Filing of WTO case by India against US on L1 visa quotas could radically change US workplaces

[Baobab]

This dramatically ups the ante for the US election, because a decision by WTO in India's favor will likely impact the US more than any other country. It would effectively eliminate the minimum wage for skilled professions, allowing companies to move workers into the US for five years at a time and pay them anything they agree upon, with no quotas.

This is the article I am referring to.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141384549

The GATS agreement was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1994 and went into effect in January 1995. its been under negotiation off and on since then but GATS Mode Four has always been intended to allow transparent operation of corporations across national borders without interference from countries.

this change would likely make business substantially more profitable and leave smaller businesses struggling to compete in huge service sectors like education and medicine/nursing, construction, IT, even law and energy. The lowered costs of skilled wages will benefit larger corporations more than small firms because small firms cannot afford to commit to subcontracting contracts internationally. the result of this could be a lot of international immigration and emigration as companies are expected to locate where the regulatory environments are most favorable to them.

I think that US workers have been living the last two decades on borrowed time and that time is almost up. these changes will likely leave millions of families homeless with no hope of a brighter tomorrow unless they emigrate somewhere which is not part of this system or which treats workers better. The Presidential election may be seen in part as a referendum on these things but the real battle is in Geneva and its out of our hands, the WTO has told countries to lower their wages in the past and I am sure they will do it again. Americans have been follish to suppress such important news, its literally playing with fire to deny such important news from the public when it promises to literally tear so many lives apart. There will be hell to pay.

[whereisjustice]

1. What do they say to the homeless in SF as they ride past tent city on Google bus...

Vote for Hillary because I can't?

[cantbeserious]

2. Wonder If The HRC Emails Will Reveal WTO Support For Undermining American Citizens

eom

[Armstead]

3. oh those jolly Clintons.....Leaving even more neoliberal time bombs in their wake

[JI7]

4. Maybe the US should pass a law requiring them to pay much more

When they bring in employees on these things.

[arikara]

5. That's what I've always said

if they have to bring in people to do our work, they should have to pay them 20% more than the going rate. That would nip it in the bud.

[Downwinder]

6. Require them to pay displaced workers.

[Baobab]

8. how long after the trade deal would that apply and for how long?

Look at the history of such payments. What about the millions of young people who will never get a job, any job?

[Downwinder]

9. Retirement or as long as they are displaced?

Young who can't get a job because it filled by a foreign worker are displaced.

[Baobab]

11. It will never work that way.

Education is the key, only if we educate all people well ignoring the job markety which will vanish, will we have a future without unspeakable horror

[Baobab]

12. They OWN nothing.

What right do they have, they own nothing.

[Baobab]

10. the going rate is supply and demand.

To put human hopes in perspective - a reality check-

I can buy a 1500 MHz quad core computer for $35 that will reliably run for 20 years and, makes 6 billion decisions a second. never needs to go to the bathroom, never asks for a raise or vacation. It can run off a phone charger.

We really screwed up at the end of world war II to not create a universal right to life. Now we are going to pay for that mistake.

[Downwinder]

13. One tiny zap and your quad core is inoperable.

POS terminals don't work when the power goes off.
Humans can keep going.

[AzDar]

7. K & R