Inane in Illinois
Inane in Illinois
Date: Sunday, September 22, 2002 3:01 PM
************ H-1B NEWSLETTER *************
* Get the Facts on H-1B at *
* www.ZaZona.com *
When I talked to the reporter of the following article, Catharine Schaidle,
I thought she was going to write an objective article about H-1B. Since I
don't want to burn bridges with her I will assume that she was duped by the
corporate HR departments - an understandable mistake for a journalist who is
new to the issue.
For the most part Schaidle's article is just a repeat of the corporate
propaganda that we hear over and over. Since she sent me an email to review
her article I will include her on this newsletter in the hopes that she can
be more objective in the future.
She made no attempt to verify the outlandish claims made by Indian H-1B
shills like Babu: "To those who criticize the newcomers for usurping
positions that ought to be filled by Americans, Babu said, "They are not
replacing anybody. These companies just can't find the people here to do
those jobs. I'm perplexed that Schaidle would print a statement like this
without at least questioning it. I tutored her via telephone on how to use
the LCA Database at www.ZaZona.com/LCA-Data to view the jobs taken by H-1Bs
in Illinois. Why didn't she ask some of those unemployed programmers that
she interviewed why they felt they were qualified for the jobs the H-1Bs in
Illinois are taking?
It get worse. She quotes the corporate spin doctors at Business Week
magazine who accuse Americans of being "cowboy programmers" while Indian
programmers snap up "new methodologies". Americans invented these new
methodologies but I'm sure the CEOs at Business Week never considered that
minor detail. We then get to read that "seven of the top 12 ranked software
firms in the world are based in India" follwed by further insults that "more
American firms may be turning to Indian software engineers because their
work may be the best in the world". India has definitely done a good job
taking our jobs but to say that their work is better just because it's
cheaper is just plain dumb!
All of this is followed by a parade of industry spokespersons that use the
tried and proven excuse for replacing American workers that always runs
along the lines of "Americans are not trained as well as Indians". Why
didn't Schaidle ask them when it was that Bombay University surpassed MIT?
Schaidle didn't print any counters to this barrage of anti-American
propaganda but she did manage to print a few zingers that should have given
her a clue that the corporate spinners duped her:
* As we all know Motorola has fired tens of thousands of American workers
and they have consistently been ranked by INS as the #1 company for visa
approvals since 2000. It was very reassuring to the accuracy of the INS data
that Motorola spokeswoman Anne Stuessy casually admitted that 6 percent of
their total U.S. professional population is in H-1B status.
* Illinois ranks seventh in the nation with 52,781 imported H-1B workers. A
search of September ZaZona.com web statistics for location of web surfers
ranks Illinois traffic as #10, just behind the Netherlands. Hopefully people
from Illinois have been to my website to read about H-1B before they read
this article - and hopefully one day they will have more interest in H-1B
than the Netherlands.
* Congressman Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, when asked about H-1B said that "I don't
know about
Illinois. I know about the 20 counties that I represent, and I think (if it
were a problem) I would have heard about it." Since LaHood must be hard of
hearing I forward him this newsletter and his idiotic statement will be
immortalized at:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/PoliticalQuotes.htm
Catherine Schaidle can be reached at CSchaidle@pjstar.com
Letters to the editor (LTE) are STRONGLY encouraged so write to:
forum@pjstar.com
And Ray "can't hear the train wreck" LaHood is at:
http://www.house.gov/lahood/
__________________________________________________________
http://www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/g114307a.html
Tech industry feeling India's impact
As Indians increase workload, Illinoisans struggle to find jobs
September 22, 2002
By CATHARINE SCHAIDLE
of the Journal Star
PEORIA - Falisha McGee came to Bradley University on Thursday seeking
employment at the daylong job fair.
McGee, 24, graduated from Bradley in May with a degree in computer
information systems. Like others in the information technology industry,
she's spent months looking for a job.
"I did internships for every one of my four years," said McGee, whose last
internship was with Caterpillar Inc. She also was president of the National
Society of Black Engineers at Bradley.
McGee says she'd travel as far as necessary for a decent-paying job in her
field. But the jobs are not out there.
And now the unemployment rate for people like McGee is three times what it
was just two years ago.
The shrinkage of the Illinois manufacturing economy of the 1970s and 1980s
could be happening all over again, this time in the highly educated,
well-paid, white-collar information technology field. And the competition
comes not from Japan but India.
This trend is so new that no agency has tracked what may be flat - or even
negative - growth in job prospects for software programmers and engineers in
Illinois. But the anecdotal evidence is compelling. For instance:
Caterpillar Inc. acknowledges that some of its software engineering has been
contracted offshore to India.
Caterpillar, along with other giant Illinois firms - State Farm, Deere & Co.
and Motorola - all acknowledge having software engineered here in the states
by aliens, mostly from India, brought in for that purpose on temporary
visas.
While the U.S. economy as a whole is in recession, the software business in
India has grown 20 percent in just one year. In that year, its software
exports grew by about a third, and two-thirds of that growth was in the
Americas.
More American firms may be turning to Indian software engineers because
their work may be the best in the world; in fact, seven of the top 12 ranked
software firms in the world are based in India.
Nationwide, the infotech industry has experienced mass layoffs and the loss
of more than half a million technology jobs, according to the Programmers
Guild and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, who both
blame the import of foreign workers in the field for making the situation
worse.
Besides new graduates like McGee, the downturn in the infotech industry is
nailing people with years of experience, who are being laid off because
companies now find them too expensive to retain.
Anthony, 42, has been scanning electronic bulletin boards where he's posted
his resume seeking an information technology job.
After 15 years as a software engineer in a medium-sized high tech company in
Peoria, Anthony and several colleagues were laid off at the end of last
year.
"There's nothing out there," Anthony said. "I'm getting ready to move out of
this field, out of this area even."
Sally, a Farmington woman, considers herself more fortunate because her
husband has a full-time job in a big company, they still have insurance and
their children are grown.
As an independent consultant, the 54-year-old woman had several years of
experience in computer technology and traveled all over the country on
various high-tech projects.
"But it is really bad now, and it doesn't look like it will improve any time
in the future," she predicted.
At the same time, she says, "You can't complain because it is capitalism at
its best. How do you fight that when that is what your country is based on?"
The H-1B factor
When the Internet took technology businesses to unprecedented heights and
the economy heated up, American employers were frustrated by their inability
to expand without trained manpower.
Businesses sought government help. In 1998, the federal government expanded
its visa program, called H-1B after the section of immigration law governing
it, to allow employers to hire a limited number of foreign, highly skilled
workers for temporary jobs.
In 2000, 115,000 foreign workers - mainly in technical fields - were allowed
to work in the United States for three years. That expanded to 195,000 visas
a year over the next three years. In 2004, the number will revert to the
pre-'98 level at 65,000 a year and the entry of foreign IT professionals
flooding the market may resolve itself.
Illinois is not immune from the impact of the H-1B visa program and the
burgeoning Indian software industry.
With 52,781 imported workers, Illinois ranks seventh in the nation in hiring
H-1B workers, many of whom are right here in central Illinois.
According to statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, of the
1,544 H-1B visa holders who took jobs in Peoria last year, 1,310 work in IT
and engineering. The majority hail from India.
Illinois-based corporations such as Caterpillar Inc., State Farm Insurance
and Deere & Co. spoke in general terms about how many visa workers they've
hired or how much information technology outsourcing they engage in.
Caterpillar spokeswoman Lori Porter said the company payroll includes 2,000
people in IT fields at Caterpillar locations locally and around the world.
"We recruit and hire new IT employees from a broad base of colleges and
universities. Among the key source schools in Illinois are Bradley, Illinois
State and the University of Illinois," Porter said. "Our IT work force
naturally reflects the fact that Caterpillar is a global company."
"Caterpillar does contract work with IT firms in India and with firms in
other international locations," she said. "But in these places, Caterpillar
employees usually function as the project manager, and the resulting
solutions are generally implemented by Cat IT employees."
State Farm spokeswoman Ana Compain-Romero said the company has been able to
find all of the qualified staff it needs in the United States.
"We presume there are some external associates (not employed by State Farm)
who may be here on H-1B, but their consulting company would have that
information, and that's not information we're required to ask of the
company," she said.
Deere & Co. turned to outside development staff to augment its own IT
staffs, but not because there was a quality problem, said spokesman Ken
Golden.
"Increased use of outside staff allows for more flexibility in staffing IT
projects since the workers do not become permanent employees," he said,
adding that Deere outsources less than 10 percent of its development work.
High-tech company Motorola Inc., based in Schaumburg, is planning to cut
7,000 employees but doesn't say specifically if any of its IT work is going
or has gone to India.
"Approximately 6 percent of our total U.S. professional population is in
H-1B status," said Motorola spokeswoman Anne Stuessy. "We outsource software
development and projects for a number of reasons beyond economic
considerations. . . . It makes sense to develop software interfaces and
handwriting recognition for the Chinese market in China."
One of Illinois' largest sources of information technology employees from
India is Satyam Computer Services, based in India, which acknowledges
Caterpillar and Deere among its clients. Satyam declined comment.
A proponent of the H-1B program is U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria. LaHood
said the pullback in engineering and the infotech industry is more of a
problem in California and other places with a higher concentration of
high-tech industries.
"I don't think it's a problem around here, "LaHood said. "I don't know about
Illinois. I know about the 20 counties that I represent, and I think (if it
were a problem) I would have heard about it."
Changing direction
Girish Seshagiri of Advanced Information Services once promoted his native
India to Caterpillar for technology jobs. Now he is fighting to reverse that
business to his adopted home, Peoria.
In the late 1990s, Seshagiri took advantage of the H-1B program and hired
info-tech workers from India. Now as the demand for IT workers has
diminished, Seshagiri is competing with India for that work.
Seshagiri hopes that a joint venture with the Motorola Global Software Group
to create a training center in Peoria will turn the tide of high-tech
outsourcing and loss of information technology positions in Illinois by
providing better trained employees. The plan, still in its embryonic stage,
is conceived as a partnership with local colleges and the community.
Seshagiri also is driven by a fight for survival. Caterpillar was once his
employer. When he left to set up his own software development company,
Caterpillar became Seshagiri's main customer.
"I'm very grateful to Caterpillar for what they've done for me so far,"
Seshagiri said. "My concern is that they should encourage local employment."
For 15 years, when Caterpillar was in need of IT professionals, Seshagiri
catered to the company's needs while building his own business at the same
time. He hired Peorians, sometimes paid for their educations and put them on
Caterpillar projects.
Seshagiri said he saw the writing on the wall when the federal government
opened the H-1B visa floodgates. His company, which has won industry awards
for quality, provided Caterpillar with both training and staff from Chennai,
a city of 4 million in India's rapidly expanding Silicon Valley.
While making use of that visa gate himself to supply his clients'
requirements, Seshagiri realized that by supplying infotech professionals
from India, he also was hastening the demise of his own American-based
business. Not only that, he was contributing to a situation in which people
in the place he has called home for 35 years eventually would be ousted by
IT professionals from India, which has become an information technology
powerhouse.
"When there was a shortage of trained personnel, it was OK, but now, when
the economy is not expanding as rapidly, I don't see why they continue to
bring in people from India," he said.
This year, as the economy turned sour, 50 AIS workers are on indefinite
layoff, out of a total of 135.
Other technology companies in Peoria also are feeling the impact of the
entry of Indian consulting firms into the local area, said Bashir Ali,
director of work force development for the city of Peoria.
"Caterpillar just shifted some of its IT contractors," Ali said. "It has
definitely impacted some local IT contractors."
Lacking quality
The growing Indian presence in central Illinois is making itself felt.
"Over the last three years we've seen many Indians coming here to Peoria,
Bloomington and Morton to work in the software industry at Caterpillar,
State Farm and others," said Ratna Babu, a board member of the Central
Illinois Hindu Heritage Center.
"Just in our database alone we have about 400 addresses, and we believe
there are at least that many, if not more Indians out there," Babu said.
"Bloomington has a significant number, about 500 or 600."
To those who criticize the newcomers for usurping positions that ought to be
filled by Americans, Babu said, "They are not replacing anybody. These
companies just can't find the people here to do those jobs."
Babu's comments are echoed elsewhere.
Business Week reports that of the world's 12 software houses that have
earned the highest rating from the Software Engineering Institute at
Carnegie Mellon University, seven are in India. The reason, Business Week
notes, is because Indian programmers are snapping up new methodologies
shunned by American cowboy programmers.
It's not that central Illinois does not have any skilled engineers; however,
many lack the world-class quality that is required, said Watts Humphrey, the
quality guru at the institute who developed a five-step standard for quality
development processes.
"Improving quality in the U.S. information technology field has not been a
priority, but this is where the government has to take the lead," he said.
While U.S. corporations may see outsourcing and hiring foreign workers as a
short-term fix, the cost will be higher in the long run, he said.
"They may save 50 percent by contracting (IT jobs) overseas, but they also
have to spend part of it by managing the sub-contractor," Humphrey said. "At
the moment, the overseas software market is not perceived as a threat. What
they don't realize is that quality work (in the United States) actually
costs less and you save money."
Improving quality
A firm believer in Humphrey's methods, Seshagiri's firm was the first U.S.
software company to adopt his five-step training program in 1996. As a
result, AIS saw profits double, and software flaws plunged 98 percent.
Likewise, the Indian government made quality an imperative in its drive for
software excellence. In 2000, it sponsored the Watts Humphrey Software
Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai. Among the
founding companies of that institute was AIS.
Seshagiri also preaches quality at home. With the assistance of Bradley
University, his company developed a 12-week program to train engineering
graduates to meet the needs of its main customer, Caterpillar.
"I can honestly say that my company trained at least 120 people and got them
jobs that may have gone to H-1B workers," Seshagiri said. "I could not have
done that without the cooperation of Caterpillar."
But that ended in 2000. Initially, many of the people trained by AIS were
hired by Caterpillar. But over the last several months, the numbers have
fallen off, and some of these people are still job-hunting.
Educators' view
Bradley University's placement service says that technology graduates have
been having a difficult time securing employment.
Companies that were aggressively hiring are not doing so any more, said Jane
Linnenburger of Bradley's Smith Career Center. "Before, our graduates would
be courted with signing bonuses and other perks long before they were ready
to graduate."
She attributed the low hiring to a combination of factors including the
decline in the economy, the passage of the Y2K syndrome and the
repercussions of Sept. 11.
"We started seeing the dip in the fall of 2001," Linnenburger said. "There
is a much tighter job market now. I would say that when students have
internships they're more likely to be successful."
Some of Bradley's IT graduates are finding it may take from six to nine
months to find a job, she said. In other areas like construction and civil
engineering, however, there is still a tremendous need.
Illinois Central College, however, is still bullish on the IT industry,
although the job market is tighter than it was before, says Rita Fischbach,
dean of instruction.
While students may be experiencing some difficulty in the job market right
now, Fischbach said, "the quality students are getting jobs, although not as
easily as before."
This week, the college will break ground on a $5 million technology building
to meet the needs of area employers, said Judy Jergens, ICC's chair of
information systems.
"Even if there is a recession now, ICC is preparing its students to meet the
needs of employers two years from now," she said. "There will still be an
enormous shortage, even if it's not so much now."
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