FILE – In this file photo taken Nov. 9, 2010, Disney characters Mickey Mouse, left, and Minnie Mouse, arrive at the grand opening celebration of the premier Disney Store in Times Square, New York. Walt Disney Co., reports quarterly financial earnings Tuesday, May 10, 2011, after the market close. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, file)
I can’t tell you how many times high-tech corporate advocates — including former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — have come before our editorial board complaining about the difficulties of getting qualified American job applicants for programming, engineering and computer-hardware jobs. Schools just aren’t producing enough qualified workers, they say, which means Congress needs to ease the rules for H-1B visas so these employers can hire highly skilled workers from abroad and remain competitive.
The pitch has always been that these corporations needed to fill vacancies because there weren’t enough Americans to fill the gap. It was never designed so that companies could fire Americans and then import cheaper foreign engineers and software designers. I can’t imagine any member of Congress in his or her right mind who would knowingly support a lifting of visa caps to make it easier for U.S.-based corporations to fire Americans. That would be an instant route to defeat in the next election.
So how is it that, according to New York Times reporter Julia Preston, about 250 tech employees at Walt Disney World in Orlando have been told they’re going to be laid off, with many being told their jobs would go to immigrants being brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India? To add insult to injury, some workers were told that their layoffs would be delayed until they could finish training their replacements. … [visit site to read more]
