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Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
Part I Outstanding article. There is an an amazing amount of H1B propaganda being spun by the corporate lobby. Some pro-H1B Visa articles don't even have an authors named attached to them and are usually written by corporate sponsored "think tanks". So it's refreshing to see an informative article such as this one. Clearly this was written by someone not on the corporate dole. Thanks Don for taking a look at this important issue and for spotlighting Qualcomm's labor practices that are going on right here in San Diego's backyard. According to MyVisaJobs (http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Sponsor/Qualcomm/4…) Qualcomm has directly petitioned and received 6200 Visas over the past 10 years for foreign workers to move to and work in San Diego. That is an astounding number when one considers that the company employs only 12,500 total workers in San Diego. Americans in general and San Diegans in particular should be both disgusted and outraged by this fact, as it has harmed the local job market and displaced thousands of American STEM workers. It's interesting to read the Wired.com article that Don has cited (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/03/tech-tal…) There are several profoundly disturbing comments in this interview. The first is that Jacobs says that Qualcomm is now hiring 60% of their staff from foreign countries (mostly from India apparently). Despite this, and despite the fact that the company has already received 6200 H-1B Visas, Paul Jacobs says, "he expects only to receive half of the specialized H-1B work visas to come through for his hires". Imagine what the company would be like if Jacobs was able to double the Visas that he has already received?— March 9, 2011 1:36 p.m.
Lerach: Don't Blame Public Union Members. Blame Wall Street
This discussion reminds me of a joke I heard a few days ago: "A CEO, a member of the Teamsters and a member from the Tea Party all sit down in front of a plate of 12 cookies. The CEO scoops up 11 of the cookies and then looks at the Tea Party member and says, "the guy from the Teamsters wants part of your cookie". Wall Street and it's corporate lobby is out of control and over the past 10 years have hammered every income segment of the US, except their fellow top 2%'ers. All while enriching themselves and increasing the gap between themselves and the middle class by record amounts to the point where it's larger than any other industrialized nation. With their new found Globalization tools of outsourcing jobs and in-sourcing record numbers of skilled immigrants, Wall Street is poised to push down wages of 95% of Americans and marginalize minorities and older Americans in the work force. The wage pressures from outsourcing and waves of skilled immigrants being brought into this country is erasing the standard of living of 95% of Americans and this process will accelerate unless Americans collectively stand up and use their votes to keep jobs here and employ Americans first. The current national debate on Unions that is happening in Wisconsin and other states which is mirrored in this thread is exactly what Wall Street wants. They want to take the focus off of themselves and their new exploitation tools and put the focus on the disparity in wages and benefits between unions and non-union members. Pushing everyone down isn't he answer though. The answer is bringing back skilled and manufacturing jobs back to the US, while simultaneously making the most of the talent that is here. This means pushing back on the policies of Wall Street CEO's. There are only two organizations in the US that have enough power to take on Wall Street and these are 1) The Federal Government and 2) Unions. It's small wonder then that Wall Street is lobbying heavily for smaller government and deregulation, while at the same time continuing to pressure Unions. I've never been a fan of Big Government or Unions, but the game has changed and these are the only tools that we have at-hand to check the disastrous policies that Wall Street is wanting to follow. Rather than complain about Unions and Government, let's be pragmatic and look at the bigger picture and complain about what really matters. If Unions and a larger role in Government is what is required to check Wall Street greed, then lets use those tools while also demanding that both Big Government and Unions are effective and not corrupt.— March 5, 2011 10:30 a.m.
Qualcomm Named One of Fortune's 100 Best Employers
One of my first jobs out of high school was working for GM on an assembly line. At the time GM had a great program that allowed college students to work part-time in a high paying (union) job while going to school full time. Seeing the abuses of unions first-hand,pushed me to become a long-time Republican that believed that Unions were inherently evil. In the last 10-15 years though, the pendulum has swung completely in the other direction. Due to insufficient labor representation in government, American corporations have been allowed to wreck the country in order to maximize their short term profits. We've seen extensive outsourcing that eliminated manufacturing jobs, then technical and engineering jobs and most recently service sector jobs. All while importing millions of new workers under the various Visa classes (particularly the H1B). These sorts of abuses are simply not allowed in other countries, because most other countries have labor representation in government that prevent these sorts of abuses. The damage done to the US economy mostly happened under the GOP watch, but truthfully the Dems share in this as well (anyone remember Al Gore's statements that NAFTA would result in more American jobs?). The truth is that there needs to be a balance between profits and labor. Corporations should be allowed to maximize profits so long as the lot of the American workers, (in particular the training and education of the American worker) are improved in the process. By failing to do so through outsourcing and Visa abuse means that American corporations are becoming increasingly irrelevant to our society.— January 23, 2011 1:21 p.m.
Qualcomm Named One of Fortune's 100 Best Employers
Don, I would like to read this, do you have a link? I agree 100% with this summary. After we won the Cold War, the US has lost it's way. The only national focus is to let corporations do whatever they want in order to generate profits. American style capitalism is broken however because in focusing solely on profits, it's missing the other factors that impact this country such as investment in our own labor force and keeping what's left of our technological advantage. It's interesting to compare what is happening in Germany vs the US. German style capitalism (which was installed by the US at the end of WW2), requires companies to have worker representation in boards of companies. This representation inherently forces companies to take into account the impact of workers in addition to maximizing profits. The result is a constant focus on worker training in order to maximize efficiency and keep costs low. Interestingly enough, Germany has become an export powerhouse that was the #1 world-wide exporter up until it was narrowly passed by China recently. Unlike China though it achieves these exports with high quality goods that are technologically sophisticated. These products are made by workers with a high living standard, that enjoy high wages. China on the other hand, achieves its export dominance with brutal working conditions and near slave labor. In the US the drive for greater profits has resulted in extensive outsourcing and technology giveaways that will harm our country for generations to come.— January 23, 2011 12:54 p.m.
Qualcomm Named One of Fortune's 100 Best Employers
Part III Let's not fool ourseleves though, the real unspoken driver in this poll is the fact that the US, despite the recent economic downturn continues to be the best country in the world to live in. It got this way because of an egalitarian culture that allows anyone, from any walk of life to rise to any position. What gave rise to this egalitarian culture was the size and vibrancy of our Middle Class. A Middle Class that is on an unfortunate downward spiral, exactly because of the outsourcing and H1B Visa policies of companies like Qualcomm. There are many less opportunities available for Americans graduating college now, particularly in technology than were available in prior years and decades. In summary, for those 6200 immigrants who makeup 50% of Qualcomm's US workforce and ~80% of the engineering workforce, Qualcomm seems like a great company to work. A shiny beacon of light that flashes, "US Residency". It's also great for those who work in support roles such as HR, Marketing and Finance because they get to share in the perks (Qualcomm's great benefits package) without having to put in the massive amounts of hours. It's also great if you're a highly compensated Director, VP or a CEO (isn't this true by definition at any company?). However, it's not so great if you are an American born engineer at Qualcomm who has seen their hours steadily increase over the past 10 years. In fact, many of those have most likely left the company. It's also not great if you're an American born engineer who is now entering the workforce, one who is facing a dismal job market due to the twin forces of outsourcing and H1B Visa abuse. It's also not so great for engineers who want to work in an ethnically diverse environment, one that is not monolithically Indian. It's also not great for San Diegan engineers who don't work at Qualcomm, who have seen the local job market heavily impacted by this massive importation of cheap labor.— January 22, 2011 5:53 p.m.
Qualcomm Named One of Fortune's 100 Best Employers
Part II Qualcomm is also known in the industry for working people very hard. The company brings in dinner at 8pm every night so that people can eat quickly and get back to work, with typical work days running until 10 or 11pm at night (brings new meaning to the phrase "will work for food"). Average work weeks are about 65 hrs, but will go double that figure during frequent schedule crunches. These are all unpaid hours and so that juicy salary of $134K/year works out to about $39 per hour when the full hours worked are considered. Not bad, but not a fortune. My car mechanic charges me $90/hr. He has to pay rent on his shop, but he also gets paid when he decides to work late and on weekends. All in all he enjoys a better standard of living than an engineer at Qualcomm because 1) he works roughly 50 hrs per week, 2) works overtime on his own schedule and 3) takes home a significantly higher paycheck. Incidentally, my mechanic is also the son of a Harvard MBA graduate and he firmly believes that he is in the right field of work, because in his words, "Globalization is the bulldozer that is erasing the American Middle Class". Last year when Qualcomm was ranked on this same list of best companies to work for, a Qualcomm engineer told me this, "I don't know who those people are. I don't know who would want to work for this company". This same person went on to tell me that he was forced to work 7 days a week for 6 months straight, without a single day off. My heart went out to him as he told me this story, he looked like "walking death", deep sunken eyes, and with a very sullen and broken expression. Later I found out that a Qualcomm employee had committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the same building that this person worked. With these numbers in mind, isn't it obvious who would want to work at Qualcomm? It's the 6200 people that were brought here as immigrants, people who will put up with the long hours in exchange for getting out of the much worse environment that they came from. These people are here to obtain U.S. residency for themselves and their family. In their mind, Qualcomm is giving them a huge opportunity to better their lives. But let's put credit where credit is due. Qualcomm has no altruistic motivations in importing this labor, they are simply exploiting these people because of their desire to work in the U.S. To Qualcomm, these people represent an eager workforce who are working long hours, who are less prone to jump ship to another company (because of H1B restrictions), who put downward pressure on salaries, and who by their sheer numbers, are able to shift the balance of power in the job market firmly towards the employer.— January 22, 2011 5:52 p.m.
Qualcomm Named One of Fortune's 100 Best Employers
Part I Is Qualcomm one of the best companies to work for in the US, or should the poll have been titled, "USA one of the best countries in the world to live and raise a family? Let's examine these facts a little more closely: In almost every year over the past 10 years, government figures show that Qualcomm is in the top 10 list of companies that tap the H1B Visa System. Excluding the companies at the top of that list that are Indian companies specializing in outsourcing (Tata, Wipro, Infosys, etc.), Qualcomm ranks closer to the top 5 of US-based companies that tap this system. If these H1B numbers are correct: http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Sponsor/Qualcomm/4… Then from 2000-2010 there have been an astounding 6,200 people that were either imported by Qualcomm, or came to work for Qualcomm due to a direct Visa petition from the company. That translates to an incredible 50% of the overall US workforce. The vast majority of these are engineers (especially software), so this translates to a guestimate of ~80%+ of their entire US engineering workforce. It also explains the 55% minority figure, a minority that is counted as such despite the fact that these people were never disadvantaged or a minority in their own country of origin. Listing them as a minority may sound great in PR publications and it may also help the company qualify for Government programs. But it does a huge disservice to true US born minority communities in the US. In particular, Latino and Black segments of the US population continue to be under-represented in technology jobs (including at Qualcomm), and bringing in cheap foreign labor, rather than encourage this group of disadvantaged Americans is disappointing at best. Using these foreign guest workers in minority figures is more than disappointing, it's reprehensible. What's also interesting is that Qualcomm has a reputation for turning away qualified resumes by the boatload while still tapping the H1B pipeline. To my knowledge Qualcomm doesn't release resume figures, but from what I've heard less than 1% of resumes received result in a callback. This, despite the fact that many applicants who are turned away, are highly qualified, and the US unemployment rate is high. It is however, a lot easier to get hired if you know someone who works there. Now that the vast majority of the engineering workforce is Indian, this has created a general tendency to prefer this group over others during hiring and has even created occasional situations of reverse discrimination. A bold claim to be sure, but substantiated by the people that I know who work there.— January 22, 2011 5:49 p.m.