

So Cal Edison fires hundreds of IT employees and replaces them with H-1Bs - wwweston
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2886369/so-cal-edisons-it-layoffs-are-abuse-of-h-1b-program-says-us-lawmaker.html

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a3n
> what often happens is that U.S. workers, as is the case at Edison, must
> train their visa-holding replacements if they want a severance package.

> Edison said it is in full compliance with immigration law, "and is not
> hiring H-1B visa workers to replace displaced employees."

Because they hired the H-1Bs first, so they could be trained. But now they
have too many employees, so someone has to be let go. Who should it be, who
should it be ...

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kkowalczyk
The title of this article is a manipulative propaganda.

If you don't bother reading it, it suggests that Edison hired people on H1B as
their own employees and then fired existing employees.

The facts in this article are that Edison fired some IT employees and instead
hired contractors from Infosys and Tata.

Those contractors are employees of Infosys and Tata, they don't work for
Edison. Implying that they do is the first attempt at misleading readers.

Another fact is that some of Infosys and Tata US employees are H1B visa
holders.

So it's possible that some of those H1B holders will end up working but the
article doesn't actually make that statement other than a hearsay (a statement
made by someone (in this case apparently an Edison worker being laid off) but
not verified by the "journalist" writing the article) i.e. it's quite possible
that none of the people who will replace Edison employees are on H1B.

We just don't know and the article either is so poorly written as to hide the
facts behind the headline or is maliciously or incompetently distorting the
facts.

~~~
spydum
Really? That is quite a bit naive. I can tell you there is no question about
who will be replacing the workers, this is exactly the same runbook every corp
who has hooked up with these body shops.

There will be a mix of H1B onsite and offshore, just like
Infosys/Tata/Wipro/etc have been doing for nearly two decades. The FTE folks
will be required to train their replacements with enticements of severance,
and continued employment for a few months. Heck, even some of the times, the
body shops will end up hiring those FTEs at same or lower rate (with less
benefits), until they can replace them offshore. Management will give the
remaining employees the bullshit spiel about global workforce, staying
competitive and how these wonderful partners have hundreds of thousands of
phD's just waiting to roll up their sleeves and bring leverage and major
vendor relationships to the table.

I'm not sure why Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama, who raised the issue) is only now
making noise, or why computerworld is just now printing articles.. but this is
a surprise to no one, unless they have had their head in the sand.

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aburan28
Welcome to the "STEM" shortage myth

------
vonnik
tech recruiter here. these jerks are ruining it for the rest of us. it's very
hard to find certain kinds of talent, and the US is wasting H1Bs on this kind
of thing.

