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Purveyor

(29,876 posts)
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 05:53 PM Jun 2016

Laid-Off Americans, Required to Zip Lips on Way Out After Displaced By Foreigners, Grow Bolder

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. — American corporations are under new scrutiny from federal lawmakers after well-publicized episodes in which the companies laid off American workers and gave the jobs to foreigners on temporary visas.

But while corporate executives have been outspoken in defending their labor practices before Congress and the public, the American workers who lost jobs to global outsourcing companies have been largely silent.

Until recently. Now some of the workers who were displaced are starting to speak out, despite severance agreements prohibiting them from criticizing their former employers.

Marco Peña was among about 150 technology workers who were laid off in April by Abbott Laboratories, a global health care conglomerate with headquarters here. They handed in their badges and computer passwords, and turned over their work to a company based in India. But Mr. Peña, who had worked at Abbott for 12 years, said he had decided not to sign the agreement that was given to all departing employees, which included a nondisparagement clause.

Mr. Peña said his choice cost him at least $10,000 in severance pay. But on an April evening after he walked out of Abbott’s tree-lined campus here for the last time, he spent a few hours in a local bar at a gathering organized by technology worker advocates, speaking his mind about a job he had loved and lost.


MORE...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/us/laid-off-americans-required-to-zip-lips-on-way-out-grow-bolder.html?_r=0

16 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
 

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)
1. I wish he was able to make a copy of the agreement
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 06:16 PM
Jun 2016

Having that passed around would be invaluable to the public.

Dustlawyer

(10,493 posts)
5. But she said that you cannot find one instance of her vote being influenced by cash.
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 08:37 PM
Jun 2016

She said all of that money for her and Bill's speeches, campaign money, Super PAC money, and donations and deals with the Clinton Global Initiative had no effect on her votes. They just love her some much they just throw money at her.

appalachiablue

(41,047 posts)
9. What A Hillary Clinton White House Could Mean for Businesses
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 11:18 PM
Jun 2016

- "What A Hillary Clinton White House Could Mean for Businesses", Washington Post, April 13, 2015.

It’s official. Hillary Clinton has announced that she will make a second run at the White House, ending months of all-but-certain speculation and cementing her position as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2016.

..She has lobbied for more “high-skill” visas..

During her first campaign, Clinton threw her support behind proposals to lift the annual cap on H1-B visas. The visas are generally awarded to highly skilled workers in technology fields such as computer science and engineering, where some economists believe – and many tech leaders and start-up founders say – there are not enough qualified U.S. job candidates to meet demand.

Currently, the number of H1-B visas is limited to 65,000 per year. In recent years, applications have blown past the limit in matter of weeks, prompting members of Congress from both parties to call for an expansion.
Labor groups have pushed back, warning that lifting the cap will result in a flood of cheap foreign labor that will take even more jobs away from American workers.

“Let’s face the fact that foreign skilled workers contribute greatly to what we have to do to be innovators,” Clinton said at the event.

>It’s worth noting that the limit was temporarily raised twice by Congress in the late 1990’s, first to 115,000 per year and then as high as 195,000. Both times, the increase was the result of legislation signed by then-President Bill Clinton.

Read More, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2015/04/13/what-a-hillary-clinton-white-house-could-mean-for-businesses/

 

sulphurdunn

(6,891 posts)
4. What kind of government
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 08:31 PM
Jun 2016

allows corporations to import foreign labor to replace American workers? I thought the H1-B program was created to allow in workers who were needed because of skills employers could not obtain domestically. WTF is going on here?

zeemike

(18,998 posts)
7. The kind that has global interists
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 08:51 PM
Jun 2016

Not one for and by the people.
That one was hijacked a while back.

 

amandabeech

(9,893 posts)
8. Neither party gives two you know whats about anyone who doesn't have a few cool
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 11:12 PM
Jun 2016

millions to throw at an election every four years.

We really are irrelevant to both parties, and I don't know what to do about it.

appalachiablue

(41,047 posts)
10. "In Charlotte, North Carolina Foreign Workers Replace Americans in Tech Roles", June 3, 2016
Sat Jun 11, 2016, 11:26 PM
Jun 2016

Companies in Charlotte are stepping up their efforts to hire foreign workers – especially for information technology jobs – under a federal visa program that’s becoming a political flashpoint.

The H-1B visa lets companies bring foreign workers to the U.S. temporarily to fill jobs requiring highly skilled labor. Employers say it helps them fill jobs that draw too few qualified applicants. Critics say some companies abuse it, replacing Americans with foreign tech workers willing to work for less.

Sometimes American IT workers are laid off after spending their final days training their foreign-born replacements.

Demand for these visa workers is growing especially fast in Charlotte. Last year hundreds of employers filed initial applications for more than 16,500 H-1B workers in the Charlotte metro area, many in technology positions. That number alone is bigger than the entire workforce of some of Charlotte’s largest employers.

More: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article81676692.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016159524

freebrew

(1,917 posts)
15. Yeah, there's the rub...
Sun Jun 12, 2016, 03:45 PM
Jun 2016

"Employers say it helps them fill jobs that draw too few qualified applicants."

Meaning not enough qualified that will work for peanuts.
Leaving them to find another way to pay for that degree...

freebrew

(1,917 posts)
16. I guess you haven't heard...
Sun Jun 12, 2016, 03:48 PM
Jun 2016

HRC supporters threw Chomsky under the bus today.

Freaking leftist...

(sorry, could not resist)

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