Tech Worker Groups Boycott IBM, Infosys, Manpower

itwbennett writes: "Three U.S. tech worker groups have launched a labor boycott of IBM, Infosys and Manpower, saying the companies have engaged in a pattern that discourages U.S. workers from applying for U.S. IT jobs by tailoring employment ads toward overseas workers. For its part, Infosys disputed the charges, saying that 'it is incorrect to allude that we exclude or discourage U.S. workers. Today, we are recruiting for over 440 active openings across 20 states in the U.S.' Representatives from IBM and Manpower didn't respond to requests for comment on the boycott."

Re:Same Manpower as in Canada?

[Grishnakh]

Actually, they're outsourcing law jobs to India these days. They can't outsource things like arguing in a courtroom, but a lot of the clerical stuff they can.

Re:What does IBM do these days anyway?

[digsbo]

The do IT services and consulting in addition to some continued technology development. They buy a technology, and develop it internally, and then sell consulting services to implement it. Think of SAP. Same idea, same questionable (at best?) quality of delivery. But for companies that can't make a project happen with in-house talent, there's a market for so-so IT consulting.

Yay! Thank You!

[Tablizer]

I've witnessed H1B-related shenanigans directly myself, such as forcing everyone to work without overtime pay at a big telecom company that rhymes with Ate Tea and Pea. The citizens tended to balk, but not the H1B's because they didn't want to rock the boat because their pay was a lot of money when spent back home. It's a lopsided mess; a way for companies to get more labor for less money. The "shortage" thing is lobbyist bullshit!

Infosys age discrimination

[Maxo-Texas]

I gave infosys a resume for a friend for a job that required a degree.

They bounced it back to me and said it needed to have her exact high school graduation date. Not the fact she had a high school degree. The date at which she was 17 or 18.

It should be illegal to require a person's high school graduation date on a resume.

Re:Did someone just figure this out *NOW*??

[umghhh]

I find this funny. Not that people are treated like objects but your statement because it reminded me of a book I read few years back: 'London Hanged'. What was described there was the cycle of recurring violence in London (not sure anymore 16. or 17. century):

1. industry (cloth making or clockwork making etc) just developing, new skilled workers well paid
2. industry well established, workers paid less and less as methods are established and new less skilled workers needed.
3. riots, army on the streets, the particular industry regulated, better minimum conditions secured
4. the industry off-shores big chunk of work to the Netherlands
5. new blossoming industry is being developed - go to step 1 above

The most visible part were riots and there were times in London where these were happening with tiring regularity approx every 20y or so.

The whole thing about how evil humans are is true and at the same time untrue. Some basic regulations are needed so that people are not ripped off. If industry can survive only if they pay hunger wages then maybe it there is no reason for it to exist locally or some helping hand is needed, not necessarily in form of cheap credit or release from regulation but some industrial policy like the one Germans have would do something. OC for that one would need to have educated work force. BTW: Germans complain about missing hands on the floor all the time because people are not ready to work for money that are being offered. Seems to be the same story all over. What seems to have been working for England back then was that once one industry was not as profitable as it used to be a new one came around. The only unpleasant part were the hunger and riots on falling part of the curve.

Re:Same Manpower as in Canada?

[Anonymous Coward]

An interesting experiment would be to change my name to Ashokar Gupta, and say I'm an orphan, in the U.S. with a H1B visa. The results would be fascinating.

That's a great idea. I wish Bright Future Jobs, the Programmers Guild or WashTech - or a newspaper or a government agency - would do the following:

1) Check with your legal department, to make sure you're not doing anything illegal.

2) Write 50 resumes that sound like the applicant is an American. Make sure that the resumes are are generic and forgettable, so that duplicates aren't remembered.

3) Copy the resumes. In the copies, change the contact information and university that they attended, so that the applicant sounds like they come from India (or some other non-US country).

4) Send in all of the resumes, and see which ones get results. If there's a big bias against Americans in the results, publicize the heck out of it.

The hiring companies might reply to the American-sounding applicants just for appearance's sake, but not intend to hire any Americans. I don't know how to test that kind of bias.

Re:Pay versus billing rate.

[KingOfBLASH]

People in Asia often are used to living in much tighter quarters than westerners. What seems cruel to you, is normal for them.

Interesting anecdote from the book Changi, by James Clavell (awesome book, read it if you haven't!). During WWII, the Japanese were transporting Clavell and fellow POWs by ship. The japanese officer showed how "human shelves" works. You get into what looks to be a 1m high bookshelf, and sit cross legged. The POWs absolutely thought this to be insane, and demanded better transportation. The Japanese asked why POWs needed luxury transportation, and couldn't use the same transport as the japanese army.