The following is from the Programmers Guild, an organization which "advances the interests of technical and professional workers in information technology (IT) fields" (bolding added for emphasis):
In response to the Harris Miller campaign,Harris Miller was coined the "Anti-Christ of Outsourcing" by the AFL-CIO because of his work as an industry lobbyist and president of the ITAA, the political arm of the world's largest technology companies. While a lobbyist, Miller testified in front of Congress that Americans did not have the skills needed to fill technology jobs, and requested an increase in the H-1b visa cap, which allows foreign guest workers to work up to six years in the United States.
The H-1b visa program enables companies to replace American workers with foreign guest workers who are paid on average $13,000 a year less than their American counterparts, and also prevents the guest workers from changing jobs if they are mistreated by their employers. This visa program has become an indentured servant program designed as a labor subsidy for greedy corporations. When IT professionals and pro-immigrant groups asked for Congress to fix the program, Harris Miller opposed us.
In 2001, American software professionals lost 139,000 jobs while the government approved 110,713 H-1b visas in computer occupations. While Americans IT workers were losing jobs and being permanently replaced, Harris Miller was a busy bee working hard to prevent the H-1b visa cap from falling back to historical levels.
In addition to supporting a modern day form of indentured servitude, Miller fought to make outsourcing American jobs even more lucrative for his corporate masters. In his misguided logic, Miller believes that allowing American jobs to be outsourced will create more jobs in the United States. Since the year 2000 the Department of Labor has reduced ten-year job growth projections in Information Technology by over one million jobs. So much for the economic theories of Harris Miller. Any way you look at it, Harris Miller is a job killer.
The Programmers Guild opposes Harris Miller and urges voters to support Jim Webb in the Democratic primaries on June 13th. Jim Webb has promised to be a champion of American workers and will oppose the outsourcing of American jobs.
Roy Lawson
Programmers Guild
Director
Ah well...
But not all of the chairs are for Miller. Maybe not even most. But the ones who have decided to support are not going to like to see a message in their inbox containing this letter. And that's an understatement.
When I first learned that Miller was running for the Democratic nomination a simple Google search on him unveiled so much damning anti-labor and anti-voter evidence that I assumed I had the wrong Harris Miller.
As I see it, The Democratic party nominating a candidate with such an overwhelming anti-labor, union busting, anti-voter history should be as absurd as the republicans nominating an athiest, pro-gay, abortion provider... it would be an abomination to the bedrock principles of the party and it just SHOULD NOT HAPPEN!!!
And they are certainly aware of it. I wonder if that's why all of the feelers about supporting whichever Dem wins the primary are floating about. Perhaps they want to get a loss estimate?
Loyalty is a two-way street.
Furthermore, we have two candidates who have at times in their history given support to another party (Republicans). One of them has reasons, and one has excuses. One of them has been open about it, and one of them has been deceptive.
The list goes on. The choice is obvious.
Excellent letter.
Very nice summary.
Harris stepped on some toes on his tour of Captiol Hill, Bangalore and K-Steet. Lotta folks remembers the deals he made and phony whitepapers and the money he waved to buy some bad public policy. Looks like another punch in the gut for poor old Harris from labor.
Despite this tough talk, the guild won't get far, predicts Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, a trade group that includes IBM, Intel and Microsoft.
Lots of stuff detailing Harris Miller and the ITAA's collusion with his Republican, big business and Cato Institute buddies. Combined with his "attack Iraq" stance a lot of what Miller stands for represents what might be called "neoconservatism".
The eloquent and meticulous Norm Matloff has lead the charge against Mr. Miller for years.
As befitting a respected academic researcher, Dr. Matloff's work is very careful.
But I also note that in the 1960's when I was part of a very small outfit, we share office space with a guy who ran a keypunching service (yes, I go back that far in dp -- didn't start to switch to education until 1994 when I left to do an MAT) for companies in NY. The deal was if you gave him your document by 4 PM, you would get back keyed and verified cards by 2 PM the next day. He put the documents on a plane to Haiti, where he was paying around $.15 an hour for workeers on a 10 hour overnight shift. Even after he paid for the transportation of the documents down (cheap) and cards back (quite a bit bulkier), paid his courier and the bribes he was paying the Haitians (and in those days it was not against US law to bribe foreign officials) and paid his labor, he was making a very comfortable (almost 6 figures) income for himself without having to do much except look for more clients.
All his clients cared was that they got accurate keypunching almost as fast as doing it in-house, and they really didn't care about the conditions under which his workers operated. The only thing that puzzled me was how he could be sure of a constant supply of electricity for his machines given the ppor quality of the Haitian grid system. I think that was part of the reason for the bribes, but he never explained it all.
People see what he did, especially people from the inside. He can deny it til he is blue in the face, but the facts are the facts.
If he had done a great job, and saved jobs and created them as he states he has...... they would be PRAISING him.
Obviously that is not the case!
The bylaws for the Programmers Guild on its website notes that it operates as a tax-exempt 501(c)3 corporation. It is not a 501(c)4 as you suggested in your earlier posting.
IRS regulations specifically prohibit such non-profits from engaging in political activity of any kind on behalf of a candidate and allow only limited lobbying.
Here is the language from the IRS website:
"Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise tax."
I think someone who is coordinating this Programmers Guild endorsement like you or Tech Guy need to communicate to these folks that they are violating the law.
As I said earlier, it doesn't help Jim Webb or the Democratic Party to be associated with illegal activity like this.
If there be some reference on the web site to the Guild being a 501(c)(3) [something I cannot find through Google], it is a typographical error.
I personally made the corporate filings and the documentation is next to me.
From the tone and need to repeat this accusation, I know this statement will never convince the original poster. For the rest of you, I hope the straight facts from the original source will put this nonsense to rest.
John Miano, J.D.
I have added a link to his testimony, among others, on The Modern Patriot blog site (upper right under the "LINKS" section)
Here's a direct link:
http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/miano033006.pdf
Some interesting points John makes which are totally at odds with the claims made by Harris Miller and the ITAA...
· I have personally seen Americans being fired and replaced by lower-paid workers on H-1B visas.
· I have personally seen the H-1B program used to import large numbers of workers with limited skills who required extensive on-the-job training.
· I have personally seen resumés for H-1B workers with U.S. experience that would immediately be rejected had they been from Americans.
· I have personally seen resumés for H-1B workers that immediately suggested the education and experience listed were fraudulent.