Indentured Workers on Corporate Visas Compete for US Jobs and more, Donna Conroy part two
Donna Conroy of Bright Future Jobs, see part 1 here.
Produced by Dori Smith
TRT: 29:42
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We continue our special on US Jobs, how US workers are being marginalized, their jobs outsourced in many cases to workers who are being brought to America to work under visas held by their bosses. They have H1B status. We hear more from Donna Conroy, Executive Director of Bright Future Jobs. She is working to advance legislation introduced by Democrat Dick Durban of Illinois that would give US workers a fair shot at a job in their own country.
Corporations are hiring foreign workers to save on benefits, pensions and wages, and here the current headlines about Greece are illustrative. Mismanagement by corporations and government offices has led to high inflation and a collapsing economy, and so the Greek Government has announced a plan to cut both social programs and pensions. As in the US, aging Greek workers may have to tack on years of work despite any plans they had to retire. As news spread of this plan, Gold and metals futures rallied, the Greek and U.S. stock index futures rose, and the international financial press lauded a major financial bail out plan. International markets love the idea of the Greek Government breaking its social contract with citizens.
US firms have been doing this for years, and Donna Conroy explained why the promises they have made to keep at least some US jobs at home are deceptive.
We hear what amounts to begging at times, politicians and others asking how we can convince corporations to stay in the US, in our states, and here and there we see think tanks with experts calling on US workers to accept much lower pay as a solution. Politicians have been running campaigns on their ability to keep jobs in America, but the equation seems to be that American workers are getting the message that all of the hard won battles within unions are being reversed and there is nothing they can do about it.
Donna Conroy is Executive Director for the group Brightfuturejobs.com, working to advance a bill to set limits on the outsourcing of US jobs. For Talk Nation Radio, I'm Dori Smith, this program is produced in Storrs, Connecticut and syndicated with Pacifica Network, talknationradio@gmail.com to write to us and you can listen to this broadcast again or download for air on your local radio station at talknationradio.org or our blog.
