Save our jobs.

Wed Feb 27 16:12:54 PST 2002

>so, you propose that instead of bearing the risk `my project would
>be closed, and I can be laid off' our worker B would have a risk `any project
>in my department would close, I'll be the one to go first.'  This
>would boost morale, no doubt.

Morale isn't the issue. The issue is the covenant between the company 
applying for the H1B and the country they applied to - the USofA.

>I have seen situations when people with H1 visas were kept and people
>with GC or citizenship were laid off exactly because it would be 
>easier for latter
>to find a new job.  Call this `fair', if you like.

Maybe in an "employee's market" that MIGHT be reasonable, but in a 
time of rising unemployment, it's not 'fair' at all.

>From corporation's point of view, laying off 1 worker is cheaper than
>laying off 1 worker _and_ retraining another one to do his job.

Possibly, but that's the inherent "risk" in hiring H1B's. You (as a 
company) accept that you might have to do that in the future. You (as 
an H1B holder) accept that you might/should-be the first to go, 
according to the agreement the employer has entered into just to get 
the H1B holder into the country.

>  > The immigrants of yesterday - who forced their kids and themselves to
>>  learn english, prided themselves on assimilating INTO American
>>  culture - are not necessarily the immigrants of today. TODAY, it is
>>  quite common to go through entire neighborhoods and not see a single
>  > sign written in English.
>
>Aha.  Here we go.  It's racial/language/national after all.
>I just see all those neighborhoods of sysadmins, webmasters, java programmers,
>and network engineers covered with cryptic characters from some weird
>afro-mongolian alphabet.

No, it's not "racial" at all, I'm simply pointing out that it's a 
strawman argument to use the example of "those immigrants who founded 
this country" - given that those immigrants came here "as their final 
destination" - as an argument for allowing non-immigrant resident 
workers to displace Americans from their jobs.

>Try to fight corporations, for once, and not alienate cubicle neighbours.

I have no problem with cubicle neighbors, regardless of 
race/color/belief/nationality/eye-color. I've gotten along great with 
every one of my co-workers, "native-born" or "H1B" alike. I think 
anyone who's ever worked with me will tell you that. I don't care if 
your skin color is blue if you can do the job.

It's all about the fact that displacing a citizen to keep an equally 
qualified non-citizen violates the H1B "pact". Period.

D
-- 
+---------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| dredd at megacity.org  | "Thou art the ruins of the noblest man  |
|  Derek J. Balling   |  That ever lived in the tide of times.  |
|                     |  Woe to the hand that shed this costly  |
|                     |  blood" - Julius Caesar Act 3, Scene 1  |
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