04.05.09
How Microsoft Harms American Workers, Taxpayers, and the Environment
No wonder Microsoft employees take shelter amidst G20 protests
Summary: Disregard for its surroundings costs Microsoft dearly in the public mind
SUFFICE TO SAY because we’ve covered the Abramoff-Microsoft story before, there is nothing wrong with workers in the west. Not only Novell is replacing them right now, but so does Microsoft (it played a major role in making it possible) and it’s covered in the business press. They are of course perfuming what they do in order to remove guilt and reduce backlash from the public.
The company’s stance has attracted heat from critics of the H-1B program, especially as Microsoft announced it would lay off some U.S. workers. But on Mar. 31, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith continued to advocate for more skilled immigration, posting a blog item outlining the company’s views on H-1B visas. “While the number of visa holders is very small compared to the U.S. workforce, their contribution is huge,” Smith wrote. “For example, last year 35% of Microsoft’s patent applications in the U.S. came from new inventions by visa and green card holders.”
Microsoft Defends the Program
“The future success of Microsoft and every other U.S. technology company depends on our ability to recruit the world’s best talent,” adds Smith. “While the vast majority of Microsoft’s U.S. workforce is American, Microsoft hires foreign workers to bring specially needed skill sets to our U.S. operations and to fill roles when qualified American workers are not available.”
Microsoft’s arguments are rebutted in the following new posting.
Labor leaders and some experts contend that the high-tech labor shortage is a myth.
“The industry claim to need H-1Bs to remedy a labor shortage is false. Their claim that the H-1Bs are ‘the best and the brightest,’ needed to keep American firms innovative, is also false in the vast majority of cases. Instead, the employers’ goal is use H-1Bs as a source of cheap labor,” writes Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at University of California, Davis, in a 2007 report.
We have shown in many prior posts, based on independent studies, that this insult to the intelligence of American people is intended only to improve the company’s bottom line. Like many other lies — including the lie about patents defending small inventors — this one is hardly challenged in the press, which usually just parrots the talking points [1, 2] of greedy executives who own this press.
In addition to that, concern for the environment is rarely a consideration to those whose aspirations align with shareholders’. According to this new reports, Microsoft sank to the bottom of ratings in Greenpeace’s books.
Greenpeace has updated their Guide to Greener Electronics and they don’t fair well for Nintendo and Microsoft, the two companies finished dead last and third to last respectively.
The mainstream press, including some broader-reach Web sites like CNN and Bloomberg, wrote about the controversy over Microsoft’s use of taxpayers’ money (bailout) to build luxurious bridges that mostly serve itself. According to the press in Seattle, a taxpayers group has just stepped in because there are other similar abuses of taxpayers' money, all courtesy of Microsoft, an international tax evader. It’s no surprise that over in London, Microsoft decided to take cover from angry mobsters who are rightly protesting.
- Microsoft advises staff to stay home during G20 protests
- Microsoft staff sent home during G20 protest
As one of the articles points out, Google’s branch in London did not need to do this. Perhaps it’s because Google, unlike Microsoft, does not have a history of abuse, fraud, and crime. █
“How many crimes are committed simply because their authors could not endure being wrong.”
–Albert Camus
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Motoko-chan said,
April 5, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Just a correction for the article above. Microsoft is not last (Nintendo is, interestingly), they are third from last.