Inexplicable Gaffe by IEEE Presindent-Elect

Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 2:06 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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John Steadman, dean of engineering at the University of South Alabama
and president-elect of the IEEE-USA, testified at the Senate Judiciary
Hearing on 9/16/2003. That said, it's puzzling why he would say a boner
like this:

Steadman wishes all employers were as diligent as Ingersoll-Rand
in trying to find American workers first, but "the fact is, not
all of them are like that."

During the Senate Judiciary Testimony on September 16, 2003, Elizabeth
C. Dickson Director of Immigration Services at Ingersoll-Rand said many
anti-American statements, but this one obviously contradicts Steadman's
statement:

Some argue that H-1B workers displace American workers and lower
American workers wages and working conditions in certain job

sectors.

It is hard to displace U.S. workers when you dont have any U.S.
workers to choose from.

Steadman's testimony at the Judicial hearing would seem to indicate
that he opposes H-1B and has a good understanding of the issues - with
the exception that he thinks a limit of 65,000 is OK and that H-1B is a
law that can be reformed. His statement to the Portland News Journal
would indicate that he has a lot more to learn.

Steadman's information can be found at:
http://wwweng.uwyo.edu/electrical/faculty/steadman.html

Steadman will receive this newsletter in the hopes that he will provide
an explanation for this inexplicable gaffe. Hopefully he doesn't intend
on being another one of the many IEEE officers that defends the H-1B
hiring practices of companies such as Ingersoll-Rand.

http://portland.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2003/09/29/bureau1.html

September 29, 2003
H1-B visa cap to be revisited

Kent Hoover
Washington Bureau Chief
The annual cap on H-1B visas will revert to 65,000 Oct. 1, after five
years of dramatically higher limits on the number of highly skilled
foreigners who could take specialized jobs at U.S. companies.

Businesses are lobbying Congress to increase the cap, saying the lower
limit will create problems when the economy recovers and could force
them to move more high-tech operations overseas. There simply are not
enough Americans trained in advanced sciences and engineering to
satisfy the demand, business groups contend.

H-1B visa approvals
Fiscal year Visa cap Approvals subject to cap

1998 65,000 65,000

1999 115,000 137,000

2000 115,000 115,000

2001 195,000 164,000

2002 195,000 79,000

2003 195,000 76,000 *
Sources: Cornell Law School professor Stephen Yale-Loehr, U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services
* Estimate; 56,986 petitions were approved in first three quarters of
2003
"We need to ensure that we have access to the talent we need to lead
and compete," says Sandy Boyd, chair of the American Business for Legal
Immigration Coalition and vice president for human resources policy for
the National Association of Manufacturers.

But raising the cap will be much more difficult politically than it was
in 1998, when the high-tech labor shortage persuaded Congress to raise
the H-1B cap to 115,000 a year, or in 2000, when Congress raised the
cap again to 195,000.

Now the unemployment rate in the United States for electrical and
electronics engineers stands at an unprecedented 7 percent, according
to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers -- USA.

Many laid-off tech workers are telling members of Congress about how
they were forced to train their foreign-born replacements, who took
their jobs for up to one-third less in salary.

"Wherever I go, this program comes up and somebody tells me they've
been replaced, and they're angry," says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Complicating the H-1B visa issue is controversy over another visa
program, the L-1 visa, which was designed to allow companies to
transfer key employees from other countries to the United States.
Critics say multinational services firms are using L-1 visas to
transfer employees to America and then outsource them to other U.S.
companies, who then lay off their own workers.

"This must stop," says Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who has introduced
legislation designed to prevent the use of L-1 visas for outsourcing.

Visas plummeted with economy
Business groups contend there should no cap on H-1B visas, because the
market will determine how many high-skilled foreign workers U.S.
companies need. In fiscal 2001, for example, 164,000 H-1B visas were
approved (not counting visas for employees who work in higher education
or research organizations, which are exempt from the cap).

But in 2002, H-1B visa approvals plummeted along with the economy, to
only 79,000. Through the first three quarters of fiscal 2003, only
56,986 H-1B petitions were approved.

When the economy recovers, a 65,000 cap will be "much too low," says
Elizabeth Dickson, a human resource specialist for Ingersoll-Rand Co.
who chairs the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's subcommittee on immigration.

This cap will be reached before the beginning of the next fiscal year,
forcing petitions to be put on hold and delaying the hiring of
much-need employees, Dickson says.

Plus, the actual number of new H-1B visas that will be available in
fiscal 2004 is actually more like 36,200, says Stephen Yale-Loehr, a
Cornell Law School professor and the chair of the American Immigration
Lawyers Association's business immigration committee. Yale-Loehr says
there is a backlog of 22,000 H-1B petitions that have not been ruled on
and another 6,800 visas that must be set aside for citizens of
Singapore and Chile under free trade agreements we signed with those
countries.

"A modest H-1B cap increase to 115,000 for FY 2004 would alleviate
labor pressures associated with economic recovery," he says.

There is little chance that Congress will act before Oct. 1, the
beginning of fiscal 2004, but Chambliss says Congress can address the
cap before the 65,000 limit is reached next year and increase it if
needed.

Cost of foreign workers debated
Dickson also refutes allegations that employers are using H-1B visas to
hire foreigners who will work for less money than Americans would.

"It is a lot, lot, lot more expensive to hire a foreign worker," she
says.

Besides the $1,000 fee that employers must pay the government per H-1B
application, companies face paperwork costs, legal fees and relocation
expenses.

Plus, companies that use H-1B visas are required by law to offer the
foreign worker the same salary and benefits as a U.S. worker would
receive for the same job.

But this requirement is "riddled with loopholes," says John Steadman,
dean of engineering at the University of South Alabama and
president-elect of the IEEE-USA.

"Sometimes wage rates are based on surveys that are two or three years
old," he says.

Plus, enforcement of the prevailing wage requirement is weak, he says.

Steadman thinks H-1B visas should be capped at 65,000 and that
employers should be required to show they were unable to recruit U.S.
workers for the jobs and that no U.S. workers will be displaced by H-1B
workers.

Those requirements currently only apply when H-1B workers account for
15 percent or more of an employer's work force.

Steadman wishes all employers were as diligent as Ingersoll-Rand in
trying to find American workers first, but "the fact is, not all of
them are like that."

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