Last one out please turn off the lights........

"Steve B" wrote in news:mclNg.6902$rT5.2126@fed1read01:

Well, you know that 40+ BILLION in profits every 3 months just isn't cutting it...gotta drop the pay scale down to improve profitability.

Curry for dinner every night? where do i sign up?

Electronics engineers have been down this road. Search on "Electronics" and "H-1B Visa". If you just can't find anyone to come work for you, there's this special visa program -- you have to pay folks at least the

17th percentile wages, and they can't go work for someone else unless that place has H-1B approval. Your foreign workers don't automatically get citizenship or even 'real' permanent residency status, so if you have a layoff they have to go home.

IMHO the H-1B visa trains them how to compete, then offshoring helps them to get started. Ultimately they realize that they can save even _more_ money with their own CEOs -- which is what is starting to happen now in electronics and software.

Fortunately the end effect of this is that it drives up wages in the subject countries which (a) means that I can keep my job if I work hard at being better and (b) eventually Al-Qaeda* will notice and be pissed off that there are even more people in the world who are better off than they are.

• Howinhell _is_ that spelled?!?

Which has absolutely nothing to do with the reasons they were formed or what they are about.

India, Al-Qaeda, or the H1-B visa program?

In theory the H1-B program sounds good -- skim off the cream of the foreign countries, have them come here and teach us all how it's done, then send them home before they become a burden on social security.

In practice they seem to have become a cheap source of skilled workers, and the stats on the folks here working under the H1-B program doesn't match the stated goals.

I'm not complaining too hard, but then I'm not hurting (yet).

yeah, well the costs can be more than wage related. American workers are more likely to file workers comp claims, and lawsuits for every possible offence imaginable. Age discrimination, gender discrimination, sexual harrassment, racial dicrimination, union organizing, and other shennanigans American workers feel their entitled too. If you were an employer and spent $$$ in legal costs to fight even one suit, you would be real eager to "outsource" too.

Politicians passed these laws to get elected, but ultimately caused more harm than good. This is the end result.

I live in Lufkin TX - 100 miles or so from Houston.

We have a number of welders here working rigs - 2 on 2 off. weeks that is.

Some have shifted to land rigs.

One of the issues is temp work - bad weather and if you are on the rig - you get great time from the job, but not at home, but in a nice hotel.....

If not on the rig - just no work. Less down time at home. Lots of rigs going up on land.

Another issue is lots of welders are building buildings along the Gulf Coast.

With a large pool discovered just beyond the current rigs - and in deeper water (looks like an edge of the great meteor basin to me).

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

Steve B wrote:

So do you mean Americans are less likely to take getting screwed than imported workers who can just be shipped out if they rock the boat?

Maybe I'm reading too much into your statement, but do you believe almost all of these suits are without merit? Do you think employees should have no recourse if they are harmed? In my view outsourcing is just about cheap labor, if the cheap labor will allow themselves to be pushed around more thats just a bonus for the employer.

Eric

If this sample of your spelling and grammar is an indication of how well you pay attention to details ......... like blueprints, safety meetings and on-the-job instructions ......... I can see why employers are "real eager" to outsource.

You're an idiot.

Steve

If even half the suits were without merit it is a major drain on the employer.

"Tony" wrote in news:2RoNg.1446$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga:

Um..

If they are working in the US for a US company, they are still covered under workers comp and all the same discrimination issues are still present and possible. So your TOP POSTED point is basically mute.

Hmm, sounds like "Global Competition" to me. Sad, but Americans have to compete on the least common denominator scale. We, as Americans, have to make sure that we get artificially high value for our buying dollar at Wal-Mart to subsidize our shrinking paycheck.

While some think that top-posting is a sign of moral or other deficiency, I'll risk it.

Did you mean "moot" point? /mark

So your TOP POSTED point is basically mute.

Mute means can't speak. Do you mean moot ? ...lew...

Mark wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Well...that would be correct, however mute might be the right term in this instance :)

If the foreign workers are employed by a foreign company, and are working offshore outside the US jurisdictional limits, US labor law would not apply. (Just as foreign maritime workers would be upon entering a US port)

Top posting?? Get a newsreader that can deal with it.

That's the response I would expect from a troglyte such as yourself when your entitlements are threatened.

"Tony" wrote in news:KYINg.136$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.lga:

Xnews deals with it just fine.

And, as many don't know, but I do having been involved in legal action re: oilfield work related injury .......

OSHA does not apply farther than three miles out at sea.

Jones Act does not apply to workers that are not stationed permanently on a motor vessel.

So, you don't have to go through all the foreign worker/foreign this/ foreign that stuff.

Lobbyists get the laws written they want to by greasing the right politicians.

If you're white, American, and a worker, you already have a hole at your water line.

Steve