U.S. Senator blasts Microsofts H-1B push as it lays off 18,000 workers Republican lawmaker takes issue with U.S. corporate belief that theres a STEM shortage; WASHINGTON -- On the floor of U.S. Senate Thursday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) delivered a scalding and sarcastic attack on the use of highly skilled foreign workers by U.S. corporations that was heavily aimed at Microsoft, a chief supporter of the practice. Sessions speech began as a rebuttal to a recent New York Times op-ed column by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and Sheldon Adelson, a casino owner that has chastised Congress for failing to take action on immigration reform. But the senators attack on three of our greatest masters of the universe, and super billionaires, was clearly primed by Microsofts announcement, also on Thursday, that it was laying off18,000 employees. What did we see in the newspaper today? said Sessions, News from Microsoft. Was it that they are having to raise wages to try to get enough good, quality engineers to do the work? Are they expanding or are they hiring? No, that is not what the news was, unfortunately. Not at all. H-1B battle U.S. Senator blasts Microsofts H-1B push as it lays off 18,000 workers Court case offers a peek at how H-1B-fueled discrimination works Obama has big options for green card, H-1B reform without Congress An H-1B whistleblower tries again for justice If immigration reform is dead, so is raising the H-1B cap Many comments on new H-1B rule, but few are unique Readers rant about IT worker who trained H1-B replacement Cantor, a reliable yes vote for raising the H-1B visa cap, is unseated This IT worker had to train an H-1B replacement An H-1B cap hike would mean a grim future for workers More in Government The senators speech, which at nearly 6,000 words was the size a healthy book chapter, may be one of the longest dissertations on this subject by any lawmaker from the floor of the Capitol. It amounts to an extensive counter-attack against the tech industry and its support for using more foreign workers in the U.S. Sessions points were broad and didnt get into the mechanics of visa granting, but were clearly, though indirectly, aimed both at the H-1B visa and automatic green cards for foreign workers with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, degrees. The op-ed by Gates, Buffett and Adelson criticized Congress for failing to act on immigration reform legislation. Although the essay does not mention the H-1B visa, the mere fact of that Gates is an author gave Session context. Over the years, Gates has been a leading advocate for increasing the H-1B visa and green cards in the belief that the U.S. isnt producing enough high-skilled workers. Sessions makes his point: They dont have much respect for Congress and, by extension, the people who elect people to Congress. It appears from the tone of their article -- you know, American people, that great unwashed group; nativists, narrow-minded patriots, possessors of middle class values. They just dont understand as we know, we great executives and entrepreneurs. So they declare we need to import more foreign workers in computer science, technology, and engineering, because the country is badly in need of their services. They say we are badly in need of importing large numbers of STEM graduates.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 07:32:05 +0000
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