With competitive pressures rising and profit margins shrinking, and an international labor pool to pick from, companies are doing what they have always done since the dawn of capitalism -- screw workers, pit them against each other, and force salaries to the lowest possible level. Forget seniority. Forget promises of "no layoffs". Forget the "we're family here" attitudes. Forget the fact that being over forty and being laid off in today's computer job market for many people is being consigned to the employment phantom zone. Companies do what their shareholders and Wall Street analysts and directors and venture capitalists expect them to do -- they dump workers, and cut salaries and benefits, and take advantage of tremendous poverty in other countries. Blaming the problem on "cheap foreign labor", as does CFVR, points in the wrong direction, and offers no solution. We need to be clear about this. COMPANIES LAYOFF PEOPLE AND CUT SALARIES. WORKERS DON'T.

SETTING OUR SIGHTS

Rather than targeting the visa program, we should be targeting the companies that take advantage of it and removing whatever incentive exists for importing labor whenever that labor is readily available locally. How? If companies use visa workers, those workers should be paid at the same level as U.S. programmers, with the same benefits. Commissions to the placement firms should be on top of the scale salaries that the contract employees get. Severe penalties should be levied against companies that abuse contract employees, or that use contracting houses that abuse their contractors. Foreigners of uncertain position in a strange land are easy targets of ill-treatment and low-wages. (See, e.g., CPU.007 for complaints against Hewlett-Packard in its use of overseas contractors). Rather than making foreigners scapegoats, we need to revive the spirit of "an injury to one is an injury to all", and consider them as fellow-workers.

Workers at companies that are moving operations overseas need to think strategically and internationally. Can pressure be brought to bear on the companies to insure that workers overseas receive the same pay and benefits?

And if the problem in fact is not enough jobs being created by private industry in this country, no amount of visa reform will fix that. Instead, we need to consider public sector employment as the answer. We could put unemployed engineers to work in raising the overall level of computer literacy in this country, extending the Internet to every community center and school, or whatever (E.g., something like the proposed U.S. Tech Corps. (see below), except with pay).

California Governor Pete Wilson has targeted immigrant workers as the root cause of California's problems (along with welfare mothers), and is whipping up anti-immigrant hysteria in his 1994 re-election bid. The CFVR position is an adjunct to that motion, directed at the technical professions.

[Thanks to kinnaman@tenet.edu for tipping CPU to this.] 4. PISS-POT: CONTRACTOR REFUSES H-P TEST AND LOSES JOB

by Evelyn Pine, <evy@well.sf.ca.us>

On May 17, Bill Knutson, a freelance technical writer, was asked by the employment agency which had just hired him to do an eight week technical stint for Hewlett Packard, to take a drug test. Knutson, who has worked for Apple, Sun, Unisys, Novell, Convergent and a number of other companies, refused. He lost the contract.

The testing requirement had nothing to do with Knutson's past performance on three previous contracts with H-P. He is a victim of a new policy instituted by H-P at the first of this year: All new hires and temporaries must be take a urine drug test.

Knutson's plight is the convergence of anti-drug hysteria, the corporate herd instinct and a deep disrepect for workers. Knutson initially presumed that the policy of drug testing was demanded by the federal government. But Mark Kelly, the H-P staffer who created the policy, told Knutson, it was the result of perceived pressure from other private companies who wouldn't contract with H-P unless H-P could guarantee their employees were drug free. Hewlett Packard is one of the last of the Fortune 100 companies to implement drug testing.

At this point, Hewlett Packard is hiring very few new people, mostly temporaries who receive no health insurance or other benefits and have no job security. H-P won't contract technical writers directly, but only through employment agencies, who take part of the writer's fee -- and administer the test for the company. According to Knutson, H-P and other companies perceive drug use as a "blue collar problem," but feel that have to test everybody or risk suit. Of course they don't REALLY test everybody. At H-P, technical writers are hired as outside services through an internal job center which requires urine testing. Accountants, auditors, and lawyers are hired by a different process and are exempt from the test. It is unlikely that the H-P board pissed in a bottle before okaying layoffs and reorganizations that cost jobs.

The fallout of Knutson's case, discussed at length on the WELL and UseNet, has included supportive email, letters of complaint to H-P, an Associated Press story about the incident and a hardcore group of contractors who have determined that they won't work for H-P.

Meanwhile, Knutson, who is getting married in September, is still looking for work. He can be reached at wknutson@well.sf.ca.us.

[The following was posted recently by an ex-IBM worker. His name has been withheld by request. Here's a trench-level view of Robert Reich's et al pitch that education and training is the solution to the crisis in post-industrial job creation.]

I've had plenty of discouragement in trying to collect unemployment benefits after being recently laid off.

I was one of a the thousands of workers laid off by IBM in New York in March of 1994.

The New York State Department of Labor (DOL) explains that unemployment benefits are only available to people who are currently seeking a job. Having decided to go back to school full time for 2 to 3 years to make a big career change, I am not actively seeking work, and therefore I am not eligible to receive unemployment benefits.

The DOL allows applicants to submit a "form 599" which, if accepted by them, provides for the payment of unemployment benefits to *some* people who are not currently seeking work because they are instead going to school.

To qualify for "599 status", you must be taking at least 12 credits in school, or have at least 12 classroom hours per week. You can't get by with saying, "I'm a slow learner - to me 9 credits is a full-time load." You can't say, "I'm taking only 9 credits because I'd like to get A's in school, rather than B's and C's." You can't say, "I'm taking only 9 credits because I have to juggle my education with taking care of the baby [or other personal responsibilities]." You can't explain to them that some educational programs involve just a few classroom hours or confer just a few academic credits, but nevertheless require a large amount of homework projects and study time.

To qualify for 599, you must be in a program which has a specific ending date or graduation date, and you must prove that the projected completion will be within two years. You can't be in a 3- or 4-year program. You can't be giving yourself a flexible schedule, such as allowing the total number of classes per semester to depend on how difficult the program proves to be after you get into it.

(I see no logical reason for their concern about "years", since unemployment benefits are only paid for a maximum of 25 weeks in any case.)

If your educational objective is a career change, they will sometimes reject the 599 application because you merely WANT to make a career change. They may only give you 599 status if you can convince them that labor market conditions are FORCING you to make a career change. You can't simply say, "I'm changing careers because I hated my previous occupation, and I'd rather kill myself than do that kind of work again."

One very frustrating thing is that the DOL representatives give us plenty of disinformation, as though they believe they are talking to idiots. For example, they don't even admit that the limit of their power over us is that they can deny us the unemployment checks we are requesting. Instead, they tell us things like, "It's illegal for an unemployed person to go to school without the permission of the DOL." To get any information from their office, one always has to sort out the facts from the falsehoods.

Suppose you *do* get 599 status, but you're registered for classes which will begin in a couple weeks, or suppose you're on a two- week vacation between class sessions. In that case, the DOL requires you to be searching every day for employment which is to last for the next couple weeks. You can't explain to them that it makes no sense to take a job which you will have to quit in two weeks. I told them that, and their representative told me, "If you do get such a job, you couldn't quit it anyway. It's illegal for a person to quit a job in order to go to school." (More disinformation, of course.)

Then there's a program called ETI (Educational Training Institute). ETI is a private company which has won the bid for a federal contract to distribute public money for the retraining of unemployed people. It would be nice if they would help pay some of my tuition, but their requirements are even more restrictive than the DOL's requirements. Whereas DOL requires you to demonstrate that you expect to graduate from school within 2 years, ETI requires that people who are laid off from work anytime in 1994 must show that they can graduate from school by the end of 1995. Some people manage to get ETI tuition assistance by modifying their educational objectives, like one person who was forced to drop a registered nursing program and switch to a practical nursing program. Many other people have no way to complete their education within the short time required even if they do adjust their objectives.

The IBM Corporation has been getting lots of good press extolling it's supposed philanthropy in "helping" the people it has laid off. Once again, there are severe restrictions for receiving this assistance. For example, the individuals who lost their jobs in March have access to a free resume-printing service - available only until June of the same year. Since an outdated resume should never be used, this offer is of no value to those who will be going back to school before they start their job-hunting, or those who haven't had enough time even to decide on what new careers they want to go into. The company is also offering to pay the workers laid off in March of 1994 up to $2500 (taxable) for school tuition reimbursement, but all bills must be submitted to them by August of 1995.

Is anyone being fooled by this facade of generous reforms? All these bureaucratic agencies, corporate as well as government, seem insistent on "helping" unemployed people in ways that are so restrictive that their "help" is often rendered useless.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 1994 17:48:25 -0400
From: LEE19@DELPHI.COM
Subject: LOOKING FOR IBM WORKERS/UNIONISTS

> My name is Lee Conrad and I'm the national organizer of IBM
> Workers United in the United States. As the IBM company
> continues to fire thousands of employees and reduces our
> standard of living, it is imperative that IBM workers organize
> to protect our self interests.
>
> We have managed to bring together IBM workers from 13 countries
> and have held 6 International conferences. The name of this
> group is IBM Workers International Solidarity. Our first meeting
> was held in Tokyo in 1984. We have many contacts in Europe. We
> need to locate and know more about IBM workers and working
> conditions in Central and South America, as well as Australia.
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.

(Lee also does the IBM Workers United newsletter, _Resistor_. 
Issue #42 features Lou Gerstner's new office furniture. Write Lee 
at the above email address or c/o IBM Workers United, P.O. Box 
634, Johnson City, NY 13789).

-------------------------------------------------------------- 
Date: June 1994
From: Elisabeth Freeman and Susanne Hupfer, Yale University
Subject: THE OPENING OF TAP:  THE ADA PROJECT AT YALE

> The Ada Project (TAP) is a WorldWideWeb (WWW) site designed to
> serve as a clearinghouse for information and resources relating
> to women in computing.  The WWW is growing at incredible speed,
> and is already host to a wealth of scattered information on
> women in computing.  The goal of TAP is to provide a central
> location through which these resources can be "tapped."  TAP
> includes information on conferences, projects, discussion groups
> and organizations, fellowships and grants, notable women in
> Computer Science, and other electronically accessible
> information sites.  TAP also maintains a substantive
> bibliography of references.
>
> TAP serves primarily as a collection of links to other online
> resources, rather than as an archive.  We hope that you, the TAP
> user community, will help us keep TAP as up-to-date as possible.
>  We also welcome your comments and feedback regarding use of the
> site.  TAP pages include "submission" and "feedback" icons to
> aid in the sending of information and comments.
>
> To access TAP, use Mosaic (or another graphical or textual WWW
> viewer) to open the URL:
>
> http://www.cs.yale.edu/HTML/YALE/CS/HyPlans/tap/tap.html

-------------------------------------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 00:35:37 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: RSI Network Newsletter

Consider joining the RSI Network Newsletter. It is a free 
publication, distributed over Internet once every two months, with 
occasional supplements. Since it is a moderated list, the traffic 
amounts to about 20K/month on average.

The RSI Network Newsletter covers all topics of interest to people 
with arm, hand, wrist, shoulder injuries from typing, or people 
who have to cope with computers even though they have an injury of 
this sort.

Getting On the List:

Send a mail message to:

majordomo@world.std.com

The Subject doesn't matter. Put this into the body of your
message just as it appears here:

subscribe rsi

Issue 18 came out in June. The first issue appeared June of '91. 
Topics covered have included: How To Earn A Living, Surgery, Wrist 
Rests or Forearm Supports?, Voice Recognition & Word Prediction, 
Status of RSI Lawsuits, Product Reviews, as well as lists of 
support groups and sections covering member letters, reading, 
resources, hardware and software.

-------------------------------------------------------------- 
This was pulled off of the LABOR-L list. To subscribe to LABOR-L 
send the message SUBSCRIBE LABOR-L   to 
listserv@VM1.YORKU.CA -- Ed.)
From: Rich Rose
Subject: INTERNET RESOURCES FOR LABOR REPORTING

Rich Rose is a student at American University developing a guide 
to Internet resources pertaining to labor. The unfinished list is 
intended for labor reporters but, hopefully, others will find it 
useful. The list notes where the ftp server for the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics resides (stats.bls.gov), where to find employment 
figures (telnet infopath.ucsd.edu, gopher una.hh.lib.umich.edu/EBB 
or gopher econwpa.wustl.edu /labor) as well as items on labor 
legislation and worker safety. Write him at 
rr9671a@newssrv.soc.american.edu if you would like the list, have 
comments or items to add.

-------------------------------------------------------------- 
Date: June 16, 1994
From: Gary Beach, Publisher, Computerworld
Subject: REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: U.S. TECH CORPS

> Anyone who has written code, maintained a network, or planned a
> company information system knows that implementation is
> everything. Surprisingly, so do thousands of U.S. school
> teachers and administrators.
>
> Throughout the U.S., our schools say that a shortage of
> technical talent is their largest obstacle in moving the
> "information superhighway" from vision to reality. Their tight
> budgets and a dire shortage of technical skills stand in the way
> of implementing technology where it is most needed: the local
> classroom.
>
> A solution may be in sight.
>
> Computerworld, the national newspaper of information systems
> management, is working jointly with the White House Office of
> Science and Technology to develop the U.S. Tech Corp.
>
> Modeled on the U.S. Peace Corps, the U.S. Tech Corps will rally
> the talents and skills of more than 1.9 million computer
> professionals to assist public schools in planning and
> implementing information technology. Through contributions of
> their time and expertise, these volunteers will play an integral
> and crucial role in building local roads to the national
> information superhighway. Even an hour a week of discussion and
> planning can help your local school.
>
> The U.S. Tech Corps will be operated with assistance from the
> White House, the National Education Association, and the
> National Association of School Administrators. Volunteers will
> receive a U.S. Tech Corps certificate signed by the President,
> as well as local recognition. Of course, the greatest reward may
> be the satisfaction gained from contributing your valuable
> skills to the future of our school children.
>
> [Action Items: What else is needed? Do you think that your
> fellow computer professionals will respond favorably or
> unfavorably to this proposal? How might the U.S. Tech Corp be
> made to work?]
>
> Comments to ustech@cw.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------- 
From: mjvande@pbhye.pacbell.com
Subject: "Snake Oil in a Computer -- The Pseudo-science of 
Transportation
Modeling"

Write Michael J. Vandeman if you are interested in modeling and 
statistics being used to obtain specious ends. Michael writes: 
"The issue is programmers being involved (or used) in dishonest 
projects that use computer programs to 'prove' convenient lies." 
He has written on transport, exposing the faulty reasoning and 
statistics used in justifying the expansion of transportation 
systems.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 10:42:27 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dave Kinnaman 
Subject: JOB LISTING SERVICE TO BEGIN

> We are Allen Davis & Associates, National Technical Search, a
> company dedicated to using available technologies to provide
> more options to individuals either actively conducting job
> searches or just keeping their eyes on the job market. We
> provide descriptions of over 100 new software and IS jobs
> weekly. We have been posting the listings on our own bbs for
> just under two years and recently have made them available for
> anonymous ftp.
>
> If you prefer to access our listings via anonymous ftp, you can
> find them at ftp.netcom.com in the directory /pub/adassoc.
>
> If you would like to see the last ten weeks of listings, you can
> retrieve hotline.txt/zip/exe from our bbs at 413-549-8136 (to
> 14,400 bps) N-8-1 (ANSI/BBS terminal emulation). Our bbs also
> has a library of career resourses.
>
> You can reach us by fax at 413-549-7542 or by phone at
> 413-549-7440 or ericdavis@delphi.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: ACCESS TO ONLINE CAREER CENTER

[Forty U.S. corporations have formed a non-profit employer 
association to recruit individuals.  We'd be interested in hearing 
people's experience using this or any of the services listed here 
-- Eds]

> IF YOU HAVE INTERNET ACCESS, following are several options for
> accessing Online Career Center (OCC).
>
> 1) VIA GOPHER - The gopher address is: gopher.msen.com
>
> >NOTE: ***** DO NOT "TELNET" TO THIS ADDRESS *****  You will NOT
> be asked for a password. If the password prompt appears, you
> have probably tried to "telnet" to this address instead of
> reaching it via "gopher".
>
> 2) VIA GOPHER - [If you have a gopher menu]  Select: "All Gopher
> Servers In The World"  ["Online Career Center" appears on the
> gopher menu.] Type: / Type: Online Career Center [RETURN]
>
> 3) VIA TELNET - Telnet to: gopher.msu.edu
>
> Login: gopher [RETURN] Select: #2--More About Gopher [RETURN]
> Select: #11--Other Gopher Servers [RETURN] Select: #1--All
> Gopher Servers...[RETURN] Type: / Type: Online Career Center
> [RETURN]
>
> 4) VIA WORLD WIDE WEB (NCSA MOSAIC)
>
> Select "Open" from the "File" menu URL To Open: gopher
> ://gopher.msen.com

--------------------------------------------------------------
From:  THE COMPUTISTS' COMMUNIQUE, Vol. 4, No. 26
Date: June 30, 1994
Subject: Job Services

> The Employment BBS List can be obtained from George Smith
> (employ@execon.metronet.com), 214-306-3393, or on Fido
> 1:124/9032 under the name employ. The list includes independent,
> recruiter, state, and federal BBSs. An update is planned for
> 7/1/94. [George.Smith@metronet.com, m.j.o.entry, 6/25/94.]
>
> The new OPTIMIST mailing list is for software-industry job
> postings. Send a "subscribe optimist-l" message to
> listserv@netcom.com. Optimum Executive Search
> (optimum@netcom.com), (415) 703-9000, (415) 703-9191 Fax.
> [su.jobs, 6/17/94.]

(Write Ken Laws at laws@ai.sri.com if you would like to know more about TCC -- Eds.)

DIGITAL WORKERS RESPOND: DIGITAL EQUIPMENT reported a $1.75 billion loss for its fourth quarter, including a $1.2 billion charge to cover the elimination of 20,000 jobs. 9,200 jobs were cut in the fourth quarter, the largest quarterly decrease in its history. In CPU.010, we noted that DEC's goal was 85,000 workers, half of its workforce in 1989. Now, the goal is 65,000 workers by the time the "restructuring" is complete, and to have 77,800 by the end of 1994 (_New York Times_, 7/27/94). The _Wall Street Journal_ (7/15/94, 7/19/94) notes that Digital has decided to speed up cuts so that rather than take two years, as previously announced, the layoffs are instead to be completed by this time next year.

Digital also earned special mention (_WSJ_, 7/17/94) because they're the brunt of a little seen phenomeon in the computer industry -- labor protest. "In Italy on May 19, a one day protest against planned layoffs kept about 80% of Digital's employees away from work... To Digital's job-cutting and reorganization plans, workers responded, 'No Grazie!!' In France, after a partial one- day strike in May, a court is scheduled to rule soon on a union lawsuit seeking to block Digital's planned layoffs there", the list goes on with walkouts and demonstrations at German and Swiss Digital offices. Work-stoppages have also taken place at OLIVETTI, BULL and IBM.

"'Traditionally, this branch of industry isn't unionized,' says Bert Thierron, secretary-general of the European Metalworkers Federation. In the past, he says, the industry was prosperous, grew quickly, paid well, and offered good working conditions. 'Now with the recession, workers understand all isn't possible -- and they want protection.'"

Estimates have 30% of the computer industry unionized, up from 20% a few years ago. Digital's European Workers Council is seeking recognition by Digital as the legal representative of all the company's European workers. They want Digital to consider alternatives to layoffs, such as job-sharing, or spinning off some groups of employees as independent contractors.

THE FAWNING OF THE AGE OF MICROSOFT: _Newsweek_ recently went gaga over MICROSOFT in a recent feature story (7/11/94), while at the same time providing some um interesting insights into industry workplace trends. "Microsoft is not a job; its' a way of life." says the head of the Chicago project. According to the story, Steve Ballmer -- Gate's No. 2 -- once had it that "[t]he trouble with this place is too many wives, women and girlfriends" while prowling the halls on Sundays to see who was at work. The article notes a tension between the new recruits and the older generation now aging, getting married, having kids and "getting lives."

The average age at Microsoft is 31, but Bill wants them younger. Half are hired right out of college. Gates would like it to be 80 percent. "Young people are more willing to learn, come up with new ideas," he says. According to the _Newsweek_ reporter: "After all, when pushing the frontiers of technology, going where no one has gone before, experience doesn't count for a lot."

Isn't it rather that Bill is thinking along the lines of the old Jesuit adage, "Give us the youth and we'll shape the man[sic]"... and they're cheaper?

CUTS AT NOVELL?: "Insiders say 1,000 to 1,500 jobs, as much as 15% of Novell's workforce, could be cut in the next few weeks," according to a recent _Business Week_ (8/8/94). WORDPERFECT, recently acquired by Novell, is expected to bear the brunt of the cuts. The articles describes WordPerfect as "notoriously bloated," with sales per employee (a common metric for measuring productivity) at $128,000, where Novell is up at $269,000. (Microsoft has $279,000 in sales per employee; Adobe leads the list at $313,000 per employee. Others: Borland, $226k; Autodesk, $226k; Louts, $221k; Symantec, $219k; Intuit, $204k; Aldus, $189k.) Novell is being seriously squeezed by Microsoft.

PAY: According to the Commerce Department, earnings for male computer programmers have risen 12% since 1990, vs. 6% for all male workers. Pay for female programmers is up 21%, vs. 13% for all women. Did you get your raise? (_BW_ 1994 Bonus Issue)

DON'T ASK! About 100 employees of the ASK company, most of them with ASK's INGRES subsidiary, have quit because of the human resource policies of COMPUTER ASSOCIATES, which recently acquired ASK. Computer Associates has refused to continue ASK's policy of extending benefits to unmarried domestic partners, including those of gay or lesbian employees (_NYT_, 7/1/94).

TELECOM: The Council of Economic Advisors released a White Paper June 14 predicting the economy could grow by an extra $100 billion over the next decade if the Clinton administration's proposed telecommunications legislation is adopted. CEA estimated 500,000 new jobs would by created by 1996, and employment in the telecommunications and information sector could increase from 3.6 million to 5 million workers by the end of the next decade (BNA Daily Report for Executives 6/15/94)... But, though new telecom businesses are flourishing in the metropolitan New York area, as converging technologies and loosening regulations combine to encourage entrepreneurial efforts, economists are skeptical that the new small-scale ventures can generate enough jobs to replace those lost by downsizing by the telephone industry. (_NYT_ 7/5/94)

_TELECOM DIGEST_ (7/22/94) gives the other side of SPRINT's recent closing of a San Francisco subsidiary, LA CONEXION FAMILIAR. 177 workers were set to vote on unionizing in a National Labor Relations Board election. The Communications Workers of America have charged that the closing was illegal and are seeking an injunction that will re-open the office. According to a CWA filing with the National Labor Relations Board, "Sprint abruptly closed the office on July 14 to retaliate against the workers for seeking to organize ...and to block what portended to be the first successful unionization campaign so far at the aggressively anti- union long distance company... While Sprint claimed that it closed the operation for economic reasons, this past March the company general manager told the _San Francisco Chronicle_ that La Conexion had been growing as much as 20% a month for the past two years and that he projected a tripling of annual revenues by 1996..."

[Thanks to the Red Rock Eater list, and to EDUPAGE for some of these items. Edupage is a thrice-weekly update of computer and telecom news. To receive EDUPAGE, send the message "sub edupage " to listproc@educom.edu.]

Now that _Wired_ is out, it's cool to be into tech stuff. But that wasn't always the case! In the interest of preserving a bit of social history, and "lest we forget":

A computer programmer happens across a frog in the road. The frog pipes up, "I'm really a beautiful princess and if you kiss me, I'll stay with you for a week". The programmer shrugs his shoulders and puts the frog in his pocket.

A few minutes later, the frog says "OK, OK, if you kiss me, I'll give you great sex for a week". The programmer nods and puts the frog back in his pocket.

A few minutes later, "Turn me back into a princess and I'll give you great sex for a whole year!". The programmer smiles and walks on.

Finally, the frog says, "What's wrong with you? I've promised you great sex for a year from a beautiful princess and you won't even kiss a frog?"

"I'm a programmer," he replies. "I don't have time for sex.... But a talking frog is pretty neat."

[For all we know, this could be really old news. When we asked our source where this came he replied: "Don't know where it came from. Came to me from our human resources crowd. Must be really dead on the net if it came by that route."]

Workplace Index	CPSR home page	E-mail webmaster

Web pages edited by Dave Williams
Last Updated: Thur 4 April 1996 10:20 PST