Bright Future Jobs

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Huffington Post:
"Going Political-Not Postal"

::: BFJ Radio & TV appearances :::

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CNN Interview with Donna Conroy, Director
Cook County Urges H1-B Reform

One of the largest county governments in the nation voted on Tuesday to open the H-1B visa-hiring program to US citizens and legal residents – in opposition to 13 governors who earlier this week urged Congress to expand the program, without ever requiring employers to seek local talent for top-dollar, white-collar jobs. more...

::: BFJ In Print :::

NYT: "Court Orders Three H1-B Sites Disabled," Dec. 29, 2009 The routine intimidation of Indian tech workers has now been directed at American tech workers who wouldn't snitch on an Indian tech worker, threatening all Americans' free speech on the Internet.

New Jersey and Free Speech: "The action has labor rights activists, free speech activists, and even some beneficiaries of the H1-B visa program united in voicing opposition to the court decision," according to an editorial in the Oakland Journal, a local New Jersey paper.

Businessweek: "Jobs and Protectionism in the Stimulus Package," February 16, 2009 Critics of the H-1B program hailed the inclusion of the amendment as a victory. "The demand to reform corporate recruiting policies that ignore highly skilled local talent now moves center stage," says Donna Conroy, director of Brightfuturejobs.com, a lobbying group for visa reform.

Businessweek: "H-1b Visa Season is Here", March 31, 2009: On Mar. 31, Bright Future Jobs, a U.S. tech worker lobbying group, posted on its Web site 13 advertisements for jobs in which the employer designated a preference for H-1B visa workers or targeted them specifically for the positions, according to the Web site.

Businessweek: "H-1B Visa Law: Trying Again", April 24.2009: U.S. tech worker advocates praised these and other provisions in the bill. "We're thrilled that Senators Durbin and Grassley are requiring employers to seek local talent first," says Donna Conroy, executive director of Bright Future Jobs, a lobbying group for U.S. tech workers. "They recognize that American IT professionals have the talent, knowhow, and experience to push America's economic recovery into high gear."

Businessweek: "An Academic's Labor Helps Fight H-1B Visas," June 28, 2009
Anti-H-1B activists say they're worried less about academic research and more about shaping policy. "The thing that's missing in Norm Matloff's strategy is fighting for a seat at the table," says Donna Conroy, executive director of Bright Future Jobs, a lobbying group that advocates restricting the H-1B visa program. "We need a political movement that allows us to help craft legislation. All the numbers [Matloff] crunches won't have nearly the impact as American technical professionals standing up for themselves."

CIO MAGAZINE: "H-1b Reform Bill Could Complicate Offshore Outsourcing,"
Many rank-and-file IT professionals laud the legislation. "The Durbin bill will put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs and the discrimination against American IT professionals," says Donna Conroy, a former IT professional and director of Bright Future Jobs, a grassroots lobbying group for American IT workers. "This bill was written for us."

Blue Cities

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The Future of Blue Cities: White Collar Job Loss in Chicago
The H-1B hiring program is part of the transmission belt that is transferring cutting edge technical skills out of the country...and leaving the cities to wither.

by Donna Conroy

In the next 10 years, our nation will be losing 800 IT jobs daily, due to offshore outsourcing. However, this job loss will be concentrated in the major cities of the Midwest, East Coast and West Coast.

The IT jobs are the “canaries” of the off shore industry, with other white-collar jobs following suit. Once these jobs leave, any future job growth will most likely follow offshore.

Successful off shoring only occurs because of extensive on-the-job training – known in the industry as “knowledge transfer”. The federal government’s guest worker programs, such as the H-1B, are the foundation of this knowledge transfer.

The H-1B program creates a glass ceiling for Americans and legal immigrants by giving the power to corporations to remove jobs openings from EEOC guidelines and allows companies to narrow the applicant pool. The L-1 program facilitates a corporation’s ability to bring their workers here for training but pay them at their home country's wage rates.

Both of these government programs enable the infamous “training our own replacements”. Offshoring companies have built their business models around the guest worker programs, according to their SEC filings.

Since Chicago and Illinois companies rank in the top 5 states that use the H-1B hiring program, we should be in the top 5 states that experience this “Great Displacement”.

Within Chicago’s city limits, 6,881 companies have removed 107,717 jobs from the local job market via the H-1B hiring program from 2001 to 2004. 14,835 Illinois companies have taken advantage of this program to fill 230,006 jobs across the state with indentured workers during the same period.

These figures are helping to restore the concept of multiple workforces with varying and conflicting rights and privileges. Citizens from abroad who fill these job openings (the “B” team) don’t even have the basic American freedom to change jobs easily and have restrictions on their "at will" employment rights. The H-1B hiring program is one of several weapons weilded by "bodyshops" in a cruel, high-stakes game of Indian-on-Indian subjegation.

Now, let’s take a look at the interlacing of outsourcing and the real estate industry. We have 36 million square feet of empty commercial space, just in the downtown and O’Hare area alone. This represents a 20% vacancy rate. There is a multiplier effect with this job loss on supporting industries, so in effect 1.6 to 1.7 jobs will be lost with every 1 job outsourced from the local economy, according to Dr. Ron Pollina, a real estate expert who has studied this issue.

Most off shored workers experience a 30-50% wage decline once they gain employment outside of their field of expertise. This lays the groundwork for mortgage defaults, increased competition for modest income housing, and creating blocks to employment for lower-skilled workers whom would otherwise be able to compete for these jobs.

Listed below are the number of job openings reserved by the H-1B hiring program in 17 Blue States between 2001 and July 2005.

States # Job Openings Reserved

CA	967,982
NJ	411,513
NY	383,463
PA	247,574
IL	230,006
MI	222,058
MA	218,515
CT	104,400
OH	89,169
MN	74,162
WA	71,406
WI	39,101
OR	28,109
NH	25,224
RI	10,788
VT	6,846
HI	5,853
ME	4,035