Displaced IT workers are being silenced

[raccoon]

Legal agreements -- and fear -- keep them from sharing what they know, leaving half the story untold

By Patrick Thibodeau

Computerworld | Dec 4, 2014 2:16 PM PT

A major problem with the H-1B debate is the absence of displaced IT workers in news media accounts. Much of the reporting is one-sided -- and there's a reason for this. An IT worker who is fired because he or she has been replaced by a foreign, visa-holding employee of an offshore outsourcing firm will sign a severance agreement. This severance agreement will likely include a non-disparagement clause that will make the fired worker extremely cautious about what they say on Facebook, let alone to the media.

(snip)

This situation has a major impact on how the news media covers the H-1B issue and offshore outsourcing issues generally.

When a U.S. company signs an agreement with an IT services firm, that firm will bring in its visa-holding workers. The U.S. workers will train the foreign workers and then exit their jobs. They are often older workers. But the story that people will see in print or read about online, is the one about the promising tech start-up that's having trouble hiring an H-1B worker. The national news coverage is skewed, with no simple fix to the problem.


http://www.computerworld.com/article/2855642/displaced-it-workers-are-being-silenced.html?phint=newt%3Dcomputerworld_outsourcing&phint=idg_eid%3Db74513f8ed59a07f430b7b2a74e910d8#tk.CTWNLE_nlt_mgmt_2014-12-08

[djean111]

1. Even here at DU, I feel displaced IT people have been treated dismissively,

as if they could have gotten better training, or as if who are they to deny jobs to overseas workers.
I have applied for a job where the interviews went on for hours and went fantastically well - several layers of management, totally qualified, no further training needed, glowing recommendations from people who already worked there, I had worked with them elsewhere - just to see the job go to an H-!b person with less experience and skills. I know this because I had friends working there already. They found out that I was just given interviews so that they could say they interviewed an American, they wanted the H-1b in the first place. I saw a training film telling companies how to get around the restrictions on hiring H-1Bs.

I guess not wanting more H-1B visas issued is just another fucking pony, though. Quite a herd on ponies accumulating.

[jeff47]

3. I get an email a week

asking if I'm interested in a job. They find my resume on dice, monster, etc. Those resumes indicate that 1) I'm not looking for a job, and 2) When I was looking, I was not looking for a job in their city. Yet "staffing company" recruiters send me an email a week.

It's abundantly clear that they're using my rejection as proof that the company couldn't find a US person for the job, so they need another H1B visa.

[djean111]

4. That is absolutely true. Happens to me too. n/t

[msongs]

2. what we need are more transpacific type trade pacts negotiated worker-hating politicians nt