Microsoft lays off 5000; Senator Grassley looks out for U. S. citizens
News, Work ·Thursday January 22, 2009 @ 22:47 EST (link)
H-1B and other work visa programs were never intended to replace qualified American workers. Certainly, these work visa programs were never intended to allow a company to retain foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American workers, when that company cuts jobs during an economic downturn.
—from Senator Grassley's letter to Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft
20090120: Cleaned guns (Glock and EMP).
20090121: Measured my AR-15: it's 32" (need to know so I know what size nylon case to get).
20090122: Microsoft layoffs this week; 5000 people in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal and corporate affairs, human resources, and information technology (I believe that means IT as in support, and does not include development, but it could be the layman's definition of IT meaning "anything to do with computers"); 1400 already, another 3600 to come. Senator Grassley (R-IA) wrote this letter to Steve Ballmer demanding answers about the breakdown of firings by area and more importantly by immigration status: the senator is correct in saying that H-1Bs should go before citizens (and lawful permanent residents, a.k.a. "green card" holders). Clearly the company no longer needs foreign workers to fill jobs; therefore it can get rid of them first—and stop asking for the limits to be raised. (Coincidentally, Microsoft subsequently shelved plans for a data center in Iowa: retribution?)
Some quotes from the Slashdot article; Mini-Microsoft also has some entries:
We are in the midst of a major economic crisis, and the more Americans who lose their jobs, the worse it is going to get. If a foreign national loses his job and goes back to his country, then his country will take care of him. The US government needs to focus on the US and US citizens right now, and not allow the needs of H1B guests to trump the needs of Americans.
The whole purpose of the H1B program was to bring foreign nationals into the country to work because the company said there weren't enough Americans who could fill the positions. However, if a company is now downsizing then it make sense that if you have a technical position that you need less people for, that the guest workers should be the first ones to be downsized. Logically, you can't claim not being able to find people to fill a position if you just laid off two people qualified for the position.
The book I'm currently reading is apropos (Mark Krikorian's The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal). Certainly nations can afford to be generous in good times, to share their wealth with people from nations less free and less ambitious (although I'd argue that the U.S. government never has any business giving away Americans' money to foreign interests, whether called foreign aid or visa programs, but it hurts less when things are good). The government must look out for its citizens: it must allow in only labor (skilled and unskilled) that is not (at any price) available locally, rather than admitting deluges of foreigners who are so grateful to be in a free and first world nation that they will cheerfully live twenty to an apartment and accept half pay, subsisting off the generosity of the entitlements the American people have voted themselves and dragging down the standard of living for all.
