Steve Massey.
>From: "Chris McMahon" <chris@zefram.com>
>
>I am no fan of immigration quotas, because I'm a big believer in the
free
>market. However, the so-called "high-tech labor shortage" is more
horseshit
>than reality. The basic fact is, most high-tech managers can't accept
the
>fact that their "underlings" are actually worth more than they are, and
>therefore are unwilling to pay them what they're worth. That's the
>foundation of this "labor shortage". These clowns (managers) are just
>looking for cheap labor, so they can pay them less than they're worth,
and
>they're worth a lot more than them.
>
>This is one of the shining examples of why management is looked down
upon.
>
>
>Chris McMahon
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko <sasha1@netcom.com>
>To: Extropian mailing list <extropians@extropy.org>;
>extropians-discussion@MIT.EDU <extropians-discussion@MIT.EDU>
>Cc: Michael Bukatin <bukatin@cs.brandeis.edu>; Igor Mendelev
><igor57@hotmail.com>
>Date: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 5:17 PM
>Subject: FWD/MEDIA: High-tech Firms Seek To End Cap On Foreign Workers
>
>
>> It's so typical for this so-called planning system to start
>>handling the situation after it has developed into a very
>>obvious crisis, that I don't even find it funny anymore...
>>However, this may be very symptomatic - I suggested this very
>>scenario to my friend yesterday, with the hope that the
>>quickening progress of technology will destroy justifications
>>for at least some restrictions on personal liberty.
>>
>>Maybe, this is a first step on making highly skilled labor
>>a globally privileged elite, as the recognition of their
>>importance, scarcity and exterritorial nature of their work.
>>(Nature doesn't apply the same territorial restrictions to
>>tigers and fungi; the governments, so far, have)
>>
>>This story is taken from:
>>
>>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/story.html?s=n/
>>reuters/980224/tech/stories/visas_1.html
>>----------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Tuesday February 24 10:23 AM EST
>>
>> High-tech Firms Seek To End Cap On Foreign Workers
>>
>> By Deeann Glamser
>>
>> SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft and other high-tech companies,
>> which say they face a critical shortage of programmers and
>> engineers, this week will ask Congress to eliminate the hiring
>> cap on foreign professionals.
>>
>> "This has slowly built to a crisis situation this year," Brian
>> Raymond, domestic policy manager for the American Electronics
>> Association, a trade group representing some 3,000 technology
>> companies, said in a recent interview.
>>
>> At issue are H-1B visas, allowing non-citizen doctors, computer
>> programmers and other professionals to work in the United States
>> for up to six years. The visas are used to fill shortages of
>> skilled workers, or are for people with extraordinary talents.
>>
>> This year, the annual limit of 65,000 H-1B visas is expected to
>> be hit by June, with no more issued until Oct. 1, the start of
>> the next federal fiscal year.
>>
>> Last year, the allotment was gone by September, the first time
>> the limit was reached.
>>
>> The Senate Judiciary Committee has a hearing scheduled for
>> Wednesday on H-1B visas for high-tech workers.
>>
>> Microsoft, Texas Instruments Inc. and Sun Microsystems officials
>> will testify in favor of repealing the cap.
>>
>> The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, the
>>
>> leading U.S. professional group for electrical and electronics
>> engineers, wants to retain the current limit.
>>
>> Visa information is sketchy, but 44 percent of pre- application
>> certifications -- the requests companies make to the Labor
>> Department as a prerequisite for applying for an H-1B visa -- in
>> fiscal 1997 were for computer occupations, up from 25 percent in
>> fiscal 1995.
>>
>> The next-largest category in fiscal 1997 was physical therapists,
>> at 26 percent of requests.
>>
>> The Information Technology Association of America, a trade
>> association that also opposes the cap, says companies with 100 or
>> more employees have 346,000 openings for programmers, systems
>> analysts and computer engineers, or 10 percent of the nation's
>> 3.3 million information-technology jobs.
>>
>> Semiconductor maker Texas Instruments hires about 150 H-1B visa
>> holders a year, 10 percent to 15 percent of its annual technical
>> hires.
>>
>> Most are graduate students at U.S. universities and become
>> residents here. The majority are from Taiwan and India.
>>
>> "These employees are critical. We depend greatly on electrical
>> engineering talent to build our products," said Stephen Leven,
>> Texas Instruments director of worldwide human resources.
>>
>> Intel also wants the cap repealed. It hires 300 to 400 foreign
>> design engineers a year, almost a third of the design engineers
>> it hires annually and about 4 percent of the slightly more than
>> 10,000 people it hired in 1997.
>>
>> As at Texas Instruments, most are graduate students sponsored by
>> the company for residency.
>>
>> Visa-limit proponents say more U.S. students are enrolling in
>> engineering and computer sciences as job prospects surge, and
>> older employees can be retrained for the changing job market.
>>
>> "We really believe there is a sufficient amount of people to
>> satisfy needs in the U.S.," said Paul Kostek, a Seattle- based
>> consultant and president-elect of the Institute of Electrical and
>> Electronics Engineers-USA.
>>
>> Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of
>> California at Davis, said companies exacerbate the worker
>> shortage by requiring very specific skills for each job and
>> preferring males in their 20s and 30s.
>>
>> "They want them young, and with the latest, hot technology, "
>> Matloff said. "For experienced programmers, learning a new
>> language is no big deal."
>>
>> He said visa workers earn less on average than their U.S. peers
>> and are unlikely to leave a company sponsoring them for permanent
>> residency.
>>
>> Microsoft has not released its H-1B figures, but says a mix of
>> cultural backgrounds is critical in a global marketplace.
>>
>> "It's important for us to hire the most appropriate workers to
>>
>> compete," said Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan.
>>
>>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------
>>Alexander Chislenko <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html>
>>---------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>
>
>
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