June 25, 2007, - 11:52 am
UPDATE: H-1B Avoidance Law Firm Engages in CYA; Under Investigation?; Even Socialist Senator Decries H-1B Fraud
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Last week, I showed you , a lawyer and Vice President/Director of Pittsburgh’s Cohen & Grigsby law firm, for various jobs.
The video–released by the Programmers’ Guild–was in stark contrast to the constant whining by employers (and their friends at the Wall Street Journal editorial page) that there aren’t enough skilled Americans to fill various jobs, from the high tech industry to construction. Their drumbeat to increase the number of H-1b visas is getting louder. But the video was yet more proof that clearly there are skilled Americans who want these jobs, but employers want to get around hiring and paying them standard market wages.
Well, now the video has reached lawmakers. USA Today reports that both U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) have called for the Labor Department to investigate the law firm. Given that Labor is under the hegemony of open borders/cheap labor advocate Elaine Chao and her Bush Admin bosses, we’ll see if the investigation and any meaningful punishment actually happens.
But in the meantime, any one of you–dear readers–can file a grievance with the State Bar and attorney grievance commission of Pennsylvania against Leibowitz and his firm. Leibowitz’s law firm released a statement regretting Leibowitz’s “choice of words.” No, the only thing he and his firm regret is getting caught trying to get around America’s labor laws in exchange for the big bucks of their employer clients. And now, they are trying to cover their asses.
Even socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont agrees with conservative Republicans like Senator Grassley and me that there really isn’t the lack of qualified, skilled American workers that employers, wishing to pay less in wages and benefits, claim:
Skeptics say increasing immigration is a way for employers to avoid increasing wages. “They want to defy the economic law of supply and demand,” [Senator Bernie] Sanders [IND-Vermont] said at a Capitol Hill news conference last week. “Instead of paying better wages and benefits, they want to import cheaper workers.”
In construction, where the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about 14% of the jobs are occupied by illegal immigrants, wages have stagnated, said Ed Sullivan, president of the Building and Construction Trades workers’ union. He said the immigration bill’s guest-worker provisions would continue that trend.
Similar suspicions are shared by computer programmers and engineers. Ron Hira, a professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, questions the need for more foreign workers when technology companies such as Dell, Motorola and IBM have recently announced layoffs.
“I don’t think there’s any indication of a broad shortage in IT (information technology) workers,” he said. “You’d see that show up in wage increases, and we haven’t seen wage increases.”
When the market sounds a loud message that we don’t need more H-1B immigrants, the Wall Street Journal and big business–which alway tout market solutions–are turning a deaf ear.
Why is this important? Well, the hundreds of thousands of temporary workers under the Immigration Amnesty Bill will be taking these jobs “that Americans just won’t do” away from Americans. And they will be doing so with open U.S. government sanction.
Since there’s much fraud now–with the help of lawyer Lebowitz and the Cohen & Grigsby law firm–imagine how much more there will be if this bill passes. And how many more Americans will lose their jobs to these aliens.
Tags: alway tout market solutions, America, amnesty, Bernie Sanders, Charles Grassley, Debbie Schlussel Last, Dell, Department of Labor, economic law, Ed Sullivan, Elaine Chao, high tech industry, IBM, information technology, Iowa, labor advocate, Lamar Smith, law, Lawrence Leibowitz, lawyer, lawyer and Vice President/Director, Lebowitz, Motorola, Pennsylvania, Pew Hispanic Center, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh's Cohen & Grigsby, President, professor of public policy, Programmers Guild, Rochester Institute of Technology, Ron Hira, Senator, State Bar and attorney grievance commission, technology, Texas, the Wall Street Journal, U.S. government, United States, Vermont, Wall Street Journal
I am an Indian who wants to move to the US and for us H-1B is a very important first step towards green card or permanent residency. So I cannot support the abolishment of something that can help me achieve my dream.
donny on June 25, 2007 at 12:50 pm