Compete American Workers: An Alliance against the Congressional influence of Compete America

If you are seeking the Compete America corporate propaganda website, click here. If you want to learn the truth behind their lies, stay at this website.

What does Compete America Represent?
Corporate Profits at the expense of U.S. workers!

Compete America - formerly known as American Business for Legal Immigration - is a front for multi-national corporations and immigration attorneys. They do not represent the interests of America, and certainly do not represent the interests of U.S. workers. For 2008 they are lobbying for an additional 300,000 H-1b visas (by "recapturing" when the 195,000 limit was not reached during the dot-com bust years of 2001-2004.)

Compete America OPPOSES reforming H-1b to require employers to first try to recruit and hire qualified Americans

[Robert Hoffman, VP for government and public affairs at Oracle (ORCL) and spokesman for Compete America] says that a requirement for U.S. companies to try to hire American workers first doesn't make sense. "To focus on that is missing the whole point of the program," he says. Hoffman says that tech companies face a shortage of skilled workers so they should have the latitude to hire talented employees, wherever they're from. "It's not either or," he says. "We will need both [American and foreign workers]." - Business Week 3/27/2007: Immigration Reform: Americans First?

Compete America OPPOSES $1200 annual H-1b fee to fund $15,000 scholarships for American students of Science and Engineering

In response to a Senate Bill that would have charged $1,200 per year for each H-1b worker - to be used to provide $15,000 annual scholarships for American college students, Oracle VP- Compete America Robert Hoffman said: "We're open to paying a little more if that's what's needed," Hoffman said. "But to more than triple the fee is ludicrous." After pressure from Compete America and others, the Senate killed the scholarship provision. - Investor's Business Daily - Europe Wants World's Brightest As America Keeps Limits Tight

Compete America's opposition to recruitment of Americans helps Indian consulting firms gain market share from U.S. consulting firms - contrary to the "competitiveness" of America

"A requirement to hire Americans first would present particular problems for Indian outsourcing companies that operate in the U.S. Wipro and Infosys Technologies are among the most active users of H-1B visas, typically to bring Indian employees to work in their U.S. operations. 'That kind of proposal may not work,' says Sridhar Ramasubbu, chief financial officer for the Americas and Europe at Wipro. 'Companies need to go and get talent wherever it is available.'" - Business Week 3/27/2007: Immigration Reform: Americans First?

Seven of the top ten H-1b users are Indian consulting firms. They boast of paying their H-1b workers 20-25% less than they would pay comparable U.S. workers

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) vice president Phiroz Vandrevala admits that his company enjoys a competitive advantage because of its extensive use of foreign workers in the United States on H-1B and L-1 visas. "Our wage per employee is 20-25 per cent less than US wages for a similar employee," Vandrevala said. "Typically, for a TCS employee with five years experience, the annual cost to the company is $60,000-70,000, while a local American employee might cost $80,000-100,000. "This (labour arbitrage) is a fact of doing work onsite. It's a fact that Indian IT companies have an advantage here and there's nothing wrong in that. The issue is that of getting workers in the US on wages far lower than the local wage rate." - Hindustan Times in September 2006

MYTH: Compete America claims here that "American workers are not adversely affected by H-1B workers."

FACT: Americans are being harmed and displaced by the H-1b Program

1) Even between 2001 and 2004 when 25% to 50% of American tech workers were losing their jobs in Silicon Valley, employers flooding in H-1b workers at a record pace.

2) The U.S. Department of Labor Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2006 - 2011, Under Performance Goal 2H, "Address worker shortages through the Foreign Labor Certification Program", states:

"H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of the foreign worker."

3) " Integrity is so lacking in America that the shortage myth serves the interests of universities, funding agencies, employers, and immigration attorneys at the expense of American students who naively pursue professions in which their prospects are dim." - Paul Craig Roberts, December 4, 2007

4) "I have personally witnessed multiple occasions of H-1b workers being hired even when qualified Americans had also applied for positions. A key factor in the hiring was that the H-1b - working through a bodyshop - was seeking a lower bill-rate." - Kim Berry, President of Programmers Guild

5) Read these Statements by Harmed U.S. workers.

FACT: Corporate America is filling tech positions with H-1B workers that work for bodyshops that substantially underpay their workers:

See: Profile of lowest-paid H-1B employers

FACT: Corporate America is forcing their U.S. workers to train H-1B workers to replace them

See: Outsourcing Outcry - how is this not "adversely affecting U.S. workers"?

FACT: Compete America member companies lay off skilled Americans while sponsoring H-1b workers with the same job title

For example, slides 21 - 23 of the Programmers Guild Sloan Foundation presentation documents how Intel was laying off American Software Engineers while filing for H-1bs for dozens of foreign Software Engineers.

FACT: Qualified Americans have pleaded with the Department of Labor to be given equal consideration for the 65,000 U.S. jobs it is holding open for foreign workers. the DOL has refused to allow Americans to be considered for these American jobs.

See: Segment on Lou Dobbs/CNN exposing this scandal

See: Press Release by Programmers Guild