel’s main concern is that Oldsmar doesn’t appear racist, so he wants to roll out the welcome mat to the Indians who work for Tata.

“We probably should be very mindful of giving the perception that here in Oldsmar, if you don’t look like us, we don’t welcome you,” he said.[ A softer tone on Nielsen, By
Theresa Blackwell, St. Petersburg Times,June 18, 2008]

The only city council member to speak against Nielsen was Janice Miller who said: “That is just unacceptable!”[Nielsen layoffs raise concern April 14, 2008]

One of the perplexing things about this story is that Nielsen has been given $3.1-million in incentives to create new jobs in Pinellas County. Because of the uproar this controversy has caused, Nielsen has agreed to forgo receiving an additional $463,372. Apparently Nielsen thinks the company is coming out ahead by hiring the H-1Bs even without the cash handout by the city.

The St. Petersburg Times seems to be the only newspaper that is covering the story. Perhaps it’s my imagination, but the first story was very hard hitting while each one after that got a little softer.

Some “Fast Facts” on Nielsen’s reductions from the St. Petersburg Times [ Nielsen begins more layoffs, By
Theresa Blackwell, June 24, 2008]

• 117: Jobs lost in 2007 to company restructuring
• 115: Jobs outsourced to India’s TCS in late 2007 and in 2008
• 170: Additional jobs going to TCS in 2008/early 2009
• 15 : Percentage of Nielsen’s Oldsmar work to be outsourced by 2009

A few of the cynics on my mailing list will probably accuse me of finally selling out the cause because I am endorsing a bill that increases the number of nonimmigrant workers. The Weiner bill is an awesome idea because it increases the number of beautiful foreign ladies that can come to the U.S. for employment. Folks, this newsletter isn’t a joke, the bill is for real! Read on for details.

Remember when Bill Gates argued that if we don’t allow more H-1Bs into the country Microsoft will move engineering jobs overseas? Similar arguments are made for allowing more cute girls into the U.S. [VDARE.com note: Approach with caution.]

“If there are girls that we can’t get into the United States, the client is going to take that business elsewhere,” said Corinne Nicolas, president of Trump Model Management. “The market is calling for foreign girls.”

Weiner’s bill will move fashion models out of the H-1B category, which is in short supply, and into the P visa category, which has no yearly quota and offers unlimited yearly extensions. P visas are used mostly for entertainers and athletes. It has an anchor baby provision that allows spouses and unmarried children to accompany the P Visa holder.

Weiner’s bill effectively increases the number of available H-1B visas because 1,000 fashion models will no longer affect the yearly cap on H-1B. Fewere fashion models on H-1Bs means more visas that can be used to import engineers and programmers.

All of this sounds too good to be true (the more beautiful women part at least) so I did some research to find out if there is any truth to the two articles included below. The prospect of importing beautiful women into the U.S. got me so excited I worked throughout the evening to verify the existence of the bill (which explains why I’m sending it so late, Oink! Oink!).

Here it is:

H.R. 4080: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish a separate nonimmigrant classification for fashion models

Unfortunately the bill doesn’t have any co-sponsors so it’s unclear if Congress is going to support it. When time permits, be sure to call your representative and ask why he/she hasn’t signed on as a co-sponsor. You might even ask Hillary Clinton if she will sponsor the Weiner bill in the Senate.

Click on the link to the NY Daily News article to see some pictures of the hotties that might use the new P visa category. After seeing those pictures you will probably agree that sacrificing an additional 1,000 programming jobs is a price worth paying!

Weiner: Bring on hotties from overseas

By Jo Piazza And David Saltonstall

June 11th 2008,

Give me your torrid, your pure, your totally smokin’ foreign babes.

Apparently, the 43-year-old Weiner - now going steady with Hillary Clinton aide and Vogue hottie Huma Abedin - thinks New York needs more professional catwalkers from Europe, Asia and other fabulous places.

“From Fashion Week to our vibrant publishing industry to the many designers that call New York City home, fashion is a vital part of our economy that drives thousands of jobs,” Weiner told the Daily News. [More]

On the home page of NRISoft they boast that they are an alternative to working for H-1b sweat shops and H1b body shops. Well it’s always nice to have an alternative to indentured servitude and exploitation, if they really offer it.

They even quote Norman Matloff on prevailing wages. When I saw that I couldn’t help but think of those TV advertisements that claim their drug is “recommended by doctors”. That’s quite clever and could be the first time a bodyshop has said something positive about Matloff, but of course they claim they are an un-sweatshop, which might also make them an unbodyshop. Matloff advocates that the prevailing salary regulations should be changed in order to reduce the loopholes, so what better person to quote?

I’m not sure what this means from their FAQs page, and I have read it several times. Maybe something was lost in the translation.

War on Sweat Shops and Body Shops! Is NRISoft fighting this war? No, NRISoft is not fighting the war against exploitation. NRISoft is just a weapon.

NRISoft claims they are against exploitation, which is good, but they seem to have no qualms about discriminating against everyone but Indian nationals. Case in point from the FAQs page:

NRISoft is taking applications from professionals holding H1b visa status. We predominantly serve the H1b community. Although we do accept professionals with greencard and American citizenship.

NRISoft states that they accept applications from Americans, but they never claim that Americans are hired. How many US citizens do you think are on their payroll?

NRISoft gets more specific about what type of foreigner they are looking for on their “about us” page. After a list of companies they contract to, such as Apple, HP, IBM, Motorola, Sun, etc. they drop the real bomb–they only want to hire Indian nationals. This probably means that H-1Bs from other countries are about as welcome as US citizens. Just guessing but I’ll bet that NRI is an acronym for “non resident Indian”.

NRISoft is formed to help non resident Indians on H1b visa status to market themselves and get paid at going rate in the United States.

iGate/Mastech recently was fined $45,000 for advertising that was no more blatant. The fine was a tiny tap on the wrist but you would think it would make other bodyshops hesitate. The message doesn’t seem to be getting through to NRISoft, but maybe that’s because they are an unsweatshop unbodyshop.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The quotes from the NRISoft website were copied slightly before my newsletter was published. Don’t assume that the contents of their pages will remain the same by the time you go there.

I will be on the legendary George Putnam talk-radio show on Tuesday May 20. I will be live broadcast at 1:30 PM PST.

Putnam’s show is available online in streaming audio which can be listened to at either of these websites:

http://www.crni.net/

http://www.crntalk.com/default.aspx

To listen to the show, click the box on the right where it says “now playing, listen live” “CRN1″

There is a toll free call-in telephone number if you want to chat with us: 1-800-336-2225

This is show schedule:

CRN1 12-2pm PT\3-5pm ET (live)

CRN1 8-10pm PT\11p-12a ET (replay)

CRN1 12am-2am PT\3-5am ET (replay)

<<<<<>>>>>

I have been on the air with George Putnam many times, but this time the host will be Chuck Wilder who is standing in for George.

We will probably discuss the pending vote by the Senate on allowing an amnesty to be amended to the Iraq supplemental spending bill.

Perhaps if we have time we might also talk a little about fishing. Go to this link if you think you might want to work in the fish business,

Click the picture to see a larger image. Be sure to follow the link to Ryan Kennedy’s op-ed to read even more about Alaska’s immigration mess.

Ryan Kennedy’s article about working on the Alaskan slime lines sure struck home, even though I’m in sunny Arizona. Check out this job ad that appeared in the East Valley Tribune in March.

According to that ad, if you get hired by Icicle Seafoods Inc. they will pay for your trip from Seattle to Alaska—but you have to pay your fare from wherever you live to Seattle. Travel expenses will sure cut into your earnings since you will only get paid $7.15 an hour, but not to worry—you will eventually break even with expenses as you put in 18 hour days doing very tedious and disgusting work. They pay overtime after 40 hours and if that doesn’t entice you, they even provide a bunk bed on their fishing boat with 15 other workers, and meals are served buffet style in the galley for free. In case those 18 hour days of cutting out fish guts isn’t enough exercise for you they provide a work out room, and there is even a TV to watch videos.

Just make sure that you really want to do this kind of work though because this job is a charade for indentured labor: if you quit before your contract is up you get stuck with the travel fees to get back home.

Icicle’s website provided a graphic description of the working environment:

Most of the work that we have is called “sliming” or cleaning fish. This type of work involves removing the viscera (guts) and cutting off heads, fins, gills, or tail. That means there are lots of fish guts and fish blood in the work area. The environment can be wet, cold, and drafty. Due to moving machinery, it is noisy and hearing protection is required. All work gear, including eye and hearing protection, are provided for you.

Things could get worse though. Check out this disclaimer:

Many people have unrealistic expectations about the amount of money they can make working in Alaska. The fishing industry is extremely unpredictable. Even during a good season, the wages you earn in Alaska may be comparable to or less than what you can earn elsewhere. Also, because this is seasonal work, you cannot depend on it for steady income.
Remember: no fish, no work; lots of fish, lots of work!

There might even be worse places to work, that is if you believe Icicle’s website:

Finally, we hope you choose to work with Icicle Seafoods because we believe we have the best program to offer!

So, what sane person would work under such intolerable conditions? What kind of desperation could motivate somebody to take such a pitiful job? The website says they won’t hire illegal immigrants so, who will they hire?

The job ad gives some major clues for those of us who know the code words for “immigrants”. Look at that ad again and see if you can guess where the code is.

OK, I won’t hold you in suspense for too long. The job ad says you can mail your resume to addresses “@azdes.gov.” That’s the big giveaway because that’s the Arizona Department of Economic Security. The AZDES processes these ads so that employers can “prove” that no qualified Americans want the job. When the AZDES doesn’t receive resumes it is assumed that there aren’t any qualified Americans, so work visas are issued. In the case of the slimers, employers like Icicle will probably try to snatch some H-2B visas. This document shows how the AZDES rigs the game for employment based green cards

There is one other big clue about who they are hiring right on the Icicle website. They have an entire web page and separate application for students on J-1 visas.

Icicle is hiring foreign students who are going to our universities and who need summer jobs because the cost of rice is getting to high for them to eat.

If you want more information about why it’s so hard for American students to get summer jobs and internships, read my newly published article Thanks to feds, search for internships tougher, East Valley Tribune, April 27, 2008 .

It’s not unusual to see job ads that specify that the applicant must be an H-1B visa holder (this has been covered many times in this newsletter). Not much ever happens to companies for being so blatant, although a few of them have been warned by the DOJ to stop using discriminatory language.

Now a company finally got more than a warning–this time they got a light slap on the wrist! A large bodyshop called iGate Mastech was fined $45,000 dollars for discrimination against U.S. citizens.

A link to recent DOJ press release about the settlement is included below. The most peculiar thing about it is that they gave no indication that the Programmer’s Guild initiated the investigation, even though it was the PG who filed complaints about those fake job ads. Several articles that appeared in tech magazines gave the PG the credit they deserve for spurring the DOJ to take action against this company.

Under the circumstances it would seem reasonable to assume that iGate would be required to hire Americans to fill the 30 computer programmer jobs that were filled by discriminating–but don’t assume that. The DOJ press release doesn’t give any indication that iGate has to replace the 30 H-1Bs with Americans, so the $45,000 fine just amounts to the cost of doing business. On average employers save $20,000 a year per H-1B, so if iGate is allowed to retain these H-1Bs for the six year term of an H-1B visa they will save $3,600,000. That means they come out $3,555,000 ahead after the DOJ slaps them on the wrist.

So, what could get iGate in worse trouble than discriminating against Americans?

ANSWER: Underpaying H-1Bs!

One thing companies don’t want to do is to get caught intentionally paying H-1Bs less than the prevailing salary. Even though the prevailing salary regulations have many loopholes that allow employers to legally game the system, sometimes companies still try to push their luck.

iGate got into more trouble: the Dept. of Labor nailed them for underpaying 156 Filipino physical therapists. iGate will be fined $512,000 in civil penalties and they will have to pay $3 million in back wages owed to the workers. Keep in mind that the $3 million they will pay back to the Filipinos is nothing more than the wages iGate would pay if they were following the rules.

Call it a coincidence, but it looks like iGate stands to break even from all of this: they save $3.5 million by discriminating against Americans and they have to pay the Filipinos $3.5 million. Actually iGate will come out ahead because they will still be able to employ the Filipinos at a prevailing salary that will be below what American physical therapists would make. If iGate employes the therapists for 6 years, they stand to save $18,720,000 minus $3.5 million.

After all is said and done, except for legal fees iGate will come out about $18 million ahead, which doesn’t seem like much of a deterrent to others that want to replace Americans with the cheap young blood of foreign workers.

MY CONCLUSION: Discrimination against Americans is embarrassing but not a big deal because the priority of our government is to protect foreign workers, not citizens.. Underpaying foreign workers by cheating the loophole-laden prevailing salary regulations is bad for business because violators will have to pay back wages and might have to pay a perfunctory civil fine.

• FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–USDOJ iGate Mastech Inc. to Pay $45,000 in Civil Penalties to Settle Discrimination Claim
• ESA News Release New York City staffing company charged with violating H-1B program following U.S. Labor Department finding almost $3 million in back wages due 156 workers Advanced Professional Marketing Inc. also assessed civil penalty of $512,000
• Company Posting ‘H-1B Only’ Job Ads Fined $45K
• DOJ settles H-1B job ad case for $45,000
• Consulting firm settles H-1B discrimination case iGate case is tip of visa-abuse iceberg, lobbyist claims

The following two stories are blatant propaganda pieces, but there is one tidbit of information in each that’s worth noting: notice the way they recognize that Optional Practical Training is a de facto H-1B visa. These two quotes tell it all:

‘When we go to hire someone, they are typically working off of their student visas,’ Scott said. ‘[Because of the H-1B scarcity], you don’t know if these individuals that you’ve hired are going to get a [visa] and if you’re going to be able to continue to employ them past a particular date in that year.’[Visa shortage hurting Georgia businesses By Urvaksh Karkaria The Atlanta Business Chronicle, April 28, 2008 ]

Other applicants are still worrying, though. Henry Suelau, a lawyer with Miles & Stockbridge PC in Baltimore, said his firm submitted about two dozen applications for clients. Many applicants, such as Baltimore Aircoil’s, work on extended student visas that expire a year after their college graduation. But the visas they applied for this month don’t become effective until Oct. 1. Workers whose student visas expire next month may be forced to leave the country before they learn the status of their application.[Lottery keeps visa applicants in dark By Scott Dance The Baltimore Business Journal (MD), April 28, 2008 ]

I find it more than interesting that these two articles, by two different authors, writing for two different magazines, had such similar things to write. Oh well, it’s probably just one of those weird coincidences!

What makes Optional Practical training so pernicious is that Americans are excluded from the entire hiring process. Here’s how the process works to leave Americans out of the hiring game:

• * A foreign student at one of our universities is hired by a company. The student is given authorization to work as an intern either before or right after graduation by using Optional Practical Training (OPT) program.
• * That student can work up to 29 months, in which time his employer can file for an H-1B visa or a green card. The time limit used to be 12 months until the DHS recently extended the window to 27 months (see recent newsletters about OPT). In effect, when the DHS increased the time window, they allowed far more aliens to work here without having to obtain H-1B visas. It’s a convenient way to get around the H-1B cap, and that’s why the OPT extension acts as a “de facto” H-1B increase. By extending the window the DHS will create a huge new pool of educated foreign workers waiting for H-1B visas who will be like airplanes in a holding pattern, at an airport, waiting to land.
• * During the time the student is working as an intern with OPT, the employer never has to look for another worker. American students, and those who recently graduated that may have several years work experience, are never even considered because the job position is already filled.
• * When the H-1B visa is granted the foreign student on OPT, for all practical purposes, becomes a permanent employee. The employer never even has to interview for a new hire. No interviews mean that Americans looking for work never knew there was a job opening. The OPT gives employers plausible deniability if they are ever asked if they looked for American workers because they never actually had an open job position — they had an INTERNSHIP instead. Of course employers aren’t required to consider Americans for OPT or H-1B, but at least H-1B regulations state that they should make a “good faith” effort to look for qualified Americans.

Norm Matloff discussed OPT in a 2006 newsletter called “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act Of 2006″.

For the last 5-10 years, it has been typical in the industry to have a policy in which it is very difficult for a new graduate to get a software development job without having had internship/co-op experience. And if you don’t get into a development position at the beginning, it is quite difficult to get one later. In other words, internship/co-op experience is crucial to being able to have a development career.

Moreover, often in internship/co-op positions a bond develops between the employer and student, making it much easier for the student to get a permanent job with the employer after graduation.

The situation Matloff and I describe is not theoretical. In the year 2000 Norm Matloff uncovered a case where this exact scenario played out at a company called womenconnect.com, who hired a student from Mexico who was attending a U.S. university. To read about it go here.

I helped Matloff to do research that nailed womenconnect. At the time both of us thought the story would be a smoking gun that would cripple the H-1B program. Unfortunately the story was ignored by the media so it turned out to be a dud instead of a smoking gun. We sure tried though!

Last week Lou Dobbs had a very good show about H-1B. At issue is the new bill by Senator Cornyn to raise the H-1B cap.

Dobbs asked Bill Tucker an excellent question and Tucker fired off with the perfect answer: H-1B visas go mainly to low skilled entry level jobs!

It was a great report, except that Dobbs blew it right towards the end by showing undue respect for Cornyn.

DOBBS: This is, to me, shocking. Senator Cornyn, in most other respects, has demonstrated himself to be an able senator, man of integrity, and a well-informed senator. There is no possible explanation that this sponsorship is anything more than a reflexive, acquiescence to the demands of corporate lobbyists, putting intense pressure on Lieberman and Cornyn and all the other senators involved. This is so disappointing when it comes to Senator Cornyn. [ LOU DOBBS TONIGHT Aired April 15, 2008 - 19:30 ET]

This isn’t the first time Dobbs has coddled Cornyn. Every time Cornyn is on the show Dobbs gushes all over him. This is just one example:

“I will tell you straightforward. I think the Kyl-Cornyn legislation, if Senator Cornyn were here I would call it the Cornyn- Kyl legislation, I think a reasonable, intelligent basis to proceed.” Lou Dobbs, Lou Dobbs Tonight, CNN, March 28, 2006

What was Dobbs thinking? The Kyl-Cornyn bill was an amnesty bill with a huge H-1B increase, so Dobbs’ assessment was just plain wrong. I could write a book about Cornyn’s efforts to push H-1B increases–he has been trying to push H-1B increases ever since he became a Senator in 2003. In 2004 he was co-sponsor of the Kennedy amnesty bill and more recently in 2007 he co-sponsored the SKIL bill. The SKIL bill could be the worst escalation of guest worker visas and green cards ever, and Cornyn is still trying to get it passed either as a stand alone bill or as an amendment to something else.

I don’t know how else to put it–Cornyn stinks on H-1B and he stinks on almost every other substantial immigration issue.

Bottom line is this: It shouldn’t have taken Dobbs this long to get a clue. Dobbs invited Cornyn back to the show. If that happens hopefully Dobbs will put an end to the love fest.

Alameda County TB control officer Dr. Robert Benjamin warned that tuberculosis among H-1B visa holders has dramatically increased.

“During the dot-com boom, we in Alameda County and I know other Bay Area counties saw a dramatic increase in tuberculosis among the (H-1B) visa immigrants,” said Benjamin, the Alameda County TB control officer.” [New TB threat: Global ties bring an ancient disease to Silicon Valley By Mike Swift, San Jose Mercury News, April 18, 2008]

Dr. Benjamin laments the fact that H-1Bs aren’t screened for TB.

“I don’t know how or why, but at some point a decision was made by the State Department that if a U.S. company sponsors a highly educated, highly skilled worker, that they don’t need screening . . . . I think that just because they are highly educated and have a job doesn’t mean they can’t have TB.”

Dr. Benjamin is correct that H-1Bs aren’t required to be screened for TB, but he is wrong that the State Dept. changed their policy — H-1B nonimmigrants have never been required to be screened for infectious diseases, although some employers may ask that their H-1Bs be tested.

Believe it or not, there is a rationale to justify the avoidance of screening H-1Bs for TB. To understand the reasoning, however flawed it may be, it has to be understood that nonimmigrants, on temporary visas, and immigrants, who seek permanent residency, are considered very differently. H-1B visas are nonimmigrant, which in theory means that they come to this country temporarily and therefore are considered a lower risk of being a disease vector than a permanent immigrant.

H-1Bs are unlikely to ever get tested for TB unless they apply for a change of status to a green card. Once they apply for a green card they must get a TB test. Even if they test positive for TB they won’t necessarily be rejected because they can apply for a waiver by filing “I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility”.

All of this means that H-1B visas holders can be here for six years without ever being tested for tuberculosis. So, if in the period of six years the H-1B coughs, sneezes, or shouts the germs will spray into the air. Anyone who breathes their aerosol can be infected with the disease.

You may be wondering what kind of idiot politician would allow this to happen. I gotta surprise for you — it’s not politicians, it’s the AMA! Many of their politically correct physicians decided that the risk of tuberculosis is outweighed by the advantages of open border politics.

TB screening of nonimmigrant visitors, who are unlikely to have active TB and even less likely to transmit it, will be of extremely low yield, would significantly deviate from the US “open-door” policy for nonimmigrants, and would have great logistical and political implications. [Screening nonimmigrant visitors to the United States for tuberculosis: report of the Council on Scientific Affairs., Tan L, Altman RD, Nielsen NH; Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association., Arch Intern Med. 2001 Feb 12;161(3):334-40.]

Of course medical researchers and doctors wouldn’t rely on crass politics to fully justify this non testing policy. They did a cost vs. benefit analysis to figure out that testing nonimmigrants is just too dang expensive.

Screening and monitoring the nonimmigrant foreign-born population would divert valuable resources from now established, successful TB control programs for foreign-born immigrants.

PubMed doesn’t allow free access to the entire medical study, so I wasn’t able to see which group of shameless corporations paid for the study.