PROGRAMMERS GUILD E-NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 2006

"KILL SKIL BILL" ISSUE

A massive threat to U.S. tech workers is pending in Congress. We are asking all tech workers to phone their Congressman and the sponsors of the SKIL Bill, asking them to either oppose this bill or amend it to include the provisions of Pascrell Bill.

The Cornyn-Shadegg SKIL Bill is a Trojan horse with a risk of being attached to an unopposable omnibus appropriations bill in the lame-duck session after the elections. This could result in a 1.5 million underpaid H-1B workers entering the U.S. by the year 2013 - into a flat job market of about 4 million Americans - with no requirement to first recruit qualified U.S. workers: 30% of U.S. workers may have their professions destroyed by the Congress that is supposed to be protecting their constitutional liberty interest in working in their chosen profession: There is no requirement to give preference to qualified U.S. workers - your citizenship means nothing to your Congressman... Google says, "did you mean 'KILL Bill'"?

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Year # H-1B Visas
2007 115,000
2008 138,000
2009 165,600
2010 198,720
2011 238,464
2012 286,157
2013 343,388
TOTAL 1,485,329

The sponsors of the SKIL Bill are below. You can find the D.C. phone number for your congressmen at www.congress.org.

SKIL Bill Sponsors
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX): (202) 224-2934 – formerly an attorney
Senator George Allen (R-VA): (202) 224-4024 – formerly an attorney
Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO): (202) 224-5941 – formerly a Veterinarian
Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT): (202) 224-5444 – formerly a management consultant
Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY): (202) 224-3424 – formerly a computer programmer
Senator Trent Lott (R-MS): (202) 224-6253 – formerly an attorney

Pascrell Contact: See Pascrell Bill.

The IEEE-USA recognizes the threat of SKIL Bill, and is also opposing it. If you value your career, consider joining www.ieeeusa.org or www.programmersguild.org and committing to making a few phone calls to your congressman each month.

Programmers Guild Press Releases

The Programmers Guild Calls on Congress to include U.S. Worker Protections in the Pending SKIL Bill H-1b Visa Legislation

On October 10th we stated the reasons why we oppose the SKIL Bill. Even the California Department of Transportation is hiring H-1b workers when qualified U.S. workers are available. Caltrans claims that hiring H-1bs over Americans who are waiting on the civil service exam list is "their policy." The problem with hiring H-1b when Americans are available is that consumes the H-1b quota, fueling the call for the SKIL Bill increases.

This press release is causing a debate among the pro-H-1b crowd at Immigration Voice. (Please refrain from jumping in - you won't change any minds there, and it's more valuable to monitor.) Among the claims is that H-1b workers are paid the prevailing wage. Note that, even though most are citizens of other countries, they are calling on the U.S. Congress to pass the SKIL Bill to benefit them.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is also asking its clients and members to contact congress, so that they can protect their $100,000,000 industry of displacing U.S. workers.

We addressed "prevailing wage" in a press release last July, explaining how the "level 1" prevailing wage, used by over 80% of applications for H-1B, is set at the 17th percentile of U.S. wages.

The H-1B Prevailing Wage is Substantially Below the Median Wage of U.S. Workers

The mainstream media is ignoring the harmful aspects of the H-1b, which the above press releases present. Please help distribute these to your local media.

Other Allies

Lou Dobbs recognizes the war being waged against the middle class by our own government, and has released a book of that title. Consider this for your Christmas shopping list.

Political Music Video

Singer and songwriter James McMurtry won song of the year for "We Can't Make It Here Anymore." follow the link to see the powerful music video.

Tech Tips

This website allows you to download videos off of YouTube. Since new owner Google may crack down on copyright, there might be some political content worth archiving under Fair Use.

Writing Opportunity

The Programmers Guild is seeking writers for the Fall edition of the printed Newsletter. If you have a story to tell please be in touch.