Former Employees Speak Out About Disney's Outsourcing Of High-Tech STEM Jobs
Video via NumbersUSA: ABC 7 News Channel in Sarasota, FL interviewed former Disney employees about being replaced by foreign H-1B workers after they trained their replacements.
Transcript of Video:
Across the country, Thousands of hard-working Americans are losing their jobs jobs and being replaced by foreign workers. Critics say some corporations are misusing the H1B visa program to replace their employees with lower paid foreign workers. In an exclusive interview two former employees of Disney sit down with ABC 7 Rebecca Vargas to talk about the devastation of being let go but not before having the train their own replacements.
Just months before the holidays and on the heels of a great performance review an EP invites David Powers and Leo Perroro into his office both expecting a pat on the back but instead they hear the dreaded words you're being laid off.
"When a guillotine falls on you like that you're dead for that moment and I was dead for that moment."
Powers and Pereira where the brains behind your magical Disney World experience for the past 10 years. Both worked behind the scenes at the top of their IT field from working with high-tech data to making sure all points of sale from tickets to resort stays more seamless for visitors. Attaining some of the highest recognitions Disney could give, this was the last thing that they saw coming.
"I'm in a room with about two dozen people and very shortly thereafter an executive delivers the news that all of our jobs are ending in ninety days and that we have 90 days to train our replacements and if we don't train replacements and we won't get a bonus that we've offered
Adding insult to injury, a follow-up letter describing the expectations and severance pay if they adhered to disease wishes for the 90 days,
"So many American workers across the country, hundreds of thousands, are losing their jobs because they are being replaced by foreign workers."
At Sarasota based employment attorney Sarah Blackwell tells us, "It's not just Disney; companies including Toys R Us, IBM, and Verizon have been contracting with companies and outsourcing the workers. This is because of loopholes in the law behind the H1B visa.
"H1B when done properly is a great avenue. The purpose of H1B is to bring in foreign workers when there's no
qualified U.S. workers."
Blackwell says there are about 800,000 H1B workers here in the States who are meant to fill highly specialized field that companies are unable to find qualified Americans to fill. But when Disney let go of more than 250 employees at once, something doesn't line up.
"This was the one that finally took me out of business entirely. I would never recommend this field to anybody that is a student because of the lack of opportunity.:
This highly specialized tech field yields average salaries in the $100,000 range, but for the younger foreign workers their median salary is about $62,000 even less according to published reports.
In response, Disney acknowledges that outsource Powers' and Perroro' jobs to Indian workers but does he claims they've expanded and added jobs for U.S. IT workers. People going into the text field in college or in the university's, they have no idea that when they come out, they probably won't have a job.
According to the latest US Census Bureau data, only 26% of science and engineering graduates are currently employed in a STEM occupation.
"The grandparents in Sarasota and Manatee County, wherever, don't want your kids coming out of college or grand kids coming out of college and have no jobs, The STEM programs a joke."
On top of the job loss, they tell me training their foreign specifically Indian replacements at their own desks strips them of their dignity.
"I felt extremely un-american. I felt like I was part of destroying our economy because I had to train a replacement that was gonna come here take my job then potentially take other people's jobs."
As for our two Florida U.S. senators, their stances on this issue couldn't be more different. While Marco Rubio wants to expand the H1B VISA, while Senator Bill Nelson wants the program investigated. Reporting for ABC 7 New that 7, I am Rebecca Vargas.
Tags: IFlorida, Disney, employees, STEM, H!B Visas, Disney World, layoff, Americans, recruit Indian workers, pay less, U.S. Senators, Marco Rubio, Bill Nelson, ABC 7, Rebecca Vargas To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Transcript of Video:
Across the country, Thousands of hard-working Americans are losing their jobs jobs and being replaced by foreign workers. Critics say some corporations are misusing the H1B visa program to replace their employees with lower paid foreign workers. In an exclusive interview two former employees of Disney sit down with ABC 7 Rebecca Vargas to talk about the devastation of being let go but not before having the train their own replacements.
Just months before the holidays and on the heels of a great performance review an EP invites David Powers and Leo Perroro into his office both expecting a pat on the back but instead they hear the dreaded words you're being laid off.
"When a guillotine falls on you like that you're dead for that moment and I was dead for that moment."
Powers and Pereira where the brains behind your magical Disney World experience for the past 10 years. Both worked behind the scenes at the top of their IT field from working with high-tech data to making sure all points of sale from tickets to resort stays more seamless for visitors. Attaining some of the highest recognitions Disney could give, this was the last thing that they saw coming.
"I'm in a room with about two dozen people and very shortly thereafter an executive delivers the news that all of our jobs are ending in ninety days and that we have 90 days to train our replacements and if we don't train replacements and we won't get a bonus that we've offered
Adding insult to injury, a follow-up letter describing the expectations and severance pay if they adhered to disease wishes for the 90 days,
"So many American workers across the country, hundreds of thousands, are losing their jobs because they are being replaced by foreign workers."
At Sarasota based employment attorney Sarah Blackwell tells us, "It's not just Disney; companies including Toys R Us, IBM, and Verizon have been contracting with companies and outsourcing the workers. This is because of loopholes in the law behind the H1B visa.
"H1B when done properly is a great avenue. The purpose of H1B is to bring in foreign workers when there's no
qualified U.S. workers."
Blackwell says there are about 800,000 H1B workers here in the States who are meant to fill highly specialized field that companies are unable to find qualified Americans to fill. But when Disney let go of more than 250 employees at once, something doesn't line up.
"This was the one that finally took me out of business entirely. I would never recommend this field to anybody that is a student because of the lack of opportunity.:
This highly specialized tech field yields average salaries in the $100,000 range, but for the younger foreign workers their median salary is about $62,000 even less according to published reports.
In response, Disney acknowledges that outsource Powers' and Perroro' jobs to Indian workers but does he claims they've expanded and added jobs for U.S. IT workers. People going into the text field in college or in the university's, they have no idea that when they come out, they probably won't have a job.
According to the latest US Census Bureau data, only 26% of science and engineering graduates are currently employed in a STEM occupation.
"The grandparents in Sarasota and Manatee County, wherever, don't want your kids coming out of college or grand kids coming out of college and have no jobs, The STEM programs a joke."
On top of the job loss, they tell me training their foreign specifically Indian replacements at their own desks strips them of their dignity.
"I felt extremely un-american. I felt like I was part of destroying our economy because I had to train a replacement that was gonna come here take my job then potentially take other people's jobs."
As for our two Florida U.S. senators, their stances on this issue couldn't be more different. While Marco Rubio wants to expand the H1B VISA, while Senator Bill Nelson wants the program investigated. Reporting for ABC 7 New that 7, I am Rebecca Vargas.
Tags: IFlorida, Disney, employees, STEM, H!B Visas, Disney World, layoff, Americans, recruit Indian workers, pay less, U.S. Senators, Marco Rubio, Bill Nelson, ABC 7, Rebecca Vargas To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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