Pfizer In The Middle Of Visa Debate

Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 12:27 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1945 -- 12/15/2008 >>>>>

Lee Howard at the Connecticut newspaper TheDay is keeping on top of the Pfizer
issue. This won't be his last article on Pfizer either.

One of the coolest things about the article, besides my colorful quotes, is
the way Howard tied the influence peddling of the US India Political Action
Committee (USINPAC) to Connecticut Senators.

Howard also mentioned that Lieberman is an original member of the Friends of
India caucus (FOI). Their members are listed on the FOI unofficial site, but
it hasn't been updated since 2004. Perhaps that's because the Senators that
joined in 2004 are still there and will continue their membership as long as
stupid Americans keep electing them to office. To see the list of members
click this link:

http://www.usindiafriendship.net/congress1/senatecaucus/senatecaucus.htm

I don't know if Dodd is an official member of the Friends of India (FOI), but
it's almost a moot point because he does whatever they tell him to do.
For an example see this letter he signed with other FOI members

http://www.usindiafriendship.net/congress1/miscellaneousstatements/vajpayee.htm
"31 Congresspersons request Vajpayee be invited to speak at Joint Session of
Congress"

Lee Howard's statement below is probably in error only because Lieberman's
campaign donations are probably intentionally deceitful:

Lieberman, in the same period, has received slightly less than $14,000 from
the Pfizer PAC. A database search showed he has not received any money from
the U.S. India PAC.

I suspect that Lieberman accepted money from USINPAC or one of their proxies
somewhere along the line because he sucks up to them big time.
Check out this letter that Lieberman wrote in praise of USINPAC:

http://www.usinpac.com/joe_lieberman.html
LETTER FROM SENATOR LIEBERMAN TO THE MEMBERS OF USINPAC"

This newsletter first reported on Lieberman's letter in 2003 and it can be
found in the newsletter archive: "Tandoori Democrats", December 08, 2003".
Lieberman wouldn't have written this letter unless there was a payoff
somewhere. In it Lieberman wrote: "I also oppose any efforts to eliminate or
diminish the H1-B visa program."

TheDay article below has a link to Pfizer's letter to Dodd and Courtney.
I'll have more to say on that soon.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=d453512c-6d12-436e-aeed-1a68c9790f34

Pfizer In The Middle Of Visa Debate
By Lee Howard

Published on 12/14/2008 in Home ;Main Photo
Over the years, U.S. Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joe Lieberman have
collected tens of thousands of dollars from Pfizer Inc.'s political action
committee.
Critics say that not so coincidentally the two Connecticut senators have
supported expansion of the United States' guestworker visa programs like
the H-1B that Pfizer, among other companies, has used to systematically
outsource hundreds of American jobs.

View Pfizer's letter to Dodd and Courtney

"If you think that any Democrat is going to stop the flood of illegal and
legal immigrants that take American jobs, well, you must be fresh out of
the box," said Paul Streitz, director and co-founder of the Darien-based
Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, which includes a picture of
former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on its Web site
along with a pitch to "Vote Sarah 2012."

Neither Dodd nor Lieberman, both Democrats, would directly address
questions about their records, but each, in statements through their press
offices, defended their votes on guestworker visas.

"Sen. Dodd expects Pfizer - and all Connecticut companies - to both fully
comply with the intent of the H-1B program and to do all they can to
preserve jobs in Connecticut," Dodd spokesman Bryan DeAngelis said in a
statement. "Dodd will continue to work on this issue in the new Congress
and work toward reforming the H-1B program."

"The H-1B program helps firms fill critical positions if they are unable to
identify and recruit American workers for the job, but the program was
never intended to help firms outsource their operations by training foreign
workers here at home," Lieberman's press secretary, Erika Masonhall, said
in a statement.

Yet sources have told The Day that guestworker visas have been used at
Pfizer campuses in Groton and New London over the past three years to
transform a largely American information-technology contracting force into
a place more and more composed of foreign nationals.

According to sources who asked not to be identified for fear of being
fired, the effort is part of a plan to outsource much of the company's
local information technology work from American contractors to outside
contracting firms that hire employees largely from India.

Critics have said the H-1B program has been used over the years as a way of
allowing major multinational corporations to outsource thousands of
American jobs and save companies millions of dollars. They said the outflow
of jobs to other countries is particularly unconscionable in the midst of a
prolonged recession that resulted in more people being unemployed last
month than at any period in the past 26 years.

Pfizer, in a letter last month to Connecticut congressmen, said it does use
third-party IT vendors that employ foreign nationals, but pointed out that
Pfizer has no role in petitioning for the guestworker visas used by these
companies. It added that Pfizer has only 60 employees company-wide with
H-1B visas, none of whom came to the United States "to replace their fellow
colleagues in Groton and New London as has been alleged in the media."

Several sources have said that foreign IT workers at the local campuses,
employed by Indian outsourcing companies such as Infosys Technologies and
Satyam Computer Services, are being used to replace American contractors.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, called a week ago for a government
study of the H-1B program. He did not call specifically for an
investigation of Pfizer's outsourcing efforts, but his interest in the H-1B
issue was piqued by the local controversy, he said.

Critics of guestworker visa programs - and of Congress's inability to
reform them to protect American workers - said this week that the
Government Accountability Office already has investigated the program, most
recently in 2003. Yet Congress, they said, has yet to pass legislative
reforms to deal with program problems, which range from lack of enforcement
to fraudulent applications.

The original intent of the H-1B program was to bring in foreign workers
with special skills when American workers couldn't be found and to pay
these workers the prevailing wage. But legislative loopholes, according to
critics, now allow companies to look for foreign workers first, pay them
less than the prevailing wage, cycle guestworkers through as part of
outsourcing efforts and sometimes force American workers to train their
replacements.

"While it's wonderful that Courtney wants to do another GAO study of H-1B,
he could use the ones that have already been completed, and then he could
actually propose legislation that actually does something to alleviate the
problems," said Rob Sanchez, a former Arizona software engineer who lost
his job to outsourcing, writing in his Job Destruction Newsletter last
week. "The sad reality for the Pfizer people is that studies and new
legislation will come far too late to save what's left of the jobs there."

Similarly, Sanchez, who now runs a think tank focusing on guestworker visas
and outsourcing issues, said he appreciated a letter Dodd and Courtney sent
to Pfizer questioning the company's use of guestworker visas, "but it does
nothing to stop Pfizer from replacing its U.S. workers with H-1B visa
holders." Furthermore, he said, "it would be even better if Dodd sponsored
some serious legislation to stop the abuse."

The anti-immigration group Americans for Better Immigration has given both
Dodd and Courtney a D-minus grade on guestworker-visa votes during their
careers, though Courtney's grade is based on only one vote. Lieberman has
earned an F.

Sanchez is among those who have been critical of the Connecticut
delegation's votes on the H-1B issue. He particularly points to Dodd, who
once sponsored a bill that "would have put some mild restrictions on
offshoring government contracts" - a bill that died quickly and, in any
case, included only "superficial reforms."

"Dodd ... has consistently voted for H-1B increases as well as other types
of guestworker visas," Sanchez said. "Dodd has given lip service to protect
Americans from unfair competition due to the use of H-1Bs or offshoring,
while voting to make the problem worse."

Dodd's legislative aides defend his record, pointing out several measures
the senator has supported over the years, including the addition of a
six-month waiting period before companies could begin replacing American
workers with H-1Bs. Dodd also has called for the U.S. Department of Labor
to have more power to investigate abuses of the H-1B program, aides said.

Lieberman, who twice wrote white papers describing abuses in the H-1B
program, has since become a solid supporter of guestworker increases and
has spoken out in favor of a new move by the Department of Homeland
Security that critics said would amount to a de facto H-1B increase.

He also is one of 37 U.S. senators who signed on as an original member of
the Friends of India caucus, an indication, said Sanchez, of "who his daddy
is."

"He's obviously working against American workers," said Ron Hira, an
assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology
who has written widely about the H1-B visa program and its abuses.

Lieberman's aides, however, point to his record of pushing reforms,
including a prohibition against advertising a job that gives preference to
guest workers and a requirement that companies have no more than half their
workers on H-1Bs.

Pfizer PAC money

Dodd has been among the largest beneficiaries of funds from the Pfizer PAC,
having received $28,000 in the past seven years, according to the political
action committee's records. He also received a contribution last year of
$2,300 from the U.S. India PAC.

Lieberman, in the same period, has received slightly less than $14,000 from
the Pfizer PAC. A database search showed he has not received any money from
the U.S. India PAC.

Courtney has taken in about $11,500 in the past three years from the Pfizer
PAC.

"The money clearly influences how the politicians approach anything that
has to do with Pfizer's interests," said Hira, the Rochester Institute
professor.

But Connecticut politicians, through their spokesmen, said Pfizer PAC money
has not influenced their votes. Their views on the H-1B program were staked
out years before they received any money from the PAC, said aides for Dodd
and Lieberman.

Joan Campion, a Pfizer spokeswoman, said money is doled out in a bipartisan
fashion to politicians who are supportive of the pharmaceutical industry.
She noted that an employee steering committee decides on how much money to
give.

Regional

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