Bill Gates Decries Tech Worker 'Crisis'

March 26th, 2008 at 04:13am Mike McGarry 214

Bill Gates Decries Tech Worker "Crisis" 

Programmers Guilt says it ain't so

When Microsoft's Bill Gates appeared this month before a congressional committee demanding a doubling of the current (65,000) caps on high-tech H-1B visas, you might have thought the committee members were celebrating the Return of the Messiah the way they fell all over themselves singing praise, adoration and love for the mega-billionaire. Of course, those of us who know those very members are beneficiaries of the hundreds-of-millions of dollars spread around the congress by IT industry lobbyists, it make sense the "law makers" would be Gates' slobbering adorers.

To hear Gates tell it, the U.S. has a "shortage crisis" in IT workers and if he had his way,  there would be no limit on the number of the coveted H-1B visas.

Given the weight of the money and the words the guru of Microsoft represents, it is difficult indeed for the protests of the some 500,000 highly-skilled American IT workers who are unemployed and underemployed to be heard. Norman Matloff,  professor of computer science at the University of California (Davis), has been one of the few over the years to receive even a glimpse of recognition from the U.S. press for his countervailing challenges to claims of the IT Industry's otherwise monopoly on favorable, visa-promoting press. "The industry claims that it needs to import workers to remedy a severe labor shortage," Matloff said. "Yet this flies in the face of the economic data." Wages belie claims of a labor shortage

A Government Accounting Office (GAO) report challenging many of the claims made by the high-tech industry, including the claim that qualified U.S. workers just cannot be found. Do not skip over this outrageous blood-boiling three-minute video of a training session given to high-tech employers on how not to hire qualified American workers in favor of cheap H-1B foreign workers.

Comes now John Miano, a spokesman for The Programmers Guild, an organization that “advances the interests of technical and professional workers in information technology (IT) fields.” Miano is a trained engineer, an attorney, and an expert on the software industry. Miano he is a published contributor to the Center for Immigration Studies (http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/back407.html#author.) In March, 2006, he gave expert testimony on H-1B visas before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Borders and Claims, House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Miano will be interviewed on Michael Conniff’s Con Games (KNFO 106.1FM), on Wednesday, March 26, in the 8:00 AM-9:00 PM time slot. Mr. Miano will be discussing the latest effort in the U.S. congress to double the current number of H-1B visas.  

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