American Engineers vs. tech management: H-1B battle: Round 1 - US citizens WIN!

[OhioChick]

12/12/2006 - 11:08pm


It came right down to the last seconds of the bout, about midnight of the lame duck session of the 2006 United States of America Congress. Senator Boehner (R-OH) took one last shot, trying to slip an H-1B increase into the India Nuclear deal. American engineers were on the ropes. The committee was in a closed door session late Friday night. Engineering careers were about to be knocked out for good. Members of various groups from the left and the right were frantically calling their representatives. Family members of engineers from around the country were calling Senators, many for the first time ever. Last Friday night, the major news media didn't even cover this fight but it continued until Saturday morning. There was only a small mention of the India-Nuke bill on the news later that night. But the fight was still going on behind closed doors. Early Saturday C-SPAN displayed only, "India-Nuke Deal passed" for several hours, with no details. It wasn't until the next morning that anyone even knew who won the fight. The next morning engineers in America woke to the good news, "No increase in the H-1B cap!". The first battle was won with a whimper of inaction.

How did US citizens actually get representation in congress? Was it the message, "Enough is enough - No more war against the middle-class" that Americans sent their representatives last election? Was it that Senator Biden (D-DE) wanted the Democrats to take credit for an H-1B increase next session so they can get all those big campaign contributions from tech companies? Maybe time simply ran out and they all wanted to go home. Sadly, absolutely nobody believes that congress genuinely did not want to hurt American engineers and the middle class any further.

So what's next? What's Round 2 going to be? Tech companies have a lot of engineering work to develop this year. The CEOs and high-level managers are meeting to discuss their options now :

1) Outsource more
2) Endure next year while lobbying congress for more H-1Bs
3) Engage Engineers in America

More: http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/4162

[jody]

1. Thanks! n/t

[w4rma]

2. Very good. (nt)

[fortyfeetunder]

3. Sigh of relief, for now.

This is one small victory, and we know if the H-1B proponents get the upper hand, the rest of us will be next...

:kick: