"knowledge acquisition"

Date: Thursday, August 07, 2003 4:45 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

We have a new corporate buzzword to describe how American workers are
forced to train the foreigner who will replace them - it's called
"knowledge acquisition."

Sunil Mehta, vice president of NASSCOM, a New Delhi-based trade
association for Indian software companies, claims that the L-1 program
has created about 1.5 million jobs in the United States. Tell that to
the victims of knowledge acquisition.

Ultimate insult for American programmers as employers seek cheaper
labor

Terry Gilliam / AP

Kevin Sherman sits at his computer in his Worthington, Ohio, home.

By RACHEL KONRAD
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 7 Scott Kirwin clung to his job at a large
investment bank through several rounds of layoffs last year. Friends
marveled at the computer programmer's ability to dodge pink slips
during the worst technology downturn in a decade.

But it was tough for Kirwin, 36, to relish his final assignment:

training a group of programmers from India who would replace him within
a year.

''They called it 'knowledge acquisition,''' the Wilmington,

Del., resident said. ''We got paid our normal salaries to train people
to do our jobs. The market was so bad we couldn't really do anything
about it, so we taught our replacements.''

Finally laid off in April, Kirwin sent out 225 resumes before

landing a temporary position without benefits at a smaller bank and
swallowing a 20 percent pay cut.

Kirwin is among what appears to be a growing number of American

technology workers training their foreign replacements a humiliating
assignment many say they assume unwittingly or reluctantly, simply to
stay on the job longer or secure a meager severance package.

Their plight can be seen as an unintended consequence of the

nation's non-immigrant visa program particularly the L-1
classification. The L-1 allows companies to transfer workers from
overseas offices to the United States for up to seven years ostensibly
to familiarize them with corporate culture or to import workers with
''specialized knowledge.''

It also lets companies continue paying workers their home

country wage. Indian workers receive roughly one-sixth the hourly wage
of the average American programmer, who makes about $60 per hour in
wages and benefits.

Large technology companies say the L-1 helps them staff offices

in less-developed companies with workers who understand the needs of a
global corporation. And some labor experts say out-of-work programmers
should stop complaining, and focus on their own re-training, just like
the Rust Belt assembly line workers whose factory jobs migrated to
Mexico and Asia in the 1980s.

But unemployed tech workers contend that so many good jobs are

going to places like Bombay, Bangalore and Beijing that honing their
technical skills is futile. According to the research firm Gartner
Inc., one out of 10 technology jobs in the United States will move
overseas by the end of next year.

''Once I figured out what was going on, I was disgusted,'' said

Kevin Sherman, a 47-year-old programmer and technical author from
Worthington, Ohio, who was working for Manifest Corp., an information
systems consulting firm in Upper Arlington, Ohio.

Sherman held onto his $62,000-per-year contract job while he

taught several dozen Indian workers how to build and maintain computer
databases in 1999 and 2000. He quit rather than take on his next
assignment: fixing the newly trained foreigners' broken PCs. He's been
unemployed for two years.

Nancy Matijasich, Manifest president and CEO, said she no longer

employs L-1 workers like those Sherman trained, because the Y2K threat
has passed and the company has less need for programmers.

''There was a shortage of skills in the '90s,'' Matijasich said.

''But we haven't processed visas in a long time.''

The State Department issued 28,098 L-1 visas from October to

March, the first half of fiscal 2003. That's an increase of nearly 7
percent from the same period in 2002.

But the number of L-1 workers in the United States is likely

much higher, said Charlie Oppenheim, the State Department's chief of
immigrant visa control. Each L-1 lets a worker enter the United States
multiple times over several years.

There is no limit on the number of L-1 workers companies may

import each year. Legislation introduced last month by Rep. Rosa
DeLauro, D-Conn., seeks an annual limit of 35,000 L-1 workers
nationwide.

By contrast, tight controls govern the H-1B visa, which requires

companies to pay workers the prevailing American wage. The H-1B cap is
scheduled to be reduced from 195,000 workers to 65,000 per year on Oct.
1.

Tech bellwethers including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems,

Oracle and Microsoft use L-1 workers but won't disclose how many they
import. Many bring in workers through consulting firms, usually Indian
companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and
Wipro Technologies.

Intel spokeswoman Gail Dundas acknowledged that the world's

largest chipmaker relies on Americans to train L-1 workers who staff
the company's offices in Russia, India, China and other high-growth
markets. But she says the Intel training program does not result in
American layoffs.

''If someone does something really well, we want the person

who's going to perform a similar function abroad to learn from the
master. Then the person in the United States will continue to do their
job just as before,'' Dundas said.

Intel provides L-1 workers a cost-of-living adjustment if they

work at the Santa Clara headquarters or elsewhere in the United States.
Intel pays for housing, cars, return trips to the workers' home
countries and full medical benefits a package that ends up costing
significantly more than hiring an American, she said.

Dallas-based Texas Instruments also imports L-1 electrical

engineers. With U.S. colleges graduating fewer U.S.-born engineers and
the population of foreign-born science graduates mushrooming, TI has to
look overseas for talent, spokesman Dan Larson said.

''You have a declining pool from which to draw, and more of

those people are foreign nationals,'' Larson said. ''If you're a
company looking to hire electrical engineers, you're obliged to hire
the best and brightest from wherever.''

Sunil Mehta, vice president of NASSCOM, a New Delhi-based trade

association for Indian software companies, claims the L-1 program has
created about 1.5 million jobs in the United States since it began in
1970.

Still, NASSCOM and a U.S. counterpart, the Information

Technology Association of America, acknowledge that some companies
exploit loopholes. ITAA published guidelines for members on July 29,
suggesting that companies pay the prevailing U.S. wage and import only
those foreigners who have skills lacking in America.

''Similar visas exist in 20 to 25 other countries, including

India,'' Mehta said. ''I don't think we should throw the baby out with
the bath water because of a few loopholes.''

Michael Emmons says he's already become an L-1 casualty. The

41-year-old software developer moved from California to Florida in 2001
after Siemens, his contract employer, merged with another company. He
was supposed to help migrate disparate software into a single system,
but he and a dozen co-workers ended up training Indian replacements to
connect systems using IBM software.

Emmons, who quit the Siemens job after being told his position

would be terminated, is now lobbying politicians to abolish the L-1.
He's also considering a career in politics running on an ''American
Workers First'' campaign.

''I'm not saying offshoring can be stopped, but it does not have

to be like this,'' he said.

On the Web:
Kirwin's site: http://www.itpaa.org
Emmons' site: http://www.hannatroup.com:81

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Rob Sanchez is board member of NAEA - www.NAEA.US

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