The quick-and-dirty version is that last year Disney fired the employees and told them that, if they wanted to receive severance pay, they had to train their replacements – and those replacements were workers from other countries who held H-1B visas that give people with specialized skills permission to work in the United States. Usually (and not surprisingly) they get paid less than American workers doing the same jobs, and companies like Microsoft and Google (and obviously Disney) have contracted with global hiring firms to fill vacancies with H-1B visa holders.
Tomorrow (Feb. 25), Congress will hear testimony from witnesses who will talk about the program and how it impacts the U.S. economy. Among the witnesses will be Leo Perrero, one of the Disney IT workers fired last year to make way for H-1B visa holders.
Read more about tomorrow’s hearing in this Computerworld story.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 1, 2016.