• Shyiak still UAA coach despite ad for an American Citizen
  http://www.adn.com/sports/prep/hockey/story/931949.html
• Bruce Richall, homeless IT consultant
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7681978.stm
• Rob, homeless IT professional
  http://www.outsourcedandhomeless.com/

I also discuss 2 other stories. One about a Microsoft Product Manager who was laid off from Microsoft by a guest worker/manager on a L-1 Visa.  I call her Alice to protect her identity.  The second is a story about Diane Drozdowski, an IT worker who was tortured at American Express by an Indian manager until she had a nervous breakdown and then was forced to train her replacements from India.

I also play audio from a fan (a young one) who called in to my comment line.

I apologize for the audio not being as high of quality as I would like it to be, but I do have software on order which I hope will help with future episodes.

The Free Traders are getting the economy that they have been wishing for: cheap labor, disappearing unions, a killer trade deficit, and runaway corruption due to the lack of regulation and Laissez-faire economics.

In this episode I talk about the auto industry bridge loan and GM’s promise to restructure.  GM promises to become a sustainable American company and build “a bridge to a sustainable American auto industry”.  GM has already cut wages to $14.20 for new workers.  The number of workers at the Flint plant where my Dad worked for decades has already gone from a peak of around 6,500 workers to merely 900.  Now GM is planning more cuts, including eliminating 35% of its dealerships by 2012.  With so many people either making close to poverty wages or kicked out onto the street, there is not going to be many customers for GM’s new “green” cars.  So just how is this going to be sustainable for GM or the automotive industry?  How is this supposed to help save the economy as GM claims in their blog? You can view the “Bridge” YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqo2uwA-_eE.  They turned off comments so no one can comment on their YouTube posts.  They also have several other posts there to review.

One thing that wasn’t so bad in the last contract negotiation between the UAW and GM was the VEBA (Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association) solution for retiree medical benefits.  This benefited GM in that they no longer had to record retiree medical benefits on their books, as well as took retiree benefits off the table and out of jeopardy during future contract negotiations and potential bandruptcy proceedings.

Happy Holidays and I wish you the best in what promises to be a very bad new year.

PS: If you have a Facebook account, be sure to become a fan of WashTech’s new Facebook page.

I also talk about job interviews that I had at two different medical device companies.  It is amazing how obvious it was that they didn’t want to hire an American Citizen for the position.

I introduce two books that cover the union WashTech.  The first book is “The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington” by David Sirota.  An excerpt of this book is available at the WashTech site.  WashTech is discussed in the chapter “Dilberts of the World, Unite!”.  I have an interview in the book near the end of that same chapter.

The second book is titled “Love the Work, Hate the Job: Why America’s Best Workers Are Unhappier Than Ever” by David Kusnet.  An excerpt of this book is available at the WashTech site.  This book not only describes WashTech’s history in great detail, it also  describes Boeing’s history along with the union SPEEA.  It also describes how Boeing changed from a company caring about quality to a company caring more about profit.

Also included in this episode are music and audio clips from the game Portal by Valve Software.

This episode opens with a skit with the help of Bill from The Florida Soapbox podcast.  Bill also has a new podcast titled The World News Review which will be coming out in January.

Next, I discuss the Christmas resolution that passed in congress and my full support for Jim McDermott who voted against it, in which I am in complete disagreement with Lou Dobbs and Ken Schram who I feel completely missed the point as to why to vote no on this Republican resolution.

Indians are now praying to the Visa God for, not entrance into heaven, but entrance into the United States in order to take an American Worker’s job.

 Amazon.com is moving its headquarters from Seattle to … Seattle.

An aritcle in Highland Community News analyzes the Department of Labor’s Strategy Plan where the department states that it is OK to give preference to foreign workers over American workers.  The Progressive Geek provides his own analysis of this section of the Strategy Plan.

Your reading assignment:
On the Need for Reform of the H-1B Non-Immigrant Work Visa in Computer-Related Occupations by Norman Matloff

My wife asks the TSA a simple question.  The TSA replies with a huge response that does NOT answer the question.

Music by Roy Zimmerman

Chris Gregoire, at one of her Town Hall meetings in downtown Seattle, was challenged on the fact that she and 12 other governors signed a letter urging congress to pass legislation to raise the H-1B cap.  Her response consisted of talking points that Bill Gates uses in his quest for cheap labor, namely that there is a severe hi-tech worker shortage in Washington State.  Yet, a recent Duke University study shows that this is nothing more than a manufactured myth.  This myth is constistently used when the corporate elite communicate their desire to congress for bringing more foreign tech workers into the U.S.  More and more, U.S. corporations hire employees as contractors, or “Temps”, with limited terms in their contracts, instead of as full time permanent employees.  Of course, the employee benefits for Temps, if any, are not nearly as good as for full time employees.  Most of these temp positions (including the one that I am working in now) do not have any provisions for sick time.  Some may provide holiday pay only after several months of service.  Of course Temps are easily interchangeable with foreign workers that are here on H-1B and L-1 VISAs.

Gregoire also proudly points out that the current unemployment rate in Washington State is the lowest in state history.  Yet what does this really mean given that the quality of jobs has declined considerably?

My Odeo Channel (odeo/970fa7f4af1edc24)
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-4efaa44722c96c05c08ef23da4b5cea8}

Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who really understands the plight of the middle class and has proposals on how to correct the direction that this country is taking.

ABC News keeps taking down a poll that shows Kucinich is the clear winner of the Democratic Debate.
http://www.dennis4president.com/home

Kucinich’s take on the VISA programs:

H-1B and L-1 Visas
Submitted by kucinich.us on Thu, 2006-11-16 12:26. H-1B and L-1 Visas | Issue Overview

The expanded use of H-1B and L-1 visas has had a negative effect on the workplace of Information Technology workers in America. It has caused a reduction in wages. It has forced workers to accept deteriorating working conditions and allowed U.S. companies to concentrate work in technical and geographic areas that American workers consider undesirable. It has also reduced the number of IT jobs held by Americans.

At its peak in 2000, there were 10.5 million people working in Information Technology in the United States. By 2001, there were fewer than 10 million — despite continued global growth in Information Technology employment. Professor Norman Matloff of UC Davis estimates that in the spring of 2003 there were 500,000 unemployed and underemployed U.S. programmers, while there were 463,000 H-1B workers employed in the field.

The government must ensure adequate funds for the enforcement of visa regulations — including much-ignored regulations prohibiting the use of foreign nationals in critical infrastructure. A special investigator should be appointed to examine the extent and nature of H-1B and L-1 visa fraud and the reasons for heavy use of H-1B and L-1 visas at Enron, WorldCom, and Anderson. We should take seriously the allegations of perjury by corporate leaders who have testified before Congress to request expansion of this program in 1998 and 2000, as well as allegations of the use of the H-1B and L-1 programs in corrupt organizations.

We need an industry fact-finding commission, including representatives of major U.S. investors, U.S. tech workers, and business leaders who have been competitive in the international marketplace without use of the H-1B / L-1 program. These representatives can make suggestions as to a new policy on the immigration of people with specialized knowledge or unique skills.

I have already set forth plans for major technical initiatives in the areas of renewable energy, pollution control, and promotions of Open Source software and media — additional major initiatives will be considered — creating a wider diversity of means by which technologists are funded outside of the service of major corporations. It may not be possible to undo the damage that corporate short-sightedness has done to the U.S. technical community — but it is possible to give a real voice to the vision that the U.S. technical community has for a better America.

EFF (Electronic Fontier Foundation) needs your help in combing through released FBI documents.

Federal Express wants to ship your company to India.

Google can’t find enough people on the planet to hire. Unfortunately for Google, they didn’t find any intelligent life on Mars.
www.jobdestruction.com/shameh1b/JobDestructionNews.htm
64.233.179.110/blog_resources/Laszlo_Bock_immigration_testimony.pdf
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15212647
www.smh.com.au/news/web/skill-shortage-forces-search-offshore/2007/05/02/1177788202848.html
politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/20/1612209

My wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a few weeks ago. She had her thyroid removed. Now she is having trouble with hypocalceamia.

Articles on the subject:
How To Hire Cheap Foreign Workers – A Lawyer’s Guide – On YouTube Now
More articles

Also in this episode: Why you must not support the comprehensive immigration bill.

Music
Pulse
Pulse on MySpace

Please leave a review for me at iTunes.

Listen to this episode for clips fom the hearing and exclusive commentary by the Progressive Geek.

Music by Terra Naomi

Correction: I said Carl Levin in this episode when it is actually Sandy Levin.

Sinister Reasons for Boosting H1b Visa Limits?

H-1B FEDERAL IMMIGRATION BILL: Reforms to the work visa program are a small part of the overall debate — except in Silicon Valley;
Everyone agrees it’s flawed, but how to fix it?

Music by Alana Sweetwater

*****
Post production note
I just listened to the FSRN story. It finally came out today (Friday).
I ran it by the Programmers Guild and they pointed out several technical errors in the story. The general reaction is that it has an “open border” slant to it.

What I thought was still good about the story is that it did at least have one engineer similar to me. He has 20 years experience and has only been able to find contract work. Which validated what I was experiencing. However, I think they tried to “balance it” by adding free trade points of view.
*****

Democrats continue to stab Americans in the back.

David Sirota’s blog entry “We Gave Them Our Hearts, They Gave Him A Blank Check”
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/we_gave_them_our_hearts_they_g.html

WashTech buys an ad in “Roll Call” fighting H-1B increases.
WashTech: http://washtech.org

Thom Hartmann talks about “Free Trade”

Free Speech Radio News:
http://fsrn.org

The White House now says the secret trade deal between a handful of Democratic congressional leaders and Bush administration officials will most likely not mean adding labor and environmental standards into the core text of trade agreements, but instead will mean merely unenforceable NAFTA-esque “side agreements” or even weaker “letters” of understanding. A group of House Democrats is responding to the secret deal by demanding a hearing on a resolution that would prevent Democratic leaders from bringing fast track to the floor of the House if a majority of Democrats oppose it. And the pundit attack machine pushing the deal is out in full force. “Journalists” Cokie and Steve Roberts say “Democrats can’t afford to listen to the labor movement” and Clinton administration free trade architect Gene Sperling praises Democratic dealmakers for triangulating against their own party. – David Sirota

Numbers USA
http://numbersusa.com

Article:
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/secret_trade_deal_moyers_speci.html

Editorial:
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/16754.asp

Badong (music):
http://www.myspace.com/badong1

David Sirota: Questioning the Planet’s Richest Man To His Face
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/04/questioning_the_planets_riches.html

10 Reinvigorating Facts About Microsoft’s Profits
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070430/33932_id.html?.v=1

IBM to layoff 150,000?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/4/163139/0653
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070504_002027.html

One Day You’re Gonna Wake Up
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/04/962/

David Sirota writes about John Edwards Stance FOR the middle class.
http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/04/edwards_big_announcement_drive.html

Kim Berry writes about the next threat to American technology workers: the STRIVE Act.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/22/103038/854

The Bonobos:
http://myspace.com/thebonobos

Links:
http://davidsirota.com
http://washtech.org

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/03/30/EDGRJN7CFB1.DTL

http://progressivepodcastnetwork.org

Included in this episode is more commentary from The Last Angry Man, plus a good helping of humor as well.

A discussion with the Last Angry Man about Hillary.

A discussion about having “Friends” on Podomatic. Can you have too many friends?

Music from the podsafe music network.

There is also cool robot music at the end of this episode.

What is FIRST? Here is a quote from http://www.usfirst.org

Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and tireless advocate for science and technology. His passion and determination to help young people discover the excitement and rewards of science and technology are the cornerstones of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. Based in Manchester, NH, the 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit public charity designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.

What is FLL?

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an exciting and fun international robotics program that ignites an enthusiasm for discovery, science, and technology in kids ages 9 to 14 (16 outside of the U.S. and Canada).

Each year FLL teams embark on an adventurous Challenge based on current, real-world issues. Guided by a team coach and assisted by mentors, the kids:

* Research and solve a real-world problem based on the Challenge theme
* Present their research and solutions
* Build an autonomous robot using engineering concepts

Using the yearly Challenges, FLL:

* Entices kids to think like scientists and engineers
* Provides a fun, creative, hands-on learning experience
* Teaches kids to experiment and overcome obstacles
* Builds self-esteem and confidence
* Inspires kids to participate in science and technology

Whether it is by creativity, technology, or research, FLL dares kids to test, explore, expand, or completely change thoughts and approaches for different sciences each year.

Other links:
http://www.firstlegoleague.org
http://firstwa.org/
http://www.usfirst.org/
http://gothiclawngnomes.org

Robot music is from the Podsafe Music Network.

Very funny stuff in this episode including a “surge on my house”.

Articles regarding an immigration law change in the UK:

http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newsid=38701&newstype=local

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/15318.asp

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Disenfranchised_Indians_take_to_streets_in_London/articleshow/msid-1142198,curpg-2.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/World/Rest_of_World/MPs_join_Indians_HSMP_battle/articleshow/1067325.cms

His music is terrific, and some of his tunes are quite humorous.

I also have another message from The Last Angry Man. Very funny!

Also in this episode, I discuss my hunt for a new job and give you all the dirt on my job interviews this past week.

Also in this episode, a message from The Last Angry Man. His podcast is at http://thelastangrymanspodcast.podomatic.com

I play a clip from the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue, from his speach regarding immigration and the bill for illegal alien amnesty.

I also discuss an article regarding a H-1B fraud ring bust. http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/jan/13/judge-sentences-man-helping-illegal-aliens-get-fal

The Pacific North West Cool Spot is the espresso shack. They are all over western Washington and each has there “edge” to sell more coffee than the next shack. Listen to the episode to find out what coffee and the coffee shack has to do with … sex.

Plus music and more.

Washington Post article: How Free Trade Hurts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/22/AR2006122201020.html

I discuss and play excerpts from “The Visa Scene” podcast – a pro-immigration podcast from Canada. http://jryan.libsyn.com/

PNW Cool Place is the Bodies Exhibit in Seattle. http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/

Included are some humor and some heavy metal Christmas music.

http://www.laborradio.org/node/4621

The Pacific Northwest Cool Place is the Pacific Science Center, where the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is currently showing through early January.
http://www.pacsci.org

Dead Sea Scrolls Speaker Forum Podcast:
http://kuow.org/podcasts/speakers/speakers_forum.asp

I also discuss an article:
http://www.techsunite.org/news/display.cfm?ID_Content=5115
regarding Microsoft wanting to keep Republicans in control of congress.

I include a new segment: Cool Places in the Pacific Northwest. In this episode, the cool place is the Maltby Cafe: http://maltbycafe.com

I also play some music by the group H1Bees
http://www.h1bees.com

You can purchase their CD at:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/srikanth

Their music is also available at iTunes.

I also discuss the web site: http://www.myvisajobs.com
which has an extensive database of jobs for foreigners in the United States.

Stop the Skill Act web site:
http://stopskillact.ourprofile.org/

Article that I read in this podcast:
http://www.brenhambanner.com/articles/2006/10/30/news/news01.txt

Shortage shouting article:
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2006/nov/16spec.htm

Maine Today article:
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/immigration/060925imm2.html

Zazona FAQ:
http://zazona.com/ShameH1B/H1BFAQs.htm