Fed Judge Rules: Disney Can Willy-Nilly Replace Americans With H-1B Workers

This galls me: A Florida judge has ruled by technicality that Disney violated no labor laws. Disney used an intermediary firm to circumvent laws: Disney fired, but the intermediary hired, therefore no violation. Link

[added: NYT link]

The Magic Kingdom in Peril 2.0

(this post is a continuation-in-part of this one)

People who lost jobs there said they had to sit with immigrants from India, some on temporary work visas known as H-1B, and teach them to perform their jobs as a condition for receiving severance. But it remained unclear on Tuesday who had initiated the change of strategy at Disney/ABC or whether it was part of a larger change in direction, because Disney executives declined to discuss it.  h/t: r,l

Read the whole thing. I think the un- and under-employment situation will be the biggest driver of cross-party politics-- i.e., making people willing to cross party lines and to vote against the promulgators of open borders and limitless H-1B visas.

The Magic Kingdom In Peril

Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of eight co-chairs of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a leading group advocating for an increase in the H-1B visa cap. Last Friday, this partnership was a sponsor of an H-1B briefing at the U.S. Capitol for congressional staffers. The briefing was closed to the press.

Looking back through the comments on posts tagged H-1B visas, I can tell that the topic is contentious here at Lem's, with most people falling on the side of "we need more H-1B visas because it displaces all the lazy overpaid people. The logic is that it's purely market correction.

OK then. Consider the world to be at disequilibrium (look up that term if it befuddles you) with US borders being an artificial barrier. A much greater concentration of skilled workers exists outside the borders of the US and they are being kept out, artificially. Why not let those barriers down more uniformly so that foreign capital and influence can flow freely here too so that Bob Iger can feel a little anxious about his job too?

Retired people and people employed by government tend to be immune to the effects of H-1B visas. The former group because their income is often tied to retirement stock portfolios which benefit from open doors policies and the latter group because government work at all levels is a great guild which up until now, mostly excludes H-1B workers. Yet these two groups seem to populate comment forums on the internet.

[UPDATE]  America, you have been warned: link

"Why should I lose my job when the work still needs to be done?..."

"Why is the government doing this to me and my family?"

You've spent twenty plus years loyally working in Information Technology (IT) for Southern California Edison, and eighteen months ago your boss tells you that they are going to study outsourcing but not to worry, "your position is safe." On the one hand you are worried because you know many stories of American IT workers losing their jobs to outsourcing, but on the other you feel comforted that you've been loyal to SCE and provide a critical service. Then eight months ago they tell you that they are outsourcing most IT functions and that they want you, get this, to train your guest worker replacement. If you say no, SCE will terminate you with cause and you would lose not only a severance package but also eligibility for unemployment insurance. This is the common story I heard from many workers at SCE.

The work that the 400 SCE IT employees do isn't disappearing, instead it and their jobs are being taken over by foreign guest workers here on H-1B visas. Those guest workers are employed by the two leading India-based outsourcing firms, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys. (read more)

"The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment"

"Here's something that many Americans -- including some of the smartest and most educated among us -- don't know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading."

Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment. (read the whole thing)

Update On America's "STEM Crisis"

[This post is a continuation-in-part of a prior post here: 'STEM Crisis' In American Workforce May Not Be Real]

New legislation proposing to raise the number of H-1B visas for science and technology workers has lots of bipartisan support: Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are on board. Link

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is having none of it:

[A] stunning 3 in 4 Americans with a STEM degree do not hold a job in a STEM field—that’s a pool of more than 11 million Americans with STEM qualifications who lack STEM employment.

It is understandable why these corporations push for legislation that will flood the labor market and keep pay low; what is not understandable is why we would ever consider advancing legislation that provides jobs for the citizens of other countries at the expense of our own. Who do we work for?

Democrats and a silent majority of Republicans are squeezing the American middle class from the bottom by holding out essentially limitless importation of unskilled labor; now Republicans and a silent* majority of Democrats are squeezing the American middle class at the top by offering essentially limitless importation of highly-skilled labor.
________________________
*Except for that Sugar Mountain** chap, who is a loudmouth.
**Zuckerberg means "Sugar Mountain" in German

'STEM Crisis' In American Workforce May Not Be Real

'The vast majority of workers who have been trained in science and engineering are not currently working in a STEM occupation,' the Census Bureau report said. In fact, an average of just 26 percent of science and engineering graduates, aged 25 to 64, worked in a STEM occupation in 2011, instead working in jobs such as management, health care, law, education, social work, accounting and counseling.  Link

There are lots of other choice phrases and truths at the link.

In the name of efficient economics, we do import STEM workers -- not because they are better than American workers but because they will often work for less, and employers get leverage, viz. visas. This is a brutal and harsh reality but also one which affects the on-going and relentless push for more H1-B visas. The policy figures into the grand immigration debate, but at the "high end" rather than the "low end."

Not so fast with that optimism, buddy!

The new jobs report was released today. I have heard a few people make some optimistic noises about the fact that private sector jobs have matched the 2008 peak in terms of numbers. (See here, for example, though they do have the decency to caveat the hell out of the article.)

What I'm not hearing, and don't expect to hear from the Administration, is a comment about full-time jobs. As of March 1 2014, the US economy had 3,872,000 FEWER full-time jobs than it did at its peak in November 2007. And that's after almost five years of recovery.

And given that the working age population has grown considerably in the intervening years, the employment situation is actually even worse than it appears.

So don't let the bastards tell you how goddamned good we've got it, and what a wonderful job they've done. Because it just ain't so.

The Kitchen Drawer -Icepick

When Bad News is Good News

"Worsening U.S. Divorce Rate Points to Improving Economy" said an annoying headline. I was so annoyed with it I waited a day to put it up here. Trying to figure out why it's annoying, it's annoying. I mean, shouldn't I be glad, that, other than getting passed over for an Oscar, there is really no bad news anymore. Sure, there is high unemployment and Miley Cirrus is doing... whatever. We have no privacy to speak of and a president who literally does whatever he wants. But, there is a bright side to that too, I'm sure. I'm probably annoyed that I haven't thought of it, micro-aggressive rube that I am. I know you are, but what Am I?

Anyway, Am I alone on this? Check out the little personal story that is supposed to give us some kind of hope or whatever.

Hard economic times had kept Amy Derose and her husband Lawrence locked in an unhappy marriage for the sake of their engineering firm in Pompano Beach, Florida.

“The business was hanging on by a thread and we had to hang on,” said Derose, 53, who had been married 35 years and worked as the business manager. “We couldn’t afford to split. He needed me in the business and I needed him.”

With Florida’s economy and housing market recovering, “we are definitely on the upswing” and revenue is rising at their 24-employee company. That is allowing the couple to move forward with their divorce this month after years of showing up to work as if nothing were wrong personally. Now, she is looking for a job and “couldn’t be happier.” Read More

The article goes on to explain how split-ups mean new households, who will need more stuff, that will need to get built, bought and shipped. And, isn't it all wonderful to make lemonade.

Bloomberg News

What would Pelosi say: Yeah, but think of all the 'poets' that can come from that pool of 500k

Hill budget office: Minimum wage hike would boost earnings for over 16.5M, cost 500k jobs http://t.co/YwCaGX6Z7G
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) February 18, 2014 

“Yeah, if you want to be a writer, if you want to be a comedian, if you want to be a camera person, if you want to start a business . . .” In an earlier iteration, Pelosi even suggested that Obamacare would allow people to quit their awful jobs to write poetry."

The poetry of bad news around Obamacare