Layoffs Continue: Outsourcing Continues

American Jobs continue to flow overseas or to people specifically brought into this country to replace them.

The New York Post reported in November of 2008 that one million jobs were lost in 2008. By the end of the calender year, that number had grown to 1.9 Million according to CNN.

Yet while Americans were being shown the door by their employers, frequently these same employers replaced Americans with some of the 85,000 H-1B visa holders allotted by Congress every year.

Computerworld is currently reporting that Nielsen (yes, the TV ratings service) laid off 117 workers last year at it's Oldsmar, Florida facility. Nielsen plans to replace those workers this year with 250 contract workers (H-1B visa holders).

Nielsen reportedly received generous financial incentives from local and state government in order to build the facility. Those incentives were tied to employing local people. Nielsen's reported response to the public uproar has been to discontinue the use of tax breaks set up by the local and county government. Tax breaks which have saved Nielsen a reported $1.4 million dollars.

Obama in his "Porkulus" bill has made provisions to restrict H-1B visa holders from taking jobs in companies receiving TARP monies. However, a critical piece of the restriction was stripped from the bill. That part of the bill would have required these companies to "E-Verify" the employment status of prospective employees. The provision does not restrict TARP receiving companies to refrain from doing business with companies utilizing H-1B employees.

Any of you who have worked for large corporations know that what will happen is that a H-1B employee will be hired by another company under the umbrella of the corporation and will simply be transferred. Technically, the company will not have broken any laws as they didn't "hire" the H-1B visa holder. They were "transferred".

Lest you think that non-Americans (read that as people who hate this country and have no allegiance to this nation or her people) work in average jobs, how many of you saw the following story?

"The Curious Case Of Rajendrasinh B. Makwana" To sum it up, an H-1B programmer inserted code into the database of FannieMae that would have wiped the entire database had it not been discovered. Accuracy In Media also followed up with this piece.

I would have probably died laughing if this attack had actually been successful. Scenes of the movie "Fight Club" ran through my head.

However, it brings up a more troubling aspect. How many of these people have been tasked with maintaining our critical infrastructure? How many are writing code for air traffic control systems? Does anyone know?

On top of this is the problem of the re-introduction of diseases to the United States which had been fairly well erradicated.

The San Jose Mercury News had a piece back in April of last year highlighting the huge jump in TB in the San Francisco Bay Area as increasing numbers of H-1B holders flooded the area.

I was unable to locate the article in the archives of the paper, however I was able to locate a source that quoted the piece verbatim.

I think its time for all of us to start boycotting businesses that use foreign labor. It doesn't matter if they're here legally or not. From a previous post, all of you are aware that I'm boycotting everything at this point.

I'll admit that if I walk into a business that reeks of incense, has music playing that sounds like a herd of sheep stuck in a 55 gallon drum, I turn around and walk out.

I hate fast food, but sometimes I really don't have a choice. If I go in there and the person behind the counter can't speak English, I walk out.

I've had some of these people follow me into the parking lot screaming at me that I'm a "racist". I just tell them that I'm an American, and they're not. Get over it.

If I have to call tech support, I immediately request "Tier 2" or "Level 2" support because I will be transferred to someone here in the US or Canada. Sometimes they argue with me, and I hang up and call back and get another flunky. It's an 800 number and it isn't my dime.

I can't deal with the people in India. Nothing personal, but I don't like the phony act. If your name is Gupta or Chandra, tell me that is your name. Don't lie to me and tell me you're "Lisa" or "Pete". Learn to do more than read from a script. If I'm calling you, it's because I've probably all ready exhausted every avenue that you or "Tier 2" will try and send me down, and I'm trying to find an engineer at that point.

Hey, all you businesses out there! Are you paying attention?