Conservatives know the left wants to destroy the Middle Class. A large Middle Class is the biggest bulwark against against the expansion of socialist tyranny and the strongest defense for freedom and liberty.
But there is one threat against the Middle Class that is coming from a direction that few would expect.
What is that threat and where is it coming from? The threat is coming from big business.
Skilled workers are one of the biggest parts of the Middle Class. These skilled workers include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) graduates. Having a STEM degree used to be a guarantee of a great life with a solid salary.
No longer.
Businesses want to cut expenses. Labor costs are generally the largest business cost.
How do businesses cut that expense?
For tech companies, one of the ways they can cut labor costs is to lay off American workers and replace them with foreign workers brought in on H1B Visas.
From The San Diego Tribune:
There is a political undercurrent to Qualcomm’s pending workforce cuts. The company has supported immigration reform for highly skilled workers — saying it can’t find enough qualified Americans to meet its needs. Qualcomm has applied for thousands of H-1B temporary work visas for foreign workers over the years, and has received hundreds of approvals.
The company argues that half of U.S. university bachelor’s degree graduates in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) are not U.S. citizens. If tech companies can’t hire these U.S.-educated foreign graduates to work in this country, the firms will be forced to move their research and innovation centers offshore where they can hire the talent they need.
But during layoffs, these claims of a shortage of American tech workers come under scrutiny.
Southern California Edison and others have taken political heat for laying off American tech workers and replacing them with H-1B workers from outsource information technology providers.
Microsoft was criticized in Congress for calling for more H-1B visas as it was cutting 7,800 jobs.
“Typically, companies hold onto their H-1B workers well after they have let huge numbers of their American workers go,” said Russell Harrison, director of government relations for IEEE USA, a technology industry trade group. “The companies will say, ‘They’re not in the same division. They are not the same type of worker.’ In some cases that is true and in some cases it isn’t.”
Harrison argues H1-B visa rules make it difficult for foreign workers at U.S. companies to change jobs. They tend to be “systemically underpaid” compared with American workers, he said, and if they are laid off, they are supposed to leave the country without recourse.
We must put Americans first. The nation will not survive if the Middle Class is destroyed. The Middle Class will only survive if there are strong jobs. But if corporations are simply allowed to lay off Americans and replace them with foreign workers, America will be headed down the road to third world status.
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