H-1B activism agenda

I'm reposting some activist email from NoSlaves.com to let you know what we're up to and also in case anyone here wants to help out.  I actually was surprised at how many people in VA cared and contributed to Webb's campaign over this issue, which I was thrilled about, so I thought I'd give a little update.

This doesn't apply that much to Webb because he's already on working America's side, but it does apply to other congressional representatives. 
Hello All,

This is an action item, please read the entire email and if you object, feel free to use this list to discuss.

There is a phrase called KISS.  It means keep it simple stupid and that is the focus of this email.  It means stay focused, stay on message, stay on topic and get one thing done and get it done right.

As you probably are aware, in the new 110th congress there will be attempts to pass the SKIL Bill in some form.

We've been researching as to what the best policy and method should be to stop labor arbitrage through the use of H-1B, L-1.

We're parsed it down to this.

1.  Pass H. R. 4378, Defend the American Dream Act, (Pascrell,D-NJ, 8th district)
http://thomas.loc.go...

2.  Do NOT raise the H-1B Visa cap AND do not pass any version of the SKIL ACT (S.2691)

A secondary goal is

3.  Pass H.R. 3381, L-1 Nonimmigrant Reform Act, (DeLauro, D-CT,  3rd
district)
http://thomas.loc.go...

Why?

Because both bills have prevailing wage laws[1] and without prevailing wage laws there is nothing we can do on any other secondary issue.  We must get these bills enacted into law.  To focus it further, we must, absolutely must get H.R. 4378, Defend the American Dream Act,  passed in the 110th congress and past Bush's veto pen.

Why do we want to focus on this and this exclusively?  Because currently it's perfectly legal to labor arbitrage US/perm CS/EEs (Science and Engineering professionals) and before anything else, we need to make this practice illegal.  There is no enforcement issue because it is
perfectly legal to replace an American, especially older Americans/perm residents with a cheaper H-1B.

We are up against power corporate lobbying forces and we need one clear message to gain any results.
We need a uniform voice  and a focused message.  These bills were introduced into the house, promptly referred to the House Judiciary
Committee and House Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, where they sat buried and never brought up for a
vote. 

We need to get these bills re-introduced into the 110th Congress, either as standalone bills or as amendments onto other legislation and passed.

This means we need to pound the drum on our congressional representatives and not diffuse the message to congress on any other sort of issue that is diversionary to the fundamental problem of legal labor arbitrage with respect to the H-1B Visa.

There is absolutely no point to bring up enforcement, fraud, retraining or any other issue beyond this, for without this bill becoming law,
there is nothing to enforce,nothing to prosecute and retraining is a complete joke for right now
industry is throwing away highly skilled, perfectly competent, capable S&E professionals in order to labor arbitrage.

I'm sending this out in hopes you all make a commitment to study these bills, blog about them, write LTE's promoting them, write articles
promoting them and most of all visit your congressional representatives, in person, strongly requesting they sponsor or co-sponsor these bills.

This is the 1st step and without it, on any other issue we are nowhere because it will still be perfectly legal to labor arbitrage Americans
with the H-1B Visa (L-1).

We must get this passed and make it crystal clear that it is perfectly legal to labor arbitrage and this must stop NOW before any other action.

There is a phrase, KISS (keep it simple stupid) and I think it applies here.  Keep the topic on these points and pound them into the heads of
the public and congress until they finally get the message, realize it's legal to displace S&E
professionals for cheaper young labor and stop this 100%.

There is another point, other groups, from the AFL-CIO, to IEEE-USA to Netroots (major blogs) to FAIR would support the above policy agenda.
To go up against Bill Gates, the ITAA and the US Chamber of Commerce, we need a strong, broad coalition to get anywhere.

TALKING POINTS:

1.  It is perfectly legal to replace Americans with cheap foreign labor through legal loopholes
2.  H. R. 4378, Defend the American Dream Act, stops this by requiring a real prevailing wage[1]..
3.  Please sponsor or cosponsor this bill in the 110th congress
4.  Until this bill is passed, absolutely nothing else should be done with regarding any NIVs.

Please help spread this message and focus and most importantly try to schedule a meeting with your congressional representative to present
this legislation with the summary and talking points listed.  For deep details on how legal labor arbitrage is done, Dr. Norm Matloff's

http://heather.cs.uc...  University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, is the most detailed article.

[1]  In Pascrell:

  SEC. 2. WAGE DETERMINATION.

  (a) Change in Minimum Wages- Section 212(n)(1)(A) of the
  Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)(1)(A)) is
  amended to read as follows:

  `(A) The employer--

  `(i) is offering and will offer during the period of
  authorized employment to aliens admitted or provided
  status as an H-1B nonimmigrant wages that are at least--

  `(I) the locally determined prevailing wage
  level for the occupational classification in the
  area of employment;

  `(II) the median average wage for all workers in
  the occupational classification in the area of
  employment; or

  `(III) the median wage for skill level two in
  the occupational classification found in the
  most recent Occupational Employment Statistics
  survey;

  whichever is greatest, based on the best information
  available as of the time of filing of the application;
  and

  `(ii) will provide working conditions for such
  nonimmigrant that will not adversely affect the
  working conditions of workers similarly employed.

  The wage determination methodology used under clause (i)
  shall be submitted with the application.'.

CyberActivist Bill wrote:
> Current H-1B law requires a prevailing wage. 
> The problem is that it is very broadly defined, hence all the loopholes.
>
> Bill

Thx Bill,

That is one of the arguments that will be retorted back certainly if one talks about median wages, national wages versus prevailing wage, that a prevailing wage clause exists.

We'll have to counter that with the facts, so  understanding how they get around paying even the median wage and how this is a major loophole is important. It's subtle so here are some more  excerpts for talking points:

Here's a nice analysis from Ron Hira w/ Matloff commentary, which together describe the techniques in depth (bear in mind both are Academicians, so while it's picky, it's very important we be exact because loopholes are precisely the techniques used to labor arbitrage and yet pretend to the public at large that the Corporate cheap labor lobby/tech industry isn't doing precisely that:  thrashing their employees, a calculated strategy of labor arbitrage, and decimating a critical and difficult career):

http://heather.cs.uc...

Here is a blurb from the recent PG 12.06 newsletter that I think also
gives more background:

For the last decade Congress has frozen the "H-1b Dependent" salary cap at $60,000. Congress has arbitrarily set $60,000 as the "fair wage" for U.S. software professionals, presuming that as long as H-1b workers are paid that amount, they do not pose a threat to U.S. workers. Thus employers may have up to 100% percent of their workforce comprised of H-1b workers, with no requirement to recruit U.S. workers - as long as they pay them a $60,000 salary.  Furthermore, as explained on the DOL website, if the H-1b workers have a masters degree, there is no minimum wage requirement: A company comprised of 100% H-1b workers with masters degrees earning $25,000 per year is not deemed "H-1b dependent."  But according to the BLS, a division of DOL, $60,000 is about the 25th percentile of U.S. wages, leaving 75% of U.S. tech workers exposed to wage erosion by Congress' H-1b program:  "Median annual earnings of computer applications software engineers who worked full time in
  May 2004 were about $74,980. The middle 50 percent earned between $59,130 and $92,130 . . . According to Robert Half International, starting salaries for software engineers in software development ranged from $63,250 to $92,750 in 2005."

There is only one problem I see with the PG paragraph, U.S. S&E are not exposed to wage erosion in the same job, they are simply replaced, i.e. laid off, fired, they are not given the choice between a lower salary and unemployment for the most part.

So, anyone seeing how an older engineer(S&E) is first up to be labor arbitraged?  How many 15 year engineers(S&E) are making
entry level salaries?  That's why the Pascrell clause is so important, it's based on occupational classification and median for ALL workers in that occupational area, not just entry level workers, so by using the median, statistically they cannot labor arbitrage the workers.

Definitions:

S&E:  Science and engineering
PG:  Programmer's Guild

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