http://www.seattletimes.com/news/business/html98/immi_20000315.html


Seattle Times
Wednesday, March 15, 2000, 08:03 p.m. Pacific

WashTech calls for study of foreign-worker visas

by Sharon Pian Chan
Seattle Times business reporter

While Congress considers raising the number of foreign-worker visas
permitted each year, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers
(WashTech) wants the government to slow down.

The group, which is organizing workers in the technology industry,
called for further research before legislation reaches a vote. It said
not enough is known about workers with such visas.

WashTech's claims came as it was set to release a report today that
surveyed 1998's high-tech H-1B visa filings in the state, which
companies must file to bring in foreign workers.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service issues H-1B visas to highly
skilled foreign nationals, many of whom work for technology companies.
These employees have increasingly been in the spotlight as the
industry deals with what it says is a skilled-labor shortage.

Marcus Courtney, co-founder of WashTech, said the group's survey
attempts to shed light on the status of H-1B workers.

"What's really happening is that we're bringing in thousands of
workers into the country under a program where we cannot effectively
learn about the true conditions under which they work," Courtney said.

But Ed Lazowska, chairman of the University of Washington Department
of Computer Sciences and Engineering, said the issue still comes down
to a shortage of skilled workers.

"The bottom line is that in order to be competitive, companies are
going to have to move their businesses wherever the employees are," he
said. "We have to decide whether we want that business to be in the
U.S. or whether business needs to be outsourced."

The Washington Software Alliance, a trade organization, found in a
survey that for every eight high-tech job vacancies, there is only one
person graduating with a four-year computer-science degree from a
college in this state.

In 1998, Congress passed legislation that raised the number of H-1B
visas granted each year from 65,000 to 115,000. That quota was filled
in six months.

Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and others last month introduced the
American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (S. 2045), which
would raise the annual number of H-1B visas to 195,000.

According to WashTech, the lack of data about H-1B visa workers
currently employed in the state is alarming. Specifically, the group
said, no data has been compiled on the number of H-1B workers
employed, which makes it impossible to determine the effect of such
legislation.

For instance, when companies reported the prevailing wage for each job
classification - which each company is required to report in the H-1B
visa filings - the figure for software engineers ranged widely, from
$36,000 to $52,000 a year.

"They're supposed to be bringing in highly skilled workers in this
incredibly tight labor market and that does not match what the
industry is reporting - that these wages are for incredibly
high-paying jobs," Courtney said.

Courtney emphasized that WashTech is not opposed to bringing in
foreign workers: "This isn't about H-1B visa workers coming in and
taking Washington jobs. This is about standards that tech workers are
working under."