Disney Fires 250 U.S. Workers, Forces Them to Train Their Foreign Replacements

PolitiChicks.comThis photo was found on the Disney career page and should probably include the disclaimer that the United States flag is purposely missing.  The reason is because Disney has reportedly fired 250 American workers and then forced them to train their foreign replacements.  I first learned about this Disney drama via social media and it seemed a likely candidate for my “bogus story of the week”– until I dug a little deeper and discovered it was, sadly, true.

The New York Times covered the story earlier this month and other news programs have picked up the shocking details. If you wonder how this could possibly be legal within U.S. laws you will be equally shocked to learn that a bill passed to help bring highly skilled workers from outside the country. The bill resulted in a new version of visa for immigrants seeking employment in the U.S. and is called H-1B.

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According to the federal guidelines, the visas were only intended to place highly skilled workers in jobs that no American workers could be found to fill. The guidelines specifically state that the visa should not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of Americans. Yet, major companies like Disney, Google, Facebook, and others have found loopholes to escape the guidelines being enforced. They have even lobbied Congress to increase the number of visas issued each year from the 85,000 currently granted, too many more.

The H-1B visas are attractive to companies because they can pay the immigrant workers a lower wage which can reportedly be anywhere from 25 percent to as much as 49 percent of what they previously paid. Some senators have taken action and written a bipartisan letter to the federal authorities in charge of immigration. The senators said that the H-1B visas were of concern because, “Their frequency seems to have increased dramatically in the past year alone.”

Other companies that have used the visas or have plans to follow the layoff and retrain immigrants include popular watch maker Fossil, which plans to replace over 100 employees with the H-1B visas. And Northeast Utilities has also laid off 350 workers and used the H-1B visas to replace many of the previous American employees.  Could YOUR job be next?

Shannon Grady

South Carolina Politichick Shannon Grady came to the staff in late 2013 with experience writing political pieces on US foreign, domestic, and education policy for SGPAction.com. Shannon has also been a guest commentator on The PonyTail Patriot BlogTalkRadio show. Shannon brings a unique perspective to European politics as she is able to cover events happening across Europe from the heart of the EU, while living in Brussels, Belgium. Her articles include original coverage of the Memorial Day events at Flanders Field, Belgium and the 70th anniversary D-Day events in Normandy, France. Shannon has a BA in History from the University of South Carolina, a Masters from Webster University, and recently finished her doctorate program at Liberty University where she focused on Educational Leadership and Administration. She currently teaches online AP courses in Macro and Micro Economics and AP US history. She is the wife of active duty Army officer LTC Matthew Grady who is currently assigned to NATO in Belgium and the mother of one rambunctious little boy. Follow Shannon on Twitter: @SGPAExPat

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