We all knew Microsoft would not play dead after the U.S. Senate defeated a measure on June 28, 2007 raising the H-1B visa cap (for high-tech workers) from 65,000 per year to 115,000 per year as part of the comprehensive immigration bill. On July 5, 2007, Microsoft announced that they were forced to open a new
software development center in Vancouver, British Columbia in order to circumvent the "low" visa cap. (Although John Miano from the Programmers Guild has an
interesting theory that the reasons for the Vancouver office may be a bit more mundane.)
Now we learn that
Microsoft has hired SC Partners LLC to lobby the federal government on issues regarding workers on temporary visas and for those applying for green cards. You can find a link showing the Lobbying Registration disclosure form filed with the U.S. Senate on August 23, 2007 by going to the
United States Office of Public Records website, clicking on the "Date Posted" button, and filling in "08/23/2007". Note the amusing faux pas at item #9 on page 1 of the report showing that Microsoft is a Prepaid Wireless Company, an obvious carryover from a report filed the same day by SC Partners for Tracfone.
Expect a lot more stories to come out on how Microsoft,
who routinely rejects the vast majority of American-born job applicants, cannot find enough qualified Americans to fill their open positions, and how the United States educational system is in shambles because there are not enough automatons graduating from our schools and making a direct beeline to Redmond, Washington.
(Thank you, Jill, for inviting me to cross-post to your website. You can find my original post at Carrie's Nation)Labels: corporatism, Microsoft