15 Articles Worth Reading
15 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 2:48 AM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
September 13, 2005 No. 1329
COMMENTs FROM ROB: The newspaper idiotorials and op-eds have been unrelenting in favor of increasing the number of H-1Bs. All of these are plants by shills that are lobbying to lift the yearly cap on the numbers H-1B visas issued per year. The Wall Street Journal idiotorial (#12) is one of the worst of I have seen - it truly sets a new standard for stupid journalism.
Be sure to read articles 6 and 9 about Microsoft. Spokeswoman Stacy Drake said that Microsoft has been outsourcing some work to free up its U.S. staff for other projects. I'm wondering what projects she has in mind for these freed up people - filling out unemployment insurance forms? Another question - just who at Microsoft is asking to be liberated by losing their jobs to offshoring?
Article 1:
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/08/29/smallb4.html
H-1B visa cap reached
U.S. companies that want to hire highly skilled foreigners will have to wait more than a year unless they got their applications for H-1B visas in by Aug. 10. "This is a clear sign that the H-1B cap allotment needs to be better aligned with reality," says Deborah J. Notkin, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "This is bad news for U.S. companies who now will have to cancel key job-creating projects or move the projects offshore to round out critical skill needs."
Article 2:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170100970
IBM To Train 20,000 Mainframe Pros--Half In China
IBM expects that its program, dubbed "zNextGen," will produce 10,000 mainframe-literate professionals in China alone.
Article 3:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/30/news/fortune500/united_china/index.htm
United looks to China for repairs
Report: Air carrier agrees to five-year deal with Ameco Beijing to handle heavy maintenance of 777s.
United Airlines' heavy maintenance of its entire fleet of Boeing 777s will be handled by a Chinese firm for the next five years, an industry trade publication reported Tuesday.
Article 4:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/valuedriven/0,15704,1096866,00.html
VALUE DRIVEN On Immigration Policy, We've Got It Backward
Low-skilled workers flood in, but we limit visas to the best and brightest.
As globalizing labor markets revolutionize the work lives of millions, we Americans have to face some uncomfortable new realities. Could it be that we're actually not worth what we're paid? Is it possible that our schools just aren't good enough? Next up for rethinking: our nutty immigration policy. Group one comprises highly skilled workers who come to the U.S. on H1-B visas. Group two is made up of the illegal immigrants who do lawn care, meat processing, house painting, and other low-skilled U.S. jobs. And while it sounds as if group one is desirable and group two isn't, that's not quite right. In fact, they're more similar than different. The best solution for group one is simple: Eliminate the cap on H1-B visas, currently just 65,000 a year.
Article 5:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/343015p-292833c.html
Does not compute
If there's a group of foreigners this country should welcome with open arms, it's high-tech workers. Their skills and brainpower are desperately needed by American businesses facing critical shortages of homegrown engineers, scientists and computer whizzes. Yet these highly educated strivers are being denied entry by protectionist politicians.
Article 6:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002468560_msftgoogle03.html
Microsoft plans to outsource more, says ex-worker
Microsoft is on track to outsource more than 1,000 jobs a year to China, according to blistering evidence released yesterday in Microsoft's increasingly nasty spat with Google over an employee who jumped ship in July.
Article 7:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/US-opens-gates-to-Aussie-business-people/2005/09/05/1125772435615.html
US opens gates to Aussie business people
The United States has opened the doors to Australian business people with a new class of visa available under the free trade agreement. Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Mark Vaile said a new E-3 visa would be available to 10,500 Australian professionals and business people wanting to live and work in the US. "Only 900 Australians succeeded in gaining the US H-1B business visa in 2004. By comparison, there will be 10,500 E-3 visas reserved exclusively for Australian nationals each year."
Article 8:
http://www.united.com/press/detail/0,6862,53149,00.html
Ameco Signs Aircraft Heavy Maintenance Agreement with United Airlines
United Airlines (OTCBB: UALAQ.OB) and Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corporation (Ameco Beijing) signed a five-year agreement to conduct airframe heavy maintenance for United Airlines Boeing 777 fleet. Over the next five years, United Airlines Boeing 777 fleet will go to Ameco Beijing for heavy maintenance visits (HMV).
Article 9:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/06/tech/main821614.shtml?cmp=EM8705
Microsoft Ire Replayed In Court
Former Microsoft Corp. executive Kai-Fu Lee accused the software titan of incompetence in its plans to gain a business footing in China, and testified Tuesday that being yelled at by Chairman Bill Gates was a low point before he defected to rival Google Inc.
Article 10:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/education/07tutor.html
A Tutor Half a World Away, but as Close as a Keyboard
Ms. Salin is part of a new wave of outsourcing to India: the tutoring of American students. Twice a week for a month now, Ms. Salin, who grew up speaking the Indian language Malayalam at home, has been tutoring Daniela in English grammar, comprehension and writing. Growing Stars is one of at least a half-dozen companies across India that are helping American children complete their homework and prepare for tests. As in other types of outsourcing, the driving factor in "homework outsourcing," as the practice is known, is the cost. Companies like Growing Stars and Career Launcher India in New Delhi charge American students $20 an hour for personal tutoring, compared with $50 or more charged by their American counterparts.
Article 11:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/09inter1.htm
'Democrats are not against outsourcing'
The new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Dr Howard Dean, believes the Indian-American community should find the Democratic Party more attractive as it is not only more favourable toward immigration, but also is a more diverse and welcoming than the Republican Party.
Article 12:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007166
Jobs and Immigrants
America needs more, not fewer, workers from overseas.
Political pressure for an immigration crackdown seems to be building, with allegedly serious people even debating a 2,000-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Meanwhile, in the U.S. economy, the demand for foreign workers continues, as shown by the collapse of the H-1B visa program. Since the restrictionists won't tell you about this, allow us to explain.
* Text not provided for 13-15
Article 13:
http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/050902_vfl.htm
Labor Day -- As the Rich Get Richer --.
Labor Day is an appropriate time to continue last weeks analysis of the impact of non-immigrant visas like the H-1B and L1 on the U.S. worker and his wages.
Article 14:
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/050904_marx.htm
Thought For Labor Day: Conservative Dogma Pulling Marx Out of His Grave
Libertarians and free trade economists dont realize it, but they are pulling Marx out of his grave. Free traders are resurrecting class war, not because they are Marxists but because they confuse free trade with global labor arbitrage.
Article 15:
http://www.cpsr.org/issues/industry/IToutsourcing_Brigham
Outsourcing High-Tech Jobs: Why benign neglect isn't working.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/08/29/smallb4.html
From the August 26, 2005 print edition
H-1B visa cap reached
U.S. companies that want to hire highly skilled foreigners will have to wait more than a year unless they got their applications for H-1B visas in by Aug. 10.
That's the date on which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says it had received enough applications for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1, to meet the 65,000 annual cap on the visas. It's the first time the cap was reached before the fiscal year had even begun.
"This is a clear sign that the H-1B cap allotment needs to be better aligned with reality," says Deborah J. Notkin, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "This is bad news for U.S. companies who now will have to cancel key job-creating projects or move the projects offshore to round out critical skill needs."
Businesses that want H-1B visas for fiscal 2007 can submit applications beginning April 1, 2006.
H-1B visas are used by businesses that need to hire foreigners as scientists, engineers, computer programmers or other occupations that require specialized expertise. Workers with H-1B visas can work in the United States for three years and then seek extensions for another years.
Not included in the H-1B cap are visas for foreigners who work at universities, nonprofit research organizations or governmental research organizations. Foreigners with postgraduate degrees from American universities also can still obtain H-1B visas.
The H-1B visa cap was raised from 2001 through 2003, at the urging of high-tech companies that said they couldn't find enough qualified Americans. Congress let the cap revert to 65,000 in 2004.
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170100970
IBM To Train 20,000 Mainframe Pros--Half In China
By W. David Gardner, Techweb">http://www.techweb.com">Techweb, InformationWeek
Aug. 29, 2005
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170100970
The professional I.T. cadre that cut its MIS teeth on the IBM 360 mainframe, unveiled in the 1960s, is beginning to retire, and there aren't enough young people around with the skills to replace them. To meet the challenge, IBM and Share, an IBM user group, have launched a program to develop the talent to fill the 20,000 mainframe positions that are expected to become available as the long-serving operators of the machines leave the workforce. IBM expects that its program, dubbed "zNextGen," will produce 10,000 mainframe-literate professionals in China alone.
The program will make technical and other resources available to IT students and young professionals interested in careers in IBM mainframe computing. Mainframe skills in particular demand now are Java, Linux, and services-oriented architecture skills. "An experienced technical person can make $70,000 to $80,000," Share president Robert Rosen says. "Someone with management skills can make $100,000 or more. It's all moving toward becoming a seller's market."
Pledging to train 20,000 IT professionals by 2010, IBM is strengthening its IBM Academic Initiative Program for the Mainframe at more than 150 universities around the world, including schools in Poland and Australia. In China, IBM already has donated modern mainframe equipment to seven universities. Rosen points to the success of the IBM-supported program at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., near IBM's mainframe headquarters, and at Northern Illinois University. Says Rosen, "Their graduates are snapped up quickly."
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/30/news/fortune500/united_china/index.htm
United looks to China for repairs
Report: Air carrier agrees to five-year deal with Ameco Beijing to handle heavy maintenance of 777s.
August 30, 2005: 8:34 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - United Airlines' heavy maintenance of its entire fleet of Boeing 777s will be handled by a Chinese firm for the next five years, an industry trade publication reported Tuesday.
Under the deal, Ameco Beijing will handle maintenance and repairs of United planes starting as early as October, according to a report published on the Web site of Flight International, an aerospace industry trade publication.
The deal, which is the largest North American contract secured by the Chinese firm, is estimated at more than $30 million, the publication reported.
Ameco Beijing, which was created by German airlines Lufthansa and Air China, currently handles maintenance for the Chinese air carrier.
The trade publication reported that maintenance work on United's 52 Boeing 777s will be carried out in Beijing.
The U.S. airline, which is currently emerging from bankruptcy, is expected to make as many as 80 maintenance visits over the course the contract.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/valuedriven/0,15704,1096866,00.html
VALUE DRIVEN
On Immigration Policy, We've Got It Backward
Low-skilled workers flood in, but we limit visas to the best and brightest.
FORTUNE
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
By Geoffrey Colvin
As globalizing labor markets revolutionize the work lives of millions, we Americans have to face some uncomfortable new realities. Could it be that we're actually not worth what we're paid? Is it possible that our schools just aren't good enough? Next up for rethinking: our nutty immigration policy.
Consider two groups of people who want to enter the U.S. and work. Group one observes the rules meticulously. When they get here, they pay taxes, sometimes in quite large amounts. By law, they're here only because no American is available to do the work they're doing, and that work is so valuable that it helps U.S. companies create more jobs for Americans - an average of three to five jobs for every one of these workers. Our official stance toward them? We severely restrict the number we admit and very effectively keep out any beyond the legal limit.
Group two is just the opposite. Many of them violate the rules, not only in entering the U.S. but by using forged documents once they're here. Many of them also evade taxes, and some of them, by working illegally at below-market wages, take jobs from U.S. citizens who follow the rules. Our stance toward these workers? Officially we don't allow them in, but in practice we let hundreds of thousands enter the country every year.
Group one comprises highly skilled workers who come to the U.S. on H1-B visas. Group two is made up of the illegal immigrants who do lawn care, meat processing, house painting, and other low-skilled U.S. jobs. And while it sounds as if group one is desirable and group two isn't, that's not quite right. In fact, they're more similar than different.
The U.S. labor force has long had shortages at the very top and the very bottom. Most people are trained and suited for the broad middle, leaving them overqualified for the lowest- level jobs and underqualified for the highest. Yes, our flexible labor markets should solve that problem, but for whatever reason, they don't. So we turn to foreign workers to fill some of the gaps.
The result is group one and group two, both of which we need. The reason one looks good and the other bad is that by the nature of their work we're able to thwart market demand and keep one group out, but not the other. A highly skilled computer engineer doesn't need to risk his life crossing the border illegally, and a big firm like Intel or Microsoft wouldn't employ him if he did, so illegal-immigrant chip designers are just not an issue. But a Mexican farmworker may find the risk worthwhile, and the farmers who will employ him don't care how he got here. So we can stop foreigners from working in Silicon Valley but not in the Central Valley. Yet both places need them.
The situation is going to heat up politically in the next few months. Resentment toward illegal immigrants is building among working-class Americans, who already feel threatened by outsourcing and by the rise of China and India. Voicing the anger of those voters are a number of politicians, notably Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado), who says he'll run for President on an anti-immigration platform. At the same time, as America loses its technology edge, high-tech employers are pleading more loudly for a higher cap on H1-B visas so that they can bring the best foreign workers here rather than let them stay home and work for the competition. Look for Congress to begin hard work on some kind of comprehensive immigration bill this fall.
What should it say? The best solution for group one is simple: Eliminate the cap on H1-B visas, currently just 65,000 a year. That is hardly a radical notion. For nearly 40 years, until 1990, there was no cap. Now is the worst time to be turning away some of the world's most capable, value-creating workers. The solution for group two is more complicated, but the outline is clear. Forget about deporting them. It's impossible, and any attempt would just waste billions of dollars. Instead, make it worth their while to become tax-paying, on-the-books workers for at least a few years. Many would do it happily in return for one cost-free privilege: the right to travel freely between the U.S. and home.
Neither of those solutions will become law, but Congress will probably go some distance toward each one. Just how far it goes will be a measure of how comfortable America has become with the reality of today's labor markets.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/343015p-292833c.html
Does not compute
If there's a group of foreigners this country should welcome with open arms, it's high-tech workers. Their skills and brainpower are desperately needed by American businesses facing critical shortages of homegrown engineers, scientists and computer whizzes.
Yet these highly educated strivers are being denied entry by protectionist politicians. Congress has capped the H-1B visa program, which allows skilled workers from overseas to hold jobs in the U.S. temporarily, at just 65,000 per year. That's a third of what was allowed a few years ago. The number is so stingy - and the demand so heavy - that immigration officials cut off applications for 2006 visas on Aug. 10, the earliest ever.
The pols might think they're helping American-born high-tech workers, who don't relish competing with freshly minted software engineers from India, Korea and China. In fact, they're shooting the nation's economy in the foot. Corporations have to shell out thousands of dollars in fees and fill out reams of paperwork to hire a single H-1B worker, and he or she might have to go home after six years. Employers wouldn't go to the trouble if qualified Americans were banging down their doors.
The bottom line is that the American education system isn't turning out enough math and science geeks. A Business Roundtable report notes that South Korea educates as many engineers as the U.S. with just one-sixth the population. The report predicted that Asia will account for 90% of all scientists and engineers by 2010.
The U.S. must encourage more of its college kids to major in math and science - as the Business Roundtable recommended. But this won't happen overnight. In the meantime, we cannot afford to cut ourselves off from the best and the brightest of other countries. Worse, refusing to allow high-tech workers into America only encourages corporations to outsource jobs to India and other foreign locales. If Congress would rather "insource" jobs, it will lift this nonsensical and shortsighted cap on H-1Bs.
You can e-mail the Daily News editors at voicers@edit.nydailynews.com. Please include your full name, address and phone number. The Daily News reserves the right to edit letters. The shorter the letter, the better the chance it will be used.
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002468560_msftgoogle03.html
Saturday, September 3, 2005 - 12:00 AM
Kai-Fu Lee was hired away by Google.
Microsoft plans to outsource more, says ex-worker
By Brier Dudley
Seattle Times technology reporter
Microsoft is on track to outsource more than 1,000 jobs a year to China, according to blistering evidence released yesterday in Microsoft's increasingly nasty spat with Google over an employee who jumped ship in July.
In a revelation that highlights the complexity of China President Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle and Microsoft on Monday, legal filings detailed claims of how Microsoft had offended the Chinese government by not outsourcing as many jobs as promised to Chinese technology vendors.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer visited China in 2003 and promised to step up the pace, from $33 million worth of work a year to $55 million a year, according to a statement by Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice president who left to work for Google in July. Lee was charged with smoothing over relations with China and finding jobs that could be shifted to Chinese contract workers.
"At the time of my departure, MS was on track to outsource over 1,000 jobs a year to China," he said in a court declaration. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company has transferred some projects to China "in order to free up teams here for other work."
"We are growing our work force there and will continue to do so; however, that growth has not and will not replace jobs here in Redmond," spokeswoman Stacy Drake said.
Microsoft continues to hire thousands of new employees a year in Redmond, but the pace of hiring has slowed. Simultaneously, it has increased work in China, India and other technology hubs.
Google is likewise extending its reach, and Lee was hired to start a Google research center in China. Microsoft immediately sued to prevent him from working there for a year, citing a noncompete agreement he signed in 2000. King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez granted Microsoft a temporary restraining order in July and is set to review the case in a hearing starting Tuesday.
Drawing on thousands of e-mails, notes and other material, Microsoft filed a motion with the court that painted Lee as a bit of a schemer. It said Lee removed "Microsoft confidential" labels from a strategy document on China and sent it to Google while pursuing his new job. It also said Lee continued to attend China strategy meetings after he began talking with Google.
Google said Microsoft doesn't have a case and that the confidential material was already made public by Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft's Web site. It also released a statement from a former employee portraying Ballmer as a foul-mouthed fit-thrower.
It remains to be seen how the back and forth will affect the lawsuit. But the filings provide the deepest look at Microsoft's internal tensions since its antitrust trial in the late 1990s.
In his declaration, Lee contends Microsoft's China research center was disorganized and needed to be unified, but his proposals met resistance from managers who wanted to continue making key decisions in Redmond. Lee said he decided to leave after disagreements with Senior Vice President Steve Sinfosky, head of the Office operation, and research chief Rick Rashid over his plan for China, and after Ballmer's "inadequate" response to his plan.
Microsoft said Lee apparently reached out to Google the day after interviewing a Microsoft job candidate who let on he was talking to Google about opening its China lab. In his statement, Lee said he found out about Google's plans for the lab from a Chinese news Web site. He also denied sharing confidential materials, and downplayed his significance to Microsoft's work on search products.
The details about Ballmer were in a declaration by former Distinguished Engineer Marc Lucovsky, who in November 2004 told Ballmer he was leaving for Google. Lucovsky said Ballmer threw a chair across his office and cussed out Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, saying, "I'm going to ... bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going ... to kill Google."
Lucovsky said Ballmer encouraged him to stay at Microsoft and told him that "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards."
After Google sent the Lucovsky statement to reporters yesterday, Ballmer issued a statement denying the account.
"Mark Lucovsky's account of our conversation last November is a gross exaggeration of what actually took place," he said. "Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterization of that meeting is not accurate."
Lucovsky's declaration says nothing about Lee, but Google lawyer Nicole Wong said it's relevant.
"Microsoft is trying to stop employees from trying to come to Google -- that's what this case is about," she said. "The Lucovsky declaration shows a pattern of behavior that supports this."
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/US-opens-gates-to-Aussie-business-people/2005/09/05/1125772435615.html
US opens gates to Aussie business people
September 5, 2005 - 8:49AM
Email to a friend Printer format
The United States has opened the doors to Australian business people with a new class of visa available under the free trade agreement.
Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Mark Vaile said a new E-3 visa would be available to 10,500 Australian professionals and business people wanting to live and work in the US.
"This is a quantum step forward and great news for Australian business people who will be able to use the E-3 visa to capitalise on opportunities offered under the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA)," he said in a statement.
"Only 900 Australians succeeded in gaining the US H-1B business visa in 2004. By comparison, there will be 10,500 E-3 visas reserved exclusively for Australian nationals each year."
Mr Vaile said qualified Australians wishing to reside and work in the United States were now in a privileged position.
He said the dedicated business visa would be easier to obtain and less costly than the traditional H-1B business visa.
Advertisement"Unlike the H-1B visa, spouses of E-3 visa holders will also be able to work in the United States - thus eliminating a barrier that in practice has stopped many Australians from applying for temporary residence in the United States," he said.
"E-3 visa holders will be able to apply for extensions and the application fee for an E-3 visa will be significantly lower than that for the H-1B visa."
Australians interested in applying for an E-3 visa should contact their nearest US consulate in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth or consult the US State Department or Department of Homeland Security (Citizenship and Immigration Services) websites.
Mr Vaile said Australians currently living abroad could apply for an E-3 visa at their nearest US Embassy or Consulate.
"In a little over a year, the US Congress has passed two laws devoted to Australia - the only Australia-specific legislation in its history - which is a tribute to our relationship and the high regard in which Australia is held," he said.
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.united.com/press/detail/0,6862,53149,00.html
Ameco Signs Aircraft Heavy Maintenance Agreement with United Airlines
August 30, 2005
Beijing, August 30, 2005 -- United Airlines (OTCBB: UALAQ.OB) and Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corporation (Ameco Beijing) signed a five-year agreement to conduct airframe heavy maintenance for United Airlines Boeing 777 fleet.
Over the next five years, United Airlines Boeing 777 fleet will go to Ameco Beijing for heavy maintenance visits (HMV). More than 50 HMVs are planned for the first three years, and as many as 80 will be completed over the contractual period. Based on this plan, Ameco Beijing will begin heavy maintenance work on the first five aircraft nose to tail starting this October.
Glenn Tilton, Chairman, President and CEO of United Airlines, Greg Hall, SVP Maintenance and Engineering UA, He Li, CEO & General Manager of Ameco Beijing and Dr. Hans Schmitz, General Manager of Ameco Beijing attended the signing ceremony held at The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel today and signed the contract. Li Jiaxiang, General Manager of China National Aviation Holding Company (CNAH), Ma Kuiliang, Vice President of Air China, August Henningsen, CEO of Lufthansa Technik also participated in the event.
Greg Hall, Senior Vice President of United Services said, "Ameco Beijing shares Uniteds unwavering commitment to quality and safety. Ameco Beijing has state-of-the-art technology and world-class facilities that will enable United to seamlessly complete its heavy maintenance visits."
Will Crocker, United Airlines Director of Technical Strategic Sourcing for Airframe and Aircraft Components added, "The competitive cost structure, high-quality service and guaranteed turn-around times provided by Ameco Beijing will help us reach our cost targets."
"We are excited as this is one of Ameco Beijings biggest contracts with a North American customer in our history. Through our cooperation with United Airlines, we are obtaining access to one of the largest and most reputable airlines in the world. This proves that Ameco Beijing has the means to join ranks with leaders in the MRO industry," said He Li, CEO & General Manager of Ameco Beijing, at the signing ceremony.
Ameco Beijing General Manager Dr. Hans Schmitz added, "Our collaboration with United Airlines makes us one of the leading aircraft overhaul providers in the world. Moreover, this indicates that Ameco Beijing is taking a successful step into the North American market."
In order to better service and communicate with customers, Ameco Beijing will create an IT interface with United Airlines for e-documents, human resources data, invoicing processes and other real-time data services.
United Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the world. It currently operates 455 aircraft, of which 52 are Boeing 777.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/06/tech/main821614.shtml?cmp=EM8705
Microsoft Ire Replayed In Court
SEATTLE, Sept. 6, 2005
Former Microsoft Corp. executive Kai-Fu Lee accused the software titan of incompetence in its plans to gain a business footing in China, and testified Tuesday that being yelled at by Chairman Bill Gates was a low point before he defected to rival Google Inc.
In testimony during a hearing on Microsoft's lawsuit against Lee and Google, Lee said he wrote a memo to another Microsoft executive saying he was "deeply disappointed at our incompetence in China -- that we have wasted so many years in China with little to show for it."
Microsoft is suing on the grounds that Lee, an expert in computer recognition of language and Internet search technology, signed a noncompete agreement, in which he agreed not to perform similar work for any rival for one year after leaving Microsoft. Lee was hired away by Google this summer; Google and Lee maintain that he has not, and has no intention of, compromising Microsoft's trade secrets.
Lee went on to say in the e-mail that he was embarrassed by Microsoft's business practices and that people in the government joke about Microsoft's internal politics. But he provided few details in his testimony Tuesday about what exactly the Chinese government was frustrated with.
The former executive testified that one of the lowest moments of his career with Microsoft was a conversation in which Gates yelled at him and said that the company had been "f-----" by the Chinese people and its government. Lee did not clarify the context of Gates' alleged comments. Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said Gates did not make such a statement.
"Bill Gates adamantly denies ever making such a comment. This is another attempt to deflect interest from the real issues in this case," she said.
Google spokesman Steve Langdon said he did not know the context or date of Gates' alleged comments, and did not know if he would be able to obtain that information. He said neither Lee nor Lee's attorney was immediately available to comment following the proceedings.
In his testimony, Lee also complained that Microsoft had more than 20 business groups operating virtually autonomously in China, with little cohesion.
Among other problems, Lee said, was a commitment Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer made in 2002 to outsource $100 million in work to China. Within the last year, after it had become clear that Microsoft wasn't fulfilling this promise, Lee said, he was put in charge of outsourcing jobs to China.
Drake said she could not confirm the numbers cited by Lee. But she confirmed that Microsoft has been outsourcing some work -- such as software testing -- to China and other countries, to free up its U.S. staff for other projects.
In video testimony Tuesday, Ballmer defended Microsoft's business plan in China, saying that through a process of trial and error the company had developed what he called a "secret sauce" for successful operations there.
Lee, who had worked at Microsoft beginning in 2000, joined Google in July to lead the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet search engine company's expansion into China.
Redmond-based Microsoft contends that Lee's duties at Google would violate the terms of the noncompete agreement. Microsoft also accused Lee of using insider information to get his job at Google.
Google denies the allegations and has countersued Microsoft.
Microsoft attorneys sought Tuesday's hearing before Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez to restrict what work Lee can do for Google until the lawsuit goes to trial in January. Google wants Lee to be able to recruit software engineers and set up a research facility in China.
In approaching Google about a job last spring, Lee sent an e-mail stating, "I am currently the corporate vice president at Microsoft working on areas very related to Google," Microsoft's attorney, Jeff Johnson, said in opening remarks.
"He was saying, 'Look what I did at Microsoft and look what I can do for you,"' Johnson said.
In cross-examination later Tuesday, Johnson went over a timeline of Lee's last months with Microsoft, detailing the more than a dozen meetings Lee attended concerning Microsoft's business in China.
Attorneys for Google told Gonzalez that much of what Lee knew about the Chinese market came from his previous work experience as a doctoral student and at Apple Computer Inc., and that Microsoft was exaggerating the extent of Lee's work for Microsoft on China.
Johnson alleged that Lee -- while still on Microsoft's payroll -- went so far as to send Google a paper he had written for Microsoft about the Chinese market and that he also made recommendations to Google about other people the company might want to hire. Lee maintains that the paper he sent was edited to excise any confidential Microsoft information.
John Keker, a lawyer for Google, argued that recruiting is not a violation of the noncompete clause because it specifies only that Lee could not take part in activities that are competitive with products, services or projects he worked on at Microsoft.
The case has illuminated the behind-the-scenes bitterness between Google and Microsoft. Court documents released Friday said that Ballmer, in an obscenity-laced tirade over another employee having been hired away by the search company, threw a chair and vowed to "kill" Google.
Ballmer called the characterization of his response a "gross exaggeration."
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/education/07tutor.html
September 7, 2005
A Tutor Half a World Away, but as Close as a Keyboard
By SARITHA RAI
COCHIN, India - A few minutes before 7 on a recent morning, Greeshma Salin swiveled her chair to face the computer, slipped on her headset and said in faintly accented English, "Hello, Daniela." Seconds later she heard the response, "Hello, Greeshma."
The two chatted excitedly before Ms. Salin said, "We'll work on pronouns today." Then she typed in, "Daniela thinks that Daniela should give Daniela's horse Scarlett to Daniela's sister."
"Is this an awkward sentence?" she asked. "How can you make it better?"
Nothing unusual about this exchange except that Ms. Salin, 22, was in Cochin, a city in coastal southern India, and her student, Daniela Marinaro, 13, was at her home in Malibu, Calif.
Ms. Salin is part of a new wave of outsourcing to India: the tutoring of American students. Twice a week for a month now, Ms. Salin, who grew up speaking the Indian language Malayalam at home, has been tutoring Daniela in English grammar, comprehension and writing.
Using a simulated whiteboard on their computers, connected by the Internet, and a copy of Daniela's textbook in front of her, she guides the teenager through the intricacies of nouns, adjectives and verbs.
Daniela, an eighth grader at Malibu Middle School, said, "I get C's in English and I want to score A's," and added that she had given no thought to her tutor being 20,000 miles away, other than the situation feeling "a bit strange in the beginning."
She and her sister, Serena, 10, a fourth grader at Malibu Elementary, are just 2 of the 350 Americans enrolled in Growing Stars, an online tutoring service that is based in Fremont, Calif., but whose 38 teachers are all in Cochin. They offer tutoring in mathematics and science, and recently in English, to students in grades 3 to 12.
Five days each week, at 4:30 a.m. in Cochin, the teachers log on to their computers just as students in the United States settle down to their books and homework in the early evening.
Growing Stars is one of at least a half-dozen companies across India that are helping American children complete their homework and prepare for tests.
As in other types of outsourcing, the driving factor in "homework outsourcing," as the practice is known, is the cost. Companies like Growing Stars and Career Launcher India in New Delhi charge American students $20 an hour for personal tutoring, compared with $50 or more charged by their American counterparts.
Growing Stars pays its teachers a monthly salary of 10,000 rupees ($230), twice what they would earn in entry-level jobs at local schools.
Critics have raised concern about the quality of the instruction.
"Online tutoring is not closely regulated or monitored; there are few industry standards," said Rob Weil, deputy director at the educational issues department at the American Federation of Teachers. Quality becomes a trickier issue with overseas tutoring because monitoring is harder, said Boria Sax, director of research, development and training for the online offerings of Mercy College, based in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Growing Stars is rapidly expanding to accommodate students from the East Coast, Canada, Great Britain and Australia.
Its recruits, mostly with recent postgraduate and teaching degrees, already have deep subject knowledge. They must go through two weeks of technical, accent and cultural training that includes familiarization with the differences between British English, widely used in India, and American English.
"They learn to use 'eraser' instead of its Indian equivalent, 'rubber,' and understand that 'I need a pit stop' could mean 'I need to go to the loo,' " said Saji Philip, a software entrepreneur of Indian origin and the company's chairman and co-founder who works in New Jersey.
Still, the cultural divide is real. In Cochin, Leela Bai Nair, 48, a former teacher who has 23 years of experience and is an academic trainer for Growing Stars, said she was "floored at first when 10-year old American students addressed me as Leela. All my teaching life in India, my students addressed me as Ma'am," she said.
That same morning in Cochin, an English teacher, Anya Tharakan, 24, directed her student away from the subject of video games to concentrate on a passage from "Alice in Wonderland," enlivening the lessons with puzzles and picture games.
Ms. Tharakan, who tutors Serena Marinaro among others, said a bit of the cultural gulf was being bridged when students asked her "How big is your home?" or "Do you have friends at work?" or "Can you send me your photo?" For her part, Ms. Tharakan is learning about soccer and rap music from her students.
Thomas Marinaro, a chiropractor in Los Angeles and the father of Daniela and Serena, had been unhappy with the face-to-face tutoring he had previously arranged for his daughters at home. After three months with Growing Stars, however, Dr. Marinaro said the girls' math skills were already much improved. As a bonus, it cost a third of what he paid the home tutor.
Dr. Marinaro said that he had misgivings when he first considered enrolling his daughters for English tutoring. "I thought, how could somebody from India teach them English?" But after a few weeks of monitoring, he said he relaxed. "I want my girls to develop a good vocabulary and write better, and I believe they are learning to do that."
Biju Mathew, an Indian-born software engineer, set up Growing Stars after moving to the Silicon Valley five years ago to work for a technology start-up company. In India, he had been paying $10 a month for twice-a-week tutoring sessions for his children.
In the United States, he found, a similar service could cost $50 or more per hour. The idea of homework outsourcing was born, and the company began offering its services in January 2004.
Growing Stars has been cautious, offering its students a choice of United States- or India-based tutors for English. It charges a $10 premium above its normal $20 rate for students who choose a tutor in the United States. When parents have expressed concern over a tutor's accent, the firm has offered a change of instructor.
Other online tutoring firms in the United States adopt varied approaches. Tutor.com, for instance, uses only tutors based in North America. SmarThinking of Washington, D.C., has tutors in the United States but also has instructors in South Africa, the Philippines, India and Chile. However, only those in the United States provide English lessons.
"We haven't found any cultural divide," said SmarThinking's chief executive and co-founder, Burck Smith. Eliminating factors such as skin color, appearance, gender and accent made the Internet "more egalitarian than most classrooms," he said.
The demand for online tutoring is reflected in the firm's 50 percent growth rate in the last few years. Twenty new clients - including high schools and colleges - have signed on for tutoring beginning this fall.
Firms like Growing Stars are aggressively looking to expand their online tutoring under federal programs. This summer, for instance, Growing Stars' tutors ran a successful pilot for the Upward Bound program at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
The program, financed by the federal Department of Education, helps children of high school age get into college. With the start of the academic year this fall, Growing Stars expects to provide online tutoring in math to 80 students from Marist's Upward Bound program.
Also, the firm has just been approved as a licensed tutoring provider in California under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Currently, Growing Stars is trying to find a way for its teachers to be fingerprinted by the Department of Justice to meet legal requirements of the program.
Mr. Philip, the chairman, said his company's work would help make Americans more competitive.
"Offshore tutoring," he said, "is a step toward ensuring that we are not always beaten in competition against Japanese carmakers, Indian software firms and Chinese manufacturers."
11. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/09inter1.htm
'Democrats are not against outsourcing'
September 08, 2005 | 18:21 IST
The new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Dr Howard Dean, believes the Indian-American community should find the Democratic Party more attractive as it is not only more favourable toward immigration, but also is a more diverse and welcoming than the Republican Party.
In an exclusive interview with rediff India Abroad Managing Editor Aziz Haniffa in Houston, Texas, recently, Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said he intends to bring Indian Americans to the upper and senior echelons of the party. He also said he would continue to reach out to the idealism and activism of the younger generation of the community at the grass-roots level that constituted the core of his presidential campaign.
Dean is travelling across the country trying to rally the faithful and undecided for the Congressional election in 2006 and the Presidential election in 2008.
On foreign policy, Dean said newly transformed US-India relations in recent years had a lot to do with policies adopted by New Delhi as much or more, than actions undertaken by Washington to push the relationship forward.
On outsourcing -- where the perception persists that Democrats are vehemently against it -- Dean said the party stood for free and fair trade and found India much more palatable than China.
Why should the Indian-American community vote for the Democratic Party?
We are friendlier on immigration issues than the Republican Party. We are a truly multicultural, diverse party. We welcome everybody. We have been very, very pleased first of all, by the support we got from the Indian-American community, and secondly, we are the party that has a history of reaching out to people, instead of pushing them away.
Indian Americans will feel more comfortable in our party.
India needs energy, and the US
In terms of reaching out to the Indian-American community. What new proposals or what new initiatives or ideas have you got?
Interestingly enough, I know how your question is angled. Oddly enough, the things we can do the best for not just the Indian-American community, but for every community -- I mean, every community wants the same thing oddly enough, so the things we can do best are to make sure is one, it is easier to do well in a small business.
People from India, but immigrants in general, have a higher percentage of small business owners. We need to be the party that makes it easier to do small business and less regulation.
In this group, Indian-American doctors, we understand much better than the Republicans that one, we ought to have a form of health insurance for all Americans. It does not have to be run by the government, but it has to cover everybody and we need to make it much more simple in terms of bureaucracy which is choking doctors.
Traditionally, the majority of older Indian Americans have tended to vote Republican, including the doctors because of this perception that the Democrats have been too intrusive, too government, if you will. But the younger generation has been strongly Democratic and during your campaign you sort of generated the kind of activism and idealism that had a lot of young Indian Americans working with you. But now they are a little perplexed, they are a little confused. How will you bring them back into the fold?
Why would they be perplexed or confused?
In a sense, I guess they feel the Democratic Party has lost direction and the Karl Roves of the world have taken it away with some real Machiavellian type of political acumen.
Well, there is some of that. But in the end, honesty will trump Machiavellian politics. We still have an enormous number of young Indian Americans working at the DNC and in the Democratic Party. We want it to continue.
These are bright, extraordinary young people. You are right, many of them are American born and they will revitalise the party. The way you revitalize the party is you bring new people and the way you bring new people is to stand up for what you believe in. That is what the party needs to learn how to do.
Will you bring in people like Swadesh Chatterjee and a few other Indian American Democratic Party activists -- like Ramesh Kapur, a long-term activist -- into the fold of the Democratic Party so that people have the perception that Indian Americans are involved with the DNC at a high level, not at the sort of a gofer level?
Yes. We have. We have started to do it. We have met with key Indian Americans on the DNC and around the DNC. I will make a trip to India with high profile Indian Americans probably in the early part of next year.
These are things that are symbolic in some ways, but there will be a closer integration between us and the Indian-American community because the community has done so much for us. We will be foolish not to make sure they understand that they are welcome at the top levels of the Democratic Party.
On foreign policy, when President Bill Clinton went in March 2000 to India, there was a sort of transformation of US-India relations -- to President George W Bush's credit he has run with the ball has not dropped the ball. How do you propose to really further solidify this relationship?
What is happening now in India is more important than what the US is doing. India is transforming itself economically and transforming itself bureaucratically. The Congress party we see now in charge of India is very different than the party beaten by Hindu nationalists.
While I do certainly think that President Clinton deserves some credit for improving relations, the Indian government deserves a lot of credit for improving relations.
On outsourcing, there was a perception that the Democrats were against outsourcing and it was perceived as India-bashing in a sense. How do you feel about outsourcing?
We are not against outsourcing. But we are in favour of fair trade. Now India is not the problem.
The problem frankly is China. In India, you can join an independent trade union. You cannot do that in China.
In India there are environmental laws. Now, we prefer the environmental laws be more similar to the United States.
Trade is not the problem. The problem is fair trade. We need to have the same kinds of rules apply to protecting workers and protecting the environment in every country and not just in some and others. India is closer to the model than China is.
India is not the problem. The problem frankly is China
12. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007166
Jobs and Immigrants
America needs more, not fewer, workers from overseas.
Friday, August 26, 2005 12:01 a.m.
Political pressure for an immigration crackdown seems to be building, with allegedly serious people even debating a 2,000-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Meanwhile, in the U.S. economy, the demand for foreign workers continues, as shown by the collapse of the H-1B visa program. Since the restrictionists won't tell you about this, allow us to explain.
Each year, the U.S. issues a set number of H-1B visas to educated foreign professionals with specialized skills. Earlier this month the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program, announced that the annual H-1B cap of 65,000 already has been reached for next year. In fact, it was reached in record time, or 14 months prior to the fiscal year in which the visas would be used.
What this effectively means is that any number of fields dependent on high-skilled labor could be facing worker shortages: science, medicine, engineering, computer programming. It also means that tens of thousands of foreigners--who've graduated from U.S. universities and applied for the visas to stay here and work for American firms--will be shipped home to start companies or work for our global competitors.
Congress sets the H-1B cap and could lift it as it has done in the past for short periods. Typically, however, that's a years-long political process and cold comfort to companies that in the near term may be forced to look outside the U.S. to hire. Rather than trying to guess the number of foreign workers our economy needs year-to-year, Congress would be better off removing the cap altogether and letting the market decide.
Contrary to the assertions of many opponents of immigration, from Capitol Hill to CNN, the size of our foreign workforce is mainly determined by supply and demand, not Benedict Arnold CEOs or a corporate quest for "cheap" labor. As the nearby table shows, since the H-1B quota was first enacted in 1992 there have been several years amid a soft economy in which it hasn't been filled. When U.S. companies can find domestic workers to fill jobs, they prefer to hire them.
And let's not forget that these immigrant professionals create jobs, as the founders of Intel, Google, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Computer Associates, Yahoo and numerous other successful ventures can attest. The Public Policy Institute of California did a survey of immigrants to Silicon Valley in 2002 and found that 52% of "foreign-born scientists and engineers have been involved in founding or running a start-up company either full-time or part-time."
Moreover, the notion that Indian software writers are being hired by Microsoft at bargain-basement costs and driving down the wages of Americans is also refuted by the evidence. A Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta study conducted in 2003 found no negative impact on U.S. wages. Government fees and related expenses for hiring foreign nationals can exceed $6,000, and additional fees accrue if and when the H-1B status is renewed after three years. The law also requires companies to pay visa holders prevailing wages and benefits, and it forbids hiring them to replace striking Americans.
A central irony here is that opponents of lifting the H-1B cap also tend to be the biggest critics of outsourcing, which is fueled by the arbitrary cap. But the H-1B debate also exposes those who are giving lip service to immigration "reform" while doing nothing to fix the problem because they'd rather exploit it for political purposes. American companies don't have that luxury. They operate in the real world.
www.ZaZona.com
Support this Newsletter and ZaZona.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm
To Subscribe, Unsubscribe or to view the Archive go to:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/JobDestructionNews.htm
Back to archives