On Election Day, working people sent a clear message: American workers must always come first. This vision for the future cannot include the current H-1B visa program, which benefits corporate elites at the expense of American workers. The recent calls for a radical extension and expansion of this modern form of indentured servitude are simply un-American.
The H-1B visa program was introduced with the goal of temporarily welcoming highly educated foreign workers to the United States to do specialized jobs — after employers make sure there are no Americans who could fill those roles themselves. That seems nice in theory. But in practice, corporations have abused the H-1B program to drive down wages for American workers and grind foreign workers to a pulp.
H-1B workers are supposed to have specialized skills that uniquely qualify them for the jobs they are hired to do, but many of them do not have these skills. Corporations take advantage of the program to import guest workers for jobs Americans need and can do, only for lower wages and in poor conditions. The H-1B program is supposed to be temporary, but businesses who bring workers to America on H-1B visas game the system to force them to stay indefinitely.
Businesses are meant to make a real effort to hire American workers before resorting to H-1B, but they don’t. Today, corporations get away with laying off American workers and replacing them with desperate people from distant countries who work day and night at their mercy.
Not content with shipping jobs to India or China, corporatists have found a way to control their subjects right here in America. H-1B is a way for employers to hurt the American workforce and make foreign workers their serfs. This exploitation is wrong, and every American should stand against it. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had it exactly right when he said, “It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker.”
Fixing the broken H-1B program isn’t about politics. It’s not about whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or independent. It’s about basic decency. And it’s an opportunity we must seize at this moment to build a bipartisan coalition to deliver results for the public. With pro-worker Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) taking critical new positions on the Senate Labor Committee this Congress, I’m optimistic this problem can be solved.
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As general president of the 1.3 million-member Teamsters Union, I see every day how hard Americans work and fight for opportunities to create better lives for themselves and their families. As the product of immigrants from Ireland, I know that America is a land of opportunity. Our nation is the result of the sweat and sacrifice of generations of people who came here with nothing but the idea of starting a new and better life. That’s what the American dream is all about. But the failure of the H-1B program flies in the face of that proud legacy.
On Day One, President-elect Donald Trump has a unique chance to right this wrong and secure a real victory for the American worker by reforming the H-1B visa. If they make the program work as it was originally intended, instead of allowing its continued abuse by corrupt billionaires who stop at nothing to pad their profits, the new administration could help level the playing field for the American worker and start to deliver on the mandate that the public gave on Election Day.
Sean O’Brien is the general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
