IT workers are challenging the replacement of U.S. employees with foreign visa holders. Lawsuits are on the rise and workers are contacting lawmakers. Disney workers who lost their jobs on Jan. 30, 2015, are especially aggressive.
There's a reason for this.
The Disney severance package offered to them did not include a non-disparagement clause, making it easier for laid-off workers to speak out. This is in contrast to the severance offered to Northeast Utility workers.
The utility, now known as Eversource Energy and based in Connecticut and Massachusetts, laid off approximately 200 IT employees in 2014 after contracting with two India-based offshore outsourcing firms. The employees contacted local media and lawmakers to pressure the utility to abandon its outsourcing plan.
Some of the utility's IT employees had to train their foreign replacements. Failure to do so meant loss of severance. But an idea emerged to show workers' disdain for what was happening: Small American flags were placed in cubicles and along the hallway in silent protest -- flags that disappeared as the workers were terminated.
The utility employees left their jobs with a severance package that included this sentence: "Employee agrees that he/she shall make no statements to anyone, spoken or written, that would tend to disparage or discredit the Company or any of the Company's officers, directors, employees, or agents."
That clause has kept former Eversource employees from speaking out because of fears the utility will sue them if they say anything about their experience. The IT firms that Eversource uses, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, are major users of the H-1B visa.
But staying silent is difficult, especially after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) co-sponsored legislation in January 2015 that would hike the 65,000 H-1B base cap hike to as high as 195,000. The measure, known as the...
Cut The Fat, Feed The Freedom.
One of Germany’s most celebrated psychoanalysts has said the refusal of Chancellor Angela Merkel to reverse her “completely irrational” migrant policy is evidence of a potential “mental breakdown” that endangers society.
Hans-Joachim Maaz, a German psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and best-selling author, was speaking with Huffington Post Germany when he suggested a “stubborn” Angela Merkel has “lost touch with reality”.
According to Mr. Maaz, the German Chancellor suffers from “narcissism” brought on by people lauding her position as ‘mother of the nation’ and most powerful woman in the world, and calling for her to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He says the “artificially inflated self-image” she labours under leads to the “stubborn attitude” on display by her during the ongoing migrant crisis.
Mr. Maaz claimed that Mrs. Merkel has not, in fact, taken any difficult decisions or displayed genuine leadership. In his opinion she reacts to...
Army Human Resources Command has recommended that the
Green Beret who confronted an Afghan police commander for raping a young boy be kicked out of the service.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.), who has pushed back against the Army’s decision to punish Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, revealed the development in a letter to Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kansas) Wednesday.
“Recently, a decision within Army Human Resources Command recommended that the Army uphold the judgment that Martland be removed from service, although a final decision has yet to be made about his future,” Hunter wrote.
While serving in Afghanistan in 2011, Martland and another soldier confronted an Afghan Local police commander at an outpost for kidnapping and repeatedly raping a young boy, reportedly throwing the man to the ground and physically ejecting him from the base.
“For this action, Martland was removed from the outpost and faced reprimand. He later was allowed to reenlist, only to face a Qualitative Management Program review board in February 2015,” Hunter, a veteran Marine officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote in the letter.
“The Army argued that the black mark on his record, which states he...
