Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/business/20000805/t000073200.html


Saturday, August 5, 2000

Alliance Fights Boost in Visas for Tech Workers
Labor: Black professional and civil rights groups say the high-tech
industry isn't doing enough to recruit domestically.

By JUBE SHIVER JR., Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON--After a string of legislative victories that made it
the envy of Washington, the powerful high-tech industry is facing its
first significant opposition on Capitol Hill.
Black professional and civil rights groups are campaigning this
summer against an industry measure that until now has seemed
politically unassailable: visas for more foreign workers to fill the
mushrooming number of U.S. high-tech jobs being created by the booming
Internet economy.
The Urban League, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon
Valley and representatives of historically black colleges have told
lawmakers that lucrative computer programming and network engineering
jobs should be going to Americans. They say the industry isn't doing
enough to reach out to technically trained graduates of black colleges
or older technical professionals.
The groups have written to more than 200 lawmakers and mounted an
intensive advertising and lobbying campaign in an effort to head off
an industry proposal to nearly double the number of visas for foreign
workers to 200,000 a year.
"This bill is a very bad idea," wrote John Templeton of the
coalition, an Oakland group seeking to promote greater workplace
diversity in Silicon Valley, in a letter to Congress. "A better idea
would be to actively recruit and hire talent right here at home."
Their activity has galvanized the bill's traditional
opponents--labor, the U.S. chapter of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers and groups such as the Immigration Reform
Coalition.
And those raising the issue think they are gaining traction in
Congress, despite a multimillion-dollar effort by Silicon Valley to
fill congressional campaign coffers.
"Groups like the Urban League and others have really raised
legitimate issues" about discrimination, said Paul Kostek, past
president of the U.S. chapter of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers. "We really have a chance this time of getting
some reforms."
The dispute pits Silicon Valley's economic success against the
potentially explosive politics of racial discrimination, immigration
policy and workplace protectionism. While the minority groups'
coalition has an uphill fight against a high-tech industry armed with
lobbyists and millions of dollars, the groups have so far delayed
congressional action on any increase in the ceiling on the special
three-year visas for skilled foreign workers. And when Congress takes
up the measure again, which could come as soon as next month, some
observers think lawmakers could impose rules requiring high-tech
companies to recruit and train more minorities.
"As long as we have unemployment in minority communities and
people looking for jobs, there would be opposition and resistance to
importing workers from other countries," said Rep. Maxine Waters
(D-Los Angeles).
The law permitting up to 115,000 so-called H1B visas for skilled
foreign workers is set to expire Oct. 1, so high-tech companies have
been pushing hard for new legislation, arguing that it is necessary to
alleviate labor shortages in their industry.
Industry officials say they are eager to hire Americans but that
the number of U.S. workers with technical skills isn't large enough to
fill all the job vacancies.
"This is not about getting cheap labor for entry-level jobs,"
said Chuck Malloy, a spokesman for computer chip maker Intel Corp.
"This is not the kind of job shortage that can be solved by retraining
somebody at Ford Motor Co. who will go off and design microprocessors
with 25,000 transistors. These are jobs that require high skill sets."
Countered John Williams of the Fair Employment Coalition: "The
high-tech industry is making little or no effort to recruit
minorities." While other industries are having to retrain people and
even recruit ex-prisoners to cope with a tight U.S. job market, "the
high-tech industry is getting a pass," he said.
The trigger for the high-tech jobs controversy is legislation
introduced last winter by Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and David
Dreier (R-San Dimas) with bipartisan backing from House Minority
Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Majority Leader Dick Armey
(R-Texas).
Besides raising immigration caps, the bill would institute
reforms at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to clear up the
backlog of applications for permanent visas, and increase H1B visa
fees to raise money for education and training of U.S. workers and
students. A similar measure, sponsored by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
and Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), is pending in the Senate.
In an interview, Lofgren lamented the stiff opposition the
legislation has faced this year, blaming the slow progress on
"election year politics." But she has seen no evidence to support
critics' contention that the high-tech community is discriminating or
isn't doing enough to recruit domestically to fill high-tech job
openings.
"If there is an instance of discrimination, well, that's wrong
and something should be done about it," Lofgren said. "But
unemployment is under 2% in Silicon Valley. It's hard to imagine there
is some large group of people around that aren't able to get
[high-tech] jobs."
Indeed, there is little dispute that a shortage of skilled tech
workers exists.
While the number of U.S. college graduates with technical degrees
is falling, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts that the
nation will need 1.7 million computer technicians during the decade
ending in 2008. H1B visa requests have come at such a pace that by
April the INS had already reached its visa limit and closed the
application process for the year.
Still, many politicians argue that the nation should do more
domestically to recruit and train workers.
Retired Gen. Colin Powell stressed the need for increased
training of American students to meet the nation's high-tech needs in
his speech to the Republican National Convention this week. And
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner, a Democrat, has been
championing a program he set up to put the state's booming high-tech
community in closer contact with students at Hampton University and
Virginia's four other historically black colleges.
Since 1997, the Virginia High Tech Partnership program has placed
140 black students at 75 high-tech firms, including America Online
Inc., IBM Corp. and scores of smaller start-ups, says Scott Price,
executive director of the program.
"I think the partnership is really having an impact [by] helping
high-tech corporations identify a new work force pipeline," said B.
Keith Fulton, executive director of corporate relations for America
Online.
But with the nation's 105 historically black colleges
concentrated in the South, critics charge that Silicon Valley makes
little effort to recruit blacks and in some cases overtly
discriminates against minority job applicants.
In October, the National Academy of Sciences is expected to
announce the results of its study on the long-term employment needs of
the high-tech sector. Advocates for more hiring of black Americans
believe the study will show that the industry has been exaggerating
the shortfall of workers, and will argue that any gaps can be overcome
with more aggressive hiring at home.
In a statement sent to congressional leaders a few weeks ago,
National Urban League President Hugh B. Price urged Congress to "hold
off on another expansion of the H1B special visas program" until the
report is made public.
Meanwhile, critics note that the Labor Department has already
confirmed discrimination in hiring in Silicon Valley.
In an examination of Silicon Valley companies over the last three
years, the Labor Department found that 13 of 85 high-tech firms
discriminated against minorities or women. The study also found that
two dozen of the companies, which as federal contractors must develop
minority recruitment plans, had failed to do so. "Clearly there's work
to be done to ensure that African Americans have fair access to the
lucrative high-tech labor market," Price said.
One company, San Jose-based Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. was
ordered to pay $213,200 in back wages and other penalties after
denying technical jobs to five Latino applicants whom the Labor
Department determined were qualified for the positions.
A spokesman for S3 Inc., a Santa Clara-based company that bought
Diamond last year, declined to comment on the case but said Diamond's
work force has been "greatly diversified and integrated" since being
acquired by S3.
Still, critics have an uphill battle. Congress, which has
approved a string of high-tech initiatives ranging from easing
encryption export rules to protecting Silicon Valley against Y2K
litigation, has been very receptive to high-tech's H1B visa campaign.
Two years ago, anti-immigration Republicans and unions stalled but
failed to derail a measure that increased from 65,000 to 115,000 the
number of temporary visas granted to foreign high-tech workers.


* * *

Where the U.S. Is Getting
High-Tech Help
The United States high-tech industry relies heavily on foreign
engineers, computer scientists and other highly trained technical
workers from a variety of countries, mainly in Asia. U.S. firms want
to double the number of work visas granted to foreigners, but minority
groups are demanding corporations train more Americans for those jobs.
Percentage of U.S. immigrants with H1B visas from various nations
Canada: 4%
Britain: 2%
Russia: 2%
Japan: 2%
China: 10%
Taiwan: 2%
Philippines: 3%
India: 46%
Pakistan: 2%
Other countries: 27.8%
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics