Southern California Edison IT workers 'beyond furious' over H-1B replacements
About 500 IT jobs are cut at utility through layoffs and voluntary departuresFeb 4, 2015 12:06 PM PT
Information technology workers at Southern California Edison (SCE) 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 say they can't understand how H-1B guest workers can be used to replace them.
The IT organization's "transition effort" is expected to result in about 400 layoffs, with "another 100 or so employees leaving voluntarily," SCE said in a statement. The "transition," which began in August, will be completed by the end of March, the company said.
"They are bringing in people with a couple of years' experience to replace us and then we have to train them," said one longtime IT worker. "It's demoralizing and in a way I kind of felt betrayed by the company."
More: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2879083/southern-california-edison-it-workers-beyond-furious-over-h-1b-replacements.html
CrispyQ
(36,500 posts)They had to train their Indian replacements to get their severance. My husband quit before he would do that. We're lucky we have no debt.
on point
(2,506 posts)That's why competent US workers needed to train H1b workers. Corp can't afford to train US workers but can afford to train replacements
Sarcasm
Every H1b worker should be taxed to corp at twice their rate, limited to 6 months, and corp must show they are engaged in traing program for US workers to replace the 'needed' H1b worker. Let's see if it is still cheaper for H1b workers then
There is no shortage of US workers. Only corp lies
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)They always claim they can't find workers in the US, but time and again, we see people who already DO the jobs being fired and replaced, and training non-US workers instead of other US citizens to be those replacements.
Skittles
(153,174 posts)they're betraying their country - all you H1B defenders can fuck yourselves
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Interesting. IT has been one of the areas most resistant to unions...
cstanleytech
(26,316 posts)hedgehog
(36,286 posts)the India based companies the utility has contracted with has hired them.
Time to tighten the laws!
MisterP
(23,730 posts)"STEM shortage!" "Asia's eating our lunch!" "we're spending too much on art, history, and music!" "STEM shortage!" "Asia's eating our lunch!" "we're spending too much on art, history, and music!" "STEM shortage!" "Asia's eating our lunch!" "we're spending too much on art, history, and music!" "STEM shortage!" "Asia's eating our lunch!" "we're spending too much on art, history, and music!"
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)Sentath
(2,243 posts)How could you post that in reply to an article about one of it's more public successes?
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Sentath
(2,243 posts)And being H-1B's they have reduced options to change jobs, so I expect conditions to be harsher. In what way is this all not a pure win for cheap labor international capital?
antigop
(12,778 posts)ChromeFoundry
(3,270 posts)Mickey Foley
(3 posts)I worked at Ameriprise in Minneapolis until last year, and there were many people from India working there. They had jobs that millions of unemployed Americans would be happy to have and could easily do. This isn't a question of unqualified American workers; it's a matter of wage arbitrage. Indians and millions of other people across the world will do these jobs for much less than Americans expect/need to be paid. Also, you can treat them like crap and they won't complain.
We (the middle class) let the manufacturing base be offshored, because those were working-class jobs. But now it's happening to white-collar jobs, and they have the audacity to bring the foreign workers here to take our jobs. I don't know the term for this, since it's basically the opposite of offshoring.
Of course, if you complain about it, you're often labeled "anti-immigrant" or even "racist," but the fact is that we're in a global competition for jobs, and we're losing, not because we're "unqualified," but because we expect to be able to maintain a middle-class lifestyle. I don't think that kind of compensation package is too much to ask, considering the executives of these companies are richer than Croesus.
4dsc
(5,787 posts)If you don't train them then they cannot do the job. I'd quit before training some new to replace me.