IBM: "The Cost Difference Is Too Great for the Business Not to Look for" H-1B Workers--Good Read

[OhioChick]

August 6, 2012

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Workers from around the country send me examples of H-1B abuse that is taking place around them. I organize this data to decipher patterns. There is usually no legal action that can be taken due to the way the law is structured and the circumstances of the information provider. Generally, I just collect.

Separately, I have been preparing a case in which discrimination against Americans in favor of foreign workers is a factor. As part of the preparation I have been collecting advertisements from companies that say they only want foreign workers.

The companies that publicly advertise illegal recruitment tend to be small. Many of these small companies publish lists of companies they supply workers to. I compiled the advertisements and customer lists in a database and found a striking feature in the data. The median percentage for companies showing up as customers of companies making foreign-workers-only advertisements was 1 percent. However, at the high end there is a small cluster of customer companies that show up much more frequently. IBM leads the pack here, being claimed as a customer by 35 percent of the companies only seeking foreign workers. Let me rephrase that. Among advertisements seeking only foreign workers that had lists of companies it supplied these workers to, over one-third listed IBM (With Verizon and JPMorgan Chase close behind).

The frequency with which IBM appears suggested that I should return to my IBM collection and write about it. One item in the collection seemed particularly appropriate for showing how H-1B abuse takes place in big corporations behind the scenes.

More: http://cis.org/miano/ibm-cost-difference-too-great-business-not-look-h-1b-workers

[hedgehog]

1. Thank you for the info!

[ChromeFoundry]

2. I'm surprised IBM is even relevant to technology any more. n/t

[jeff47]

5. They don't do hardware or software much anymore

They're primarily a services firm now. Which is a big part of why they use so many H1-B's. They don't have to pay to keep stuff working over the long haul.

In fact, they get paid more if the product is utterly unmaintainable, since they charge to re-implement it.

[dballance]

3. I harbor no ill will toward the foreign workers. No one should

I just wanted to weigh in here and say that while I think what the corporations are doing is bad for the US and US workers please make sure to separate the workers from the corporate evil.

Being an IT professional and also having spent many years in the call-center industry I've worked with many people from overseas. They were all great professionals just trying to make a living and support their families. Lots of them had to make sacrifices to be here in the US without their immediate family.

So I just wanted to make the statement that while many people from overseas have come here to work in the US or that jobs have gone to them in their country don't be angry with them. I think overall they are just like us. Just people trying to work at a good job and provide for their family.

Shunt your anger to the rich "job creators" and corporations CEO's. Not to mention Wall Street.

Too bad welfare of workers is not one of the measures of corporate success along with earnings per share.

[exboyfil]

7. I think immigration should be tightened both for

H1-B and semiskilled and unskilled labor. It is not that I harbor ill will. I just realize that we cannot sustain the underutilization of domestic labor. If that means us spending more for goods, then so be it. My daughter plans to do a series of news stories on STEM careers, and I told her at the end she needed to address the H1-B question. I do not want to compete against H1-B labor in my profession, and I would think that carpenters etc would not want to compete against undocumented and documented immigrant labor either.

[dballance]

8. Totally agree. /eom

[Vincardog]

14. Ask your daughter to focus on STEMs jobs not training. Why should anyone go 100s of 1,000 of $ in

debt preparing for a career that does not exist? How many PHSs can't find work in their fields?

[aggiesal]

10. It's so easy to say ...

Don't blame the Indian engineer,
but we should blame the Big Bad Corporation.

The problem with both, is that nothing gets done to fix the problem.
If we can't blame the H-1B engineer, because ". . . just trying to make a
living and support their families. "
Well so are we.

If we blame the Big Bad Corporations, how and where do we do that?
Newspaper editorials won't print it, because they are part of the Big
Bad Corp. Writing and complaining to the offending corporation won't
do anything, because they're response is "Everyone else is doing it too!"

My suggestion is to write your Representative in D.C and your senator.
Have the H-1B visa be tied to the unemployment rate. If the unemployment
rate is high (> 8%) then the H-1B visa limit should drop.
If the unemployment rate is low (< 5%) the H-1B visa should increase

Unemployment rate between 5% & 8% should vary as the need arises.

[dballance]

11. You are so right

It is easy to lay blame. It's much harder to effect change.

[agent zero]

18. So right. It's easy to say don't blame the Indian engineer.

He is just trying to make a buck, but so are we.

It's a hard world. In a competition between us and them, I'll choose us every time.

[aggiesal]

19. Amen ! n/t

[BlueinOhio]

13. That is how we lose our rights

The same thing repeats over and over they bring in immigrants and will not hire americans same excuses as usual, we want to much, lazy et cetera. Then they take away what little we have. People fought for worker rights. Americans need to be hired first. Education should be for americans first. Time to take care of ourselves. Business opportunities are given to foreigners first. This needs to end. Others can be here but our people, our children need to be number one priority. I'm tired of hearing we need to bring in foreigners because we do not have trained people. Education and opportunities need to be made available to our children. How about giving our children the free college instead we make it impossible for our children to go to college its just for the rich or they get overloaded with debt that is nearly impossible to pay off. And the private colleges just create debt without getting any degree at all. We send foreigners to college for free. If these foreigners want to make good they should work at improving the country where they are from. This country was formed by people who stand up and make change something that has been forgotten.

[supernova]

4. My IBM job was outsourced

to India.

I was working as a tech writer and editor at various places within IBM until 2006. Last gig (6 mos) was in 2008.

The Indians, even the English degreed ones, didn't do to well in trying to fix writing that was not up to snuff and presenting it in a logical manner. Didn't matter. They were cheaper than we were. That's what mattered.

I just finished culinary school and am looking to open my own business.

IBM can go down the drain as far as I'm concerned.

[catrose]

9. from your keyboard to the market fairy's ears

Best of luck with your new business

[antigop]

6. "The most likely corrective action will come through the legal system."

I hope so....and soon.

[DaveJ]

12. Like all things, using H-1B workers is alright, in moderation.

It frustrates me seeing big companies behave as though cheap H-1B labor is the solution to all their problems. Not because of the good jobs lost. That frustrates me for other reasons. It frustrates me seeing bad business decisions made my overpaid incompetent executives.

First of all, it is not necessarily cheaper hiring foreign workers, after all the intermediary fees. I guess it depends on how it's done. A big corporation like IBM may be able to bypass the intermediaries.

Second, cheap labor can take longer, and produce low quality work, not because they lack skill, but because communication is not streamlined between the client and the technician.

Third, there is a carrot on a stick phenomenon. This is when anyone offering cheap work will start on a project for cheap. IF the project becomes successful, they start charging more and more. You think it's cheap at first, only to find out they were just getting you hooked on a product.

Fourth, when a company has no dedication to its employees, you can bet the employees are not dedicated to the company either. There is no sense of ownership of work, when it's all about numbers, and finding the next gig that pays a little more.

[HeiressofBickworth]

15. Another DU thread said that

investigations have shown that about one in 5 H1-B workers have fabricated their resume's which probably accounts for sub-standard work.

So, here's what I understand: corporations are all about the money, don't care if they produce a serviceable product, and don't care if their employees are able to fix the substandard product. If the next quarterly bottom line shows an increase in profits, it all good to them. They don't even look down the road a few years to see if their company is sustainable under these conditions. At that time, they will sell out, fire all the workers, sell the equipment, take their money elsewhere and never look back at the carnage they leave behind.

[bemildred]

16. And that problem can be easily fixed by changes in immigration law. nt

[dsteven9]

17. Keep your eye on Chase...

They just had this secret hiring process, paying $10-11 dollars p/h - 3 shifts processing H-1B applications.