01.28.09
Microsoft Collapse Leads to Federal Confrontation
“Did you know that there are more than 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., for just 435 representatives and 100 senators? That’s 64 lobbyists for each congressperson.”
–CIO.com
AS Microsoft grows smaller and more feeble [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], more of its products get dropped (more on that in the next post). But the other day we wrote about the fashion in which it is shrinking, namely by starting the layoffs from its home country.
Americans are unhappy. Why should they not be? After all, political corruption and string-pulling from Microsoft were used to betray the American population in order to make an extra buck (or save a few). Today we present a little update with many references to trade journals. It ought to be agreed that Microsoft operates for its own portion of the corporocracy and by little or no means to the benefit of the local population.
Americans Out, Foreigners Still In
According to this report, Americans from Boise will be losing their jobs at Microsoft.
The company would not disclose an exact number of layoffs in Boise, but sources said the local impact would be less than a dozen jobs.
What is happening elsewhere? Let’s explore.
The Seattle Times suggests that China and India are unaffected by the layoffs.
Roughly 40 percent of Microsoft’s 96,000 employees work outside the United States. The company has subsidiaries in countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. How are the layoffs announced last week impacting Microsoft’s employees around the globe?
[...]
The Economic Times, part of Indiatimes, quoted a Microsoft spokesperson in New Delhi last week saying of the layoff, “It’s not going to impact us. No job cuts in India.”
Singapore is not affected, either. Might this be related to wages and work conditions (welfare etc.)?
‘I can confirm that the number of employees affected by the immediate job eliminations is a single-digit number across Asia-Pacific, excluding China, India and Japan,’ a company spokeswoman told BizIT.
Patriotism Forfeited
Greed comes before nationality, which is perhaps natural to expect from ruthless corporations with investors, but here are some new figures of interest:
Majority of the 60,000 professionals given H-1B visa every year are from India.
“Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times,” the Senator said.
Ineed, another confrontation has begun following Gates’ lobbying, which was once backed by political corruption that his father, Gates Senior, had going with his friend and colleague Abramoff (according to Wikipedia, “[Gates Senior] also serves as a director for Costco wholesale, a bulk retail corporation”).
It was only last March that Bill Gates himself argued to Congress that the H-1B visa limits needed to be lifted, because Microsoft just couldn’t get enough skilled workers. But Microsoft was going through a crazy manic phase back then, as evidenced by its Yahoo infatuation. Now that Microsoft needs fewer skilled workers, should the H-1Bs get the ax first?
This manipulation in Washington is something we will definitely revisit in the future. “Microsoft people seem already to have infiltrated every company and organization that could oppose them,” said one of our readers, further adding that “a while back [she] had collected some links about Bill Gates’ dad and how much power his law firm has. [...] it was from news releases about the Gates law firm buying up other law firms to the point where they now have offices nationwide.” She said she believes that’s where the real power behind Microsoft comes from.
“This manipulation in Washington is something we will definitely revisit in the future.”For the curious: “About the two Firms JAG worked for: – - The firm of William H. Gates Sr., father of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, merged with Preston in 1990. The later old line Seattle firm started when Harold Preston relocated to Seattle from Iowa in 1883 and began practicing law. Jim Ellis joined Preston in 1949. Members of JAG were registered lobbyists for Microsoft. During the 90′s PGE became a Top 10 lobbying Firm based on lobbying gross revenue. Much of their lobbying success and revenue was due to the success of JAG.”
The exploration here is seemingly endless and we had a go at it before. The latest complaint from the senator is also covered in:
- Microsoft Job Cuts, Visas Questioned by Senator
- Senator Wants Microsoft Job Cuts to Target Foreigners
- Senator Quizzes Microsoft On Layoffs
- Senator Questions Microsoft’s H-1B Plans
He must be complaining because of reversal in plans that involved an Iowa datacentre. According to new figures, Microsoft keeps falling further behind Google (ignore bogus studies that Microsoft commissions).
With 2008 behind us, I wanted to look back and plot how search engine market share changed over the year in the United States. No surprises here. Pick your numbers, Google grew and grew. Yahoo and Microsoft dropped by lately have leveled off.
Worse Than Microsoft Tells
As pointed out some days ago, the scale of the layoffs is worse than initially reported and more are likely on their way. According to this article, Microsoft refuses to give accurate details.
Microsoft won’t disclose full extent of job cuts
So, in short, we’re not going to be getting much more info from Microsoft. We do have to say though, considering all the nice, helpful people that have recently lost their gigs, that last sentence is pretty icy.
There are additional bad signs in the following news items:
- A jittery ride for Microsoft workers
- Microsoft tightens its belt further
- Layoffs Slice Into Microsoft’s Gaming Operations
This begs the question, just how serious is it and how serious will this get? Microsoft’s refusal to boil down to specifics may be an indication that little or none of it has been finalised or thought through, yet. █
mpz said,
January 28, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Well, should they be racist and xenophobic and sack only foreigners?
The H1B system is good for the USA in a big way, although it has probably been somewhat abused by MS, but still, what sort of country do you want to live in? Not to mention, if the USA wants to impose it’s free-trade mantra on the rest of the world, it has to accept the free trade of labour as well.
It is obvious the lay-offs were merely a token measure to try to satisfy the market (which it did badly), and it seems the layoffs were spread across all sorts of areas and nationalities at that. It just seemed to be about making up an arbitrary ‘savings’ number. If the comments on minimsft are to be believed, they were hardly trimming the fat, nor streamlining the business. The whole process seems to have been most completely ballmered up.
twitter said,
January 28, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Treating all your employees equally is not an exercise in xenophobia or racism, brain draining the developing world for cheap labor might be. The H1B program is a poor substitute for immigration and a raw deal for both foreign and domestic workers. Don’t try to pretend it’s an exercise in free labor when the labor is paid less than prevailing wages and can be exiled at any time by the employer. It is an outrage for M$ to import cheap foreign labor when there’s a glut of qualified people right here, but that’s what they have been doing for years.
There’s a clear point being made here – The economics of non free software can only be sustained by actual slavery.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 28, 2009 at 7:01 pm
it’s akin to wage slavery and it’s similar to the offences that had Caterpillar brought to an international court.
Without going too deep into historical references, let it be clear that many companies seek to employ cheaper labour in countries where work is mundanely requiring longer hours. It is sometimes used as a form of ransom so ‘pampered’ western employees will accept abuse, lose their right to organise, and see their wages and welfare degrade. That’s one of the dangers or trade agreements and even globalisation; it gives more power for large corporations (aka “private tyrannies”) to drive down conditions/benefits while stripping off basic rights.
Other examples include car makers opening factories in places like Poland, not to mention the use of a temporary workforce and the practice of sweat shops.