Finlanders probably get to work at their local Finnish Toys 'R' Us
The New York Times has a report on Toys "R" Us using temporary work visas to bring in foreign workers to replace the American workers. Surprisingly, Toys "R" Us does this not out of the kindness of their hearts but to, how do you say, make a buck.
For four weeks this spring, a young woman from India on a temporary visa sat elbow to elbow with an American accountant in a snug cubicle at the headquarters of Toys “R” Us here. The woman, an employee of a giant outsourcing company in India hired by Toys “R” Us, studied and recorded the accountant’s every keystroke, taking screen shots of her computer and detailed notes on how she issued payments for toys sold in the company’s megastores.
“She just pulled up a chair in front of my computer,” said the accountant, 49, who had worked for the company for than 15 years. “She shadowed me everywhere, even to the ladies’ room.”
By late June, eight workers from the outsourcing company, Tata Consultancy Services, or TCS, had produced intricate manuals for the jobs of 67 people, mainly in accounting. They then returned to India to train TCS workers to take over and perform those jobs there. The Toys “R” Us employees in New Jersey, many of whom had been at the company more than a decade, were laid off.
A big part of the push for immigration reform is dealing with the loopholes in H-1B, the temporary visa program. Republicans like
Jeff Sessions attack H-1B for the wrong reasons—wielding it as a xenophobic scare tactic. The flip side is more complicated. There is bipartisan support for creating more visa opportunities, with a lot of the financial lobbying coming from the tech industry. What makes it complicated is that, while these visas are supposed to attract the best and the brightest from around the world—and therefore keep big employers in the U.S. providing more work for Americans—the tech industry in particular seems to be using these visas to
harvest slave labor.
What's happening at Toys "R" Us is very clear cut. They bring in workers from abroad whose only special skill seems to be figuring out how to replace American jobs. Toys "R" Us, can you do us one better?
But the Toys “R” Us layoffs — and others underway now at the New York Life Insurance Company and other businesses — go further. They are examples of how global outsourcing companies are using temporary visas to bring in foreign workers who do not appear to have exceptional skills — according to interviews with a dozen current or former employees of Toys “R” Us and New York Life — to help ship out jobs, mainly to India.
These former employees described their experience training foreigners to do their work so it could be moved to India. They would speak only on the condition that their names not be published, saying they feared losing severance payments or hurting their chances of finding new jobs.
Thanks, Toys "R "Us. It wouldn't be cheap plastic crap for our kids without a touch of moral bankruptcy. What say you, Toys "R" Us?
Kathleen Waugh, a spokeswoman for Toys “R” Us, said the staff reduction there was part of “designing a streamlined, more efficient global organization to make it fit for growth.” She said the contractors were required to comply with “any and all immigration laws.” The outsourcing, she noted, “resulted in significant cost savings.”
I encourage you to read the rest. It's a tough read as a big part of it includes former employees having to train the people who are soon to replace them, knowing the entire time that they are being replaced.