60 Minutes launched an investigative report on how some U.S. companies are using the H-1B visa to bring in cheaper foreign labor and replace American workers. They interviewed several U.S. workers who not only lost their jobs but were forced to train their replacements.
When asked about how it felt to train their replacement several of the U.S. workers responded:
Robert Harrison, who worked at Univ. of Calif San Francisco Medical Center said, “It feels like not only am I digging the grave, but I’m getting ready to stab myself in the gut and fall into the grave.”
Leo Perrero, who has testified before Congress about being replaced at Disney responded, “Never in my life did I imagine until this happened at Disney that I could be sitting at my desk and somebody would be flown in from another country...sit at my same desk and chair and take over what I was doing. It was the most humiliating and demoralizing thing I’ve ever gone through in my life.”
Craig Diangelo, who worked for Northeast Utilities, said it was hard because, “I didn’t get laid off for lack of work. I got laid off because somebody cheaper could do my job.”
Sara Blackwell, a lawyer who is representing many of the replaced American workers told 60 Minutes, “When you tell someone their real reason for getting rid of these jobs is for cheap foreign labor that should offend everyone.”
60 Minutes also interviewed former Congressman Bruce Morrison who authored the H-1B visa legislation in 1990.
When asked what he thought of what the H-1B visa has become he responded, “I’m outraged. The H-1B has been hijacked, as the main highway to bring people from abroad and displace Americans.”
When confronted with the tech companies’ argument that they cannot find enough qualified American workers the former Congressman replied, “there are a lot of qualified American workers, but the companies will do better financially if they hire the foreign worker rather than the Americans.”
One H-1B worker agreed to be interviewed and admitted that most of the time the replaced American workers are more skilled than the foreign worker that takes their job. “I have to take all of their knowledge in –basically I have to steal it. That’s my job description,” the foreign worker said.
Mukesh Aghi, an executive at an India-based outsourcing company also acknowledged that the reason that American workers were losing these jobs was because it is cheaper to hire foreign workers.
You can watch the full report at CBSNews.com.
