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Employers Abusing H1B Visa Cheap Labor |
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Monday, 23 January 2006 |
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A new report by an immigration research group supports CWA's stance that American employers are abusing a temporary visa program to fill jobs with cheap labor.
"The data suggest that rather than helping employers meet labor shortages or bring in workers with needed skills, as is often claimed by program users, the H1-B program is instead more often used by employers to import cheaper labor," wrote John Miano, author of the report for the Center for Immigration Studies. CWA convention delegates are on record as opposing the visa program, which critics say results in lower wages for American workers while giving high-tech companies a way to prevent union organizing by using H1-B workers. The H1-B program was created 16 years ago to allow U.S. companies to hire skilled workers to fill shortages when American workers with the necessary skills aren't available. The visas apply to occupations that require college degrees or equivalent work experience but are almost exclusively used by high-tech companies to fill computing, engineering and scientific jobs. Federal law requires companies using H1-B workers to pay them the same as other employees doing the same work or the prevailing wage for the occupation, but the CIS report — based on Labor Department data — found that the temporary workers are being paid significantly less than their American counterparts. "The wide gap between wages for U.S. workers and H1-B workers helps explain why industry demand for H-1B workers is so high and why the annual visa quotas are being exhausted," Miano said. Rep. Bill Paxcrell, D-N.J., said he has no doubt the CIS report is accurate. "Corporations are providing a glass ceiling for American workers in a trap of virtual servitude for low paying, overworked H1-B employees," he said. "My friends, that is not an exaggeration, that is not hyperbole, I found this through research to be the truth." |
