Straws in the wind - 35

Skilled workers, anxious to emigrate to the US can apply for an H1-B visa. The law requires US employers to hire Americans first, but many companies now are happy to ;

1 Hire an immigrant with an H1-B because they will work for much less than "native" US citizens.

2 Employ staff overseas - India, Russia. (Bill Gates was in Moscow meeting Mr Putin last week)

The result is to squeeze both the market for skilled US workers and to depress wages. This is especially the case amongst software designers, coders, and ancillary skills.

AS a result the forthcoming The Cornyn-Shadegg SKIL Bill which has been attached to the end of session (and unstoppable) omnibus appropriations bill after the elections. Opponents calim that 1.5 million underpaid H-1B workers will enter the U.S. by the year 2013 ?

From 115,000 visas in 2007, the allocation will steadily rise to 343,388 in 2013 - a total of 1,485,329.

The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has launched a campaign quoting a study from The Bureau of Labor Statistics that estimates the number of new computing and engineering workers needed by the US economy over the decade at 1.25 million.

Whilst this is a projection of the effect of H1-B workers, the Detroit News reported the use of people in the area by major employers in Michigan. (Source : 2005 Labor Condition Application filings, company websites, 2005 and 2006 SEC filings) For example ;

Syntel Inc. Troy have 79% of their 1,422 US based workers on visa, and state that they take home US$12,336 less than the industry average. Local clients include, GM, Ford and Daimler/Chrysler.

Civansys Corp,Farmington Hills have 67% of their staff in India Henry Ford Health System, Ford, Visteon Controls and GM are its largest local clients.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Hyderabad, India: A consulting, contracting and staffing firm that offers wages $15,235 below industry average.

Ved Software Services Inc., Farmington Hills: An outsourcing and staffing firm that offers H1-B wages $23,984 below industry average. Amway Corp., DaimlerChrysler and Kelly Services are its
largest local clients.

Michigan-based Syntel Inc. and Indian-based Infosys Technologies Ltd. complain in their annual SEC filings that the cap on visas is hindering their ability to increase profits.

Syntel – A New Breed of Offshore - Business Efficiency Provider

Syntel helps its Global 2000 customers remain at the forefront of their industries with innovative uses of technology to operate their businesses more efficiently. We deliver flexible, custom Information Technology and Business Process outsourcing solutions that improve quality and reduce costs. More than any other company, we explore, develop and adapt new, better ways to do this.

Syntel on their website boast of their notable partners (all publicly quoted companies in the US with shareholders who want a rising share price and rising dividends) - Ab Initio, Actuate, BEA Systems, Borland, Business Objects, Citrix, Cognos, IBM, Identify Software , Informatica, Mainframe Migration Alliance, Mercury Interactive, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Serden Technologies, Sun Microsystems, TIBCO, Vianeta Communications. Read about them here and what Syntel do for them.

It would be folly to think that this demand for qualified skilled staff was not a result of the collapse of the public school system in the US - especially for training mathematicians, chemists, engineers. It would be folly to fail to acknowledge that the solution simply lies in stealing the people from the third world.

America is getting richer , it's just the people who are getting poorer -

Dupont, the chemical giant, recently slashed employee pension benefits by two-thirds. Employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2007, will not be eligible to participate in DuPont's pension plan and will not receive a company subsidy for retiree health care or retiree life insurance. Verizon , NCR, IBM, Tenneco, Sears have all recently cut or frozen pension entitlements.