Cinram upsets locals by hiring foreign workers
Posted by BrianThe decision by Madison County employer Cinram to legally bring in 1,350 foreign laborers to pack DVDs has caused quite a dust up in these parts. Here are the necessary background articles and editorials from the Huntsville Times:
- Cinram importing, housing labor
- Foreign workers raise ire here
- Seeking a better life
- Cinram fallout may be risky business for us all
- U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer wants Huntsville to monitor influx of immigrants
If you don’t feel like investing the time to read through the articles I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version. Cinram is going to legally bring in 1,350 unskilled, temporary workers using H2B visas. The workers will come from Jamacia and other third world countries and will be payed around $8 an hour plus overtime.
Politicians and others are decrying the move and demanding that Cinram hire local workers.
“We have enough people in our community that would do the work for decent pay,” said City Councilman Glenn Watson. “Eight dollars an hour won’t cover lunch.”
He said instead of looking overseas for cheap labor, Cinram ought to pay $10 or $12 per hour for the same work. “I think what Cinram is doing is detrimental to the city of Huntsville and the nation.” He said Cinram’s practice ought to be illegal.
Even Bud Cramer has weighed in:
If a sudden influx of 1,350 foreign workers recruited to work at a Huntsville plant becomes a problem, the federal government will need to rethink the temporary visa program that allowed them into the country, U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, said Monday.
The unemployment rate in Madison County is around 3%, which is right around what economists call full employment. That means that the 3% constitute mainly people who are virtually unemployable and people who are transitioning from one job to the next. Also, Cinram’s work is seasonal in nature. Hiring mass numbers of local workers - who may not even exist - would also result in mass lay offs when the predictable downturn in business comes.
I’ve been watching the righteous indignation with a faint sense of irony. Everyone has been hearing about illegal immigration for the past year or so, but this is a case where the immigrants and the employer are purportedly doing everything according to the letter of the law. If the problem was really the fact that the immigrants were illegal, then why get so upset over legal immigrants?
The complaints have come in three general flavors:
- Why foreigners?
- You should pay more!
- Great - more poor people burdening our welfare system.
I disagree with the first one on general principle. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life.
The second one is a sign of the “world owes me a living” mentality that many have in this country today. People think that businesses should be obliged to pay a “living wage” - whatever the hell that is. The fact is that any business, big or small, pays according to the job that is done. We’re talking about people putting DVDs into boxes here. I cannot think of a job with lower qualifications. If Americans can’t (or don’t want to) compete with these lean and hungry employees then too bad. That is the American way: people coming to our land of opportunity in search of a better life, making sacrifices, and working hard. I don’t begrudge anyone for trying to legally improve their lot in life.
The third complaint, however, is valid and is my secondary reason for opposing illegal immigration (the first being a flagrant subversion of our laws). As long as the government takes money from my paycheck and distributes it directly to others I won’t support bringing in more of those poor people who will place a bigger strain on my tax bill.
While I suspect that Cinram will follow the law if I were a slimy lawyer I would be on those workers like stink on a monkey. There is always a good potential for an overzealous employer to mislead these temporary workers. Such cases could represent a gold mine.
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November 20th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
I see ‘you should pay more’ and ‘burdening our welfare system’ as linked. I think that CINRAM is exploiting the Visa program and shifting their overhead costs (i.e., health care, TB tests and treatment, etc.) to US taxpayers.
CINRAM is providing housing, transportation, immigration expenses, etc.; I don’t see how this is cheaper than raising the local wages.
I think that their claim that they can’t find local workers rings hollow (a requirement for temp visa), according to jobs advocates quoted in the Times.
CINRAM is getting a captive workforce. The immigrants have a good chance of bad treatment…
November 21st, 2007 at 6:57 am
The visa program is being used to keep wages down, if the workers aren’t available the laws of supply and demand say to raise the wage.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:32 am
Dale, of course. And Cinram would probably shutter their factory and move it overseas.
Cinram is a business. They make decisions based on dollars and cents. I seriously doubt that a company worth $2 billion went down the path they are on without doing a thorough cost analysis. Does anyone really think that Cinram executives sit around asking each other, “Hey Bill, what can we do to royally piss off Madison County residents today?” No! They do what is best for their company and their investors. Period.
If Cinram’s work in their Huntsville plant really is seasonal, as they claim, then I definitely can sympathize with their decision to bring in foreign temp workers. Sure, they get negative press for this, but they would get the same negative press for laying off 1,350 locals at once.
Yes the workforce they are bringing in is captive and it creates a situation ripe for abuse. That’s why I said that if I were a lawyer I would be really cozy with those workers.
Personally, I think that being a good member of the community is an important part of running a business and as such I probably wouldn’t have done what Cinram is doing. But then again, I’m not currently bearing the fiduciary responsibility to shareholders that their management has.
Just curious, which would be preferable if these were the only two options?
1) Cinram closes all Madison County operations and moves overseas.
2) Cinram keeps the plant open and keeps paying some taxes (even though they are getting a break from some), but brings in foreign temp workers to temporarily supplement their local workforce.
I’d pick option #2.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:04 am
I pick 2 also, but I think it is obvious (from the reporting) that there are workers.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:35 am
Cinram’s work is seasonal. All the illegal immigrants work there when construction and Landscaping slow down. Cinram uses these temp agencies to feign ignorance of their employees’ legality. However, when the police came looking for the vandals who smashed cars in Cinram’s lot 2 years ago, Cinram turned in any employee who would not squeal and gave police copies of the fake IDs used to get jobs with Cinram.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:55 am
The Feds could require that the employer requesting the Visa be made accountable for any of the services that the welfare system provides.It is my understanding that Cinram is charging 300 per month per bed thereby receiving 1200 per month from each apartment they provide. That helps get their costs down too.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:29 am
Art - rough calculation - but subtracting the lodging costs from the worker’s wages puts them right at the minumum wage…
Yeah, I’d pick option #2, but negate their tax breaks by creating a ‘temporary foreign worker impact fee’, to pay for the costs of health screening and policing (for example). I’d also put a labor lawyer on the taco trucks, for convenience.
I’m just disappointed that CINRAM is such a bad neighbor…
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:18 pm
[...] Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks has released a resolution aimed at punishing Cinram for bringing in 1,350 foreign workers. The resolution implores the legislature to rescind tax abatements that Cinram currently enjoys, [...]
December 4th, 2007 at 8:02 am
[...] Cinram upsets locals by hiring foreign workers [...]
March 25th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
THE CURRENT H-1B VISA PROGRAM MUST BE ABOLISHED OR REFORMED (THE APPLIES TO OTHER TEMPORARY WORKER PROGRAMS AS WELL)!
The H-1B visa program was originally created to assist American employers who were having trouble finding American high-tech workers for their businesses. It allowed a fixed number of foreign workers come to the United States to “temporarily” fill those positions while the American companies and the federal government invested time and money in upgrading the training of American workers to meet the new skill levels required.
Although the program was originally designed to benefit American businesses, it has now become a program that benefits foreign companies with offices in America, rather than American companies, because the majority of the H-1B visas are now going to foreign-owned companies. Data just released by the federal government shows that offshore outsourcing firms, mostly from India, dominate the list of companies awarded H-1B visas in 2007. Indian outsourcers accounted for nearly 80% of the visa petitions approved last year for the top 10 participants in the program. These statistics should set off some alarms in congress that the H-1B visa program is not working as it was intended. Aqccording to data from the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro, two companies based in Bangalore, top the list of visa beneficiaries in 2007, with 4,559 and 2,567 approved visa petitions, respectively. Microsoft and Intel were the only two traditional U.S. tech companies among the top 10. Microsoft received only 959 visa petition approvals, or one fifth as many as Infosys, while Intel got only 369. How is this helping American workers and American businesses?
The H-1B work visa program was supposed to be used to bolster the U.S. economy by helping American-owned companies. Under the program, American companies can use the speciality visa to hire foreign software programmers or computer scientists with rare skills in order to encourage innovation and improving competitiveness. Instead, foreign companies such as Infosys and Wipro are using our own government program to undermine the American economy by wiping out American jobs. These foreign-owned companies are bringing low-cost workers into the U.S., training them in the offices of American business clients, and then rotating them back home after a year or two so they can provide low cost, out-sourced tech services that causes American IT workers to lose their jobs. How is this helping American workers and American businesses?
Even though approximately 80,000 Americans lost their jobs in the first two months of 2008, incredibly some members in the House of Representatives have introduced legislation to help these big foreign-owned international corporations bring in an increasing number of foreign workers that will put even more Americans out of work. Since its inception, the H-1B Visa program has been rampant with fraud. In the first half of 2006, the Programmer’s Guild, a group representing U.S. worker interests, filed over 300 discrimination complaints against companies who posted “H-1B visa holders only” ads on internet job boards. It’s obvious that these foreign-owned companies are only targeting foreign workers and undermining the system by bypassing the American worker. How is this helping American workers and American businesses?
While a bill to reduce illegal immigration (HR-4088) is stalled in Congress with the House leadership refusing to bring it to the floor for a vote, Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) has introduced “The Innovation Employment Act” (HR-5630) that would increase the cap of H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year. In addition, there would be no cap on H-1B applications for foreign graduate students attending U.S. colleges and studying science, technology and related fields. Currently, there’s a 20,000 student-a-year cap on visas for graduate students in all fields. The legislation would eventually increase the H-1B cap to 180,000 and the total number of foreigners admitted under this work and graduate education proposal could reach almost 300,000 a year. To make matters worse for the American IT workers, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has introduced the “Strengthening United States Technology and Innovation Act” (H.R. 5642), which would TRIPLE the current H-1B visa cap to 195,000 in 2008 and 2009 and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) wants to make Rep. Smith’s increase permanent. How is this helping American workers and American businesses?
There is no real shortage of American information technology workers. It’s just that the large high-tech international companies want to turn these hard earned information technology skills into as cheap a labor commodity as possible at the American workers’ expense. On March 12th Bill Gates appeared before Congress calling for an increase in H-1B visas. Two days later, without soliciting comments from any representatives of American IT workers, Congress introduced two bills that would double or triple the H-1B base cap. Why weren’t the representatives of American IT workers allowed to be heard? Could the average of $25 million dollars a year that members of congress receive in bribes (I mean campaign contributions) from the Computer Equipment and Services Industry, have something to do with this? Here’s some interesting campaign contribution statistics compiled by the Center for Responsible Politics at http://www.opensecrets.org that shows why congress may be so eager to support the requests of the Computer Equipment and Services Industry over the American IT workers. Here’s how much the high-tech industries have contributed to federal campaigns:
2000 - $38.9 million
2002 - $26.7 million
2004 - $29.0 million
2006 - $18.4 million
2008 - $15.5 million (partial)
These two bills (H.R. 4088 and H.R. 5642) will do nothing to curb the fraud in the H-1B visa program and they will have serious consequences for American citizens that are employed in the information technology field. The proposed legislation will displace even more American IT workers and outsource their good paying, high-technology jobs to foreign off-shore companies. We must learn from our mistakes. The current H-1B visa program has not served the best interests of American workers nor American companies. The current program has actually helped foreign competitors, with branch offices in the USA, hire almost no Americans and shift as many American jobs overseas as possible. How is this helping American workers and American businesses?
The current H-1B Program, as designed, is detrimental and harmful to the welfare of American workers and American high-tech businesses. It should be abolished. In it’s place and only if it is needed, H-1B type legislation should be written in a way that actually benefits American companies, American workers and American students thinking of embarking on a high-tech career.
Any new H-1B Visa legislation should be simple and have the following criteria to help Americans only:
IT MUST BENEFIT BOTH AMERICAN WORKERS AND AMERICAN COMPANIES: The H-1B Visa Program was originally designed to help American companies. Any new H-1B Visa Program should apply ONLY to American-based business entities and the H-1B visas should only be issued to foreign employees after proof is supplied that no American worker has either applied or is otherwise qualified for the position.
BENEFIT FOR AMERICAN STUDENTS: Companies that hire H-1B visa holders should pay an annual fee for each visa holder they hire to be used to fund scholarships for American citizen high school and college students interested in high-tech careers and enrolled in STEM educational programs (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics).
By:
JOHN W. WALLACE
Candidate for Congress
New York’s 20th Congressional District
http://www.FreedomCandidate.com