Sona Shah - An American Citizen - fights against H-1B

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asnssf

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Sona Shah - An American Citizen - fights against H-1B abuse

H-1B is her No.1 battle.

This is the headline in today's starledger 09/19/2006 (www.nj.com) business section. I couldn't see any online link for this section but found this in wwwc.house.gov site.

see Star Ledger Article in post #28

To make the long story short, Sona Shah an american citizen who came from india at the age of 3, lost her job to H-1B immigrants while working at "Wilco Systems", is fighting against work-visa rules and wilco systems.

While briefing the Senate Subcommitte, Sona Shah dialed the number listed in a "Help wanted" ad for a computer programmer. Then she let everyone listen to the ensuing converation. The staffers at the legislative briefing were stunned to hear that 'That job's been set aside for an H-1B employee'.

Shah vs. Wilco 4th Complaint

for more info, Google 'Wilco Systems New york' or 'Sona Shah'.

Star ledger reporter, Philip Read (pread@starledger.com) concluded the story with the following remarks:

Lande, of the Information Technology Association, said her case ('Sona Shah's) sounds unfortunate but, in all likelihood, is unrelated to immigrant workers. You have to look at all other factors. Did the person keep their skill sets current? is the company pursuing new market strategies? When you drill down, immigrants are factors in very few cases.

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The bottomline is, most of the 2nd generation immigrants (esp from India) are against H1 and GC policy for many reasons.
 
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Propaganda

This sounds like propaganda to me. I know very few 2nd/3rd generation immigrants who actually oppose legal immigration. This makes for a convenient story for opponents of any type of immigration. Not likely...
 
I didn't unserstand or they workers or wife and husbend????

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-14,GGLG:en&q='Sona%20Shah'&sa=N&tab=wi


First column third row pic

Sona Shah, left, and Kai Barrett ...
 
I agree that this is an unfair portrayal of 2nd/3rd generation Indians in the USA. Taking one particular brush (Sona Shah) and painting all the 2nd generation Indians here very unfair.
I have a lot of friends who are 2nd generation Indians in the USA and I don't know a single one of them who opposes H1B/GC for workers.
This lady is probably feeling victimised as someone told her that a particular position is 'reserved' for an H1B candidate. What the employer might have intended to say is that this job is already taken by an H1B holder. Or maybe she has a bone of contention due to her own reasons.
Anyway, she's not the only one. There are lot of others fighting against H1Bs.
 
asnssf said:
H-1B is her No.1 battle.

This is the headline in today's starledger 09/19/2006 (www.nj.com) business section. I couldn't see any online link for this section but found this in wwwc.house.gov site.

To make the long story short, Sona Shah an american citizen who came from india at the age of 3, lost her job to H-1B immigrants while working at "Wilco Systems", is fighting against work-visa rules and wilco systems.

While briefing the Senate Subcommitte, Sona Shah dialed the number listed in a "Help wanted" ad for a computer programmer. Then she let everyone listen to the ensuing converation. The staffers at the legislative briefing were stunned to hear that 'That job's been set aside for an H-1B employee'.

Shah vs. Wilco 4th Complaint

for more info, Google 'Wilco Systems New york' or 'Sona Shah'.

Star ledger reporter, Philip Read (pread@starledger.com) concluded the story with the following remarks:

Lande, of the Information Technology Association, said her case ('Sona Shah's) sounds unfortunate but, in all likelihood, is unrelated to immigrant workers. You have to look at all other factors. Did the person keep their skill sets current? is the company pursuing new market strategies? When you drill down, immigrants are factors in very few cases.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
The bottomline is, most of the 2nd generation immigrants (esp from India) are against H1 and GC policy for many reasons.
Click to expand...


The most troubling thing is that Wilco Systems perhaps committed a fraud b/c an employer can not reserve positions for non citizens at the expense of citizens AND this woman is now using this fraud as a blanket statement on all H1-B's. She couldn't be more wrong. She is ignorant and prejudiced, none of which enables a person to think and act logically.
 
asnssf said:
H-1B is her No.1 battle.
Click to expand...


As long as Bill Gates and others support H1b ... H1b will not suffer .. infact it might grow.....

For some reason they do not support EB guys towards GC ...

asnssf said:
To make the long story short, Sona Shah an american citizen who came from india at the age of 3, lost her job to H-1B immigrants while working at "Wilco Systems", is fighting against work-visa rules and wilco systems.
.
Click to expand...

H1b cannot be immigrant .. its non-immigrant ... Anyway she might win the case and get some hot $$$s if she can prove that --- Wages was the cause for her to loose the job to H1b guy.
 
Sure, defend it, give amnesty to millions of children who came here to get a free ride on taxpayers (including me). That may sound inoffensive, but then think about millions of parents who could get amnesty from their converted US citizen children and think about how that could be fair and negative to LEGAL skilled immigrants. Have a clue.


asnssf said:
She helped Bill Pascrell, Jr (D-NJ) to draft the "Defend the American Dream Act of 2005" (H. R. 4378) bill.
Click to expand...
 
unless they make an H-1b eligible to work like an EAD, abuses of foreign labor will happen. the current system of employee dependant H-1b makes as much sense as "asking a jackal to take care of a piece of meat".
i hope audit of companies using H-1b labor is made strict after this.
doing away with labor substitution will go a long way too, in this barter trade of GC.
immigration law is becoming as cumbersome as tax laws, no question there are people who are out to take advantage of loop holes.
 
Chicago Desi said:
The most troubling thing is that Wilco Systems perhaps committed a fraud b/c an employer can not reserve positions for non citizens at the expense of citizens AND this woman is now using this fraud as a blanket statement on all H1-B's. She couldn't be more wrong. She is ignorant and prejudiced, none of which enables a person to think and act logically.
Click to expand...

Attacking the woman by calling her ignorant and prejudice is so uncalled for . She is a US citizen who had a bad experience with said company for crying out loud. She has every right to go forward with her lawsuit as far as I am concerned.
 
She is right

And she should get support from H1B holders. The abuse on the part of the Mama's and Tata's augments the grudge against H1 people.
 
envision said:
Attacking the woman by calling her ignorant and prejudice is so uncalled for . She is a US citizen who had a bad experience with said company for crying out loud. She has every right to go forward with her lawsuit as far as I am concerned.
Click to expand...

She is ignorant and prejudice b/c she is venting her anger on all H1's because she was defrauded by one crook company. http://wwwa.house.gov/international_relations/108/sha020404.htm. She can sue any one for her heart's content but its not correct to say that H1's take american jobs.
 
I don't know how many of you have read her testimony ( in Chicago_Desi's post).
I have.
She has my full 100% support.
All idiots who are calling her names should read it first, get all the facts and think twice before saying anything.
She is arguing for H1B reform, for God's sake.
EVERYONE: before you post further read her testimony first.
It's astonishing just how much spin has been put on her lawsuit by you morons, including the guy who started this thread.
nj_skm
 
Sona Shah is not prejudiced... please read the Court Documents before making judgments on her, people. However, this issue can be exploited by organizations like NumbersUSA in their arguments to reduce immigration (including Legal ones).

Reading into the Court Complaint papers, this isn't just about Sona, there is another guy called Kai Barrett (British, non-US citizen) who is also on the Plaintiff side with Sona Shah filing suit against Wilco.

Paragraph (21)....During the second week of June, 1997 Plaintiff Shah was called into a meeting with Wilco’s managing director, Sunil Shah, in London, and informed that Wilco was seeking Indian workers for placement in its New York office to displace American workers as “Americans don’t make quality workers – they’re stupid, they’re too expensive and difficult to control”.

This shows discrimination towards US employees, and a specific statement that replacements are to come from India, not other nations.

Paragraph (23)...On information and belief, unbeknownst to the Plaintiffs, at some time prior to the date representative Plaintiffs were employed, Defendant, due to a company culture based upon animus directed at various nationalities, embarked upon the hiring practices above summarized which based all rates of pay, training programs and working conditions primarily upon the citizenship of every worker.

In other words, your salary is dependent on your citizenship (again, discrimination).

Paragraph (25) deals with Plaintiff Kai Barrett...Upon his return to the United States in October 1997 Plaintiff Barrett determined that his salary was significantly below that paid to American workers with similar credentials employed both by Wilco and far below those paid by other employers in the New York City region. At that time, January of 1998, he received $42,000. His salary was soon raised to $45,000. He requested a pay raise based upon his knowledge of market pay rates for comparable work. He was granted a raise from $45,000 to $48,000. That rate of pay was about 60% of the prevailing rates of pay for similar skill levels in the New York metropolitan area and significantly less than Wilco paid American workers with similar credentials. Barrett was informed by Wilco’s management that his salary was kept well below pay rates prevailing in the New York City regional market as Wilco did not believe Barrett could leave Wilco’s employ due to his British citizenship and resulting immigration status.

Here is something that all of us can understand... we cannot leave our current employers easily, so in the above paragraph, Kai was forced into accepting his salary due to his H1-B status.

Other paragraphs are pretty common legal wordings so I won't mention more but Sona Shah IS NOT against H1-Bs.... she's against the management of Wilco who practice a VERY discriminatory employment policy. But I can see why some anti-immigrant groups would like to take advantage of this case.
 
I am sure that Sona Shah's father must be on H1 / F1 when they migrated and taken a job from a US citizen at that time.

Dont all immigrants take jobs from US citizens .. may be US needs to stop immigration and also deport those who hold GC's to cater to the needs of US Citizens.
 
Well, even if the father came as immigrant on H1/F1, that doesn't mean that she should allow this type of discrimation happen. Remember than when her daddy came, we didn't have this level of immigration going on, cheap flight tickets, the Interrnet to disseminate information and bring more people, etc. It is not as a straightforward as you would like.


BrainDrain said:
I am sure that Sona Shah's father must be on H1 / F1 when they migrated and taken a job from a US citizen at that time.

Dont all immigrants take jobs from US citizens .. may be US needs to stop immigration and also deport those who hold GC's to cater to the needs of US Citizens.
Click to expand...
 
Looks like my response was not properly understood. Here is my point of view in detail. You are totally free to agree or dis-agree.

1. Wilco committed fraud with Shah
2. Wilco's actions ranged from unlawful to undesired (firing citizens to hire H1s, paying any one less than they deserve, running Dehli belly campaign etc and so on)
3. Shah was right in sueing Wilco
4. Wilco must be held accountable for their actions
5. Some other companies are also engaged in similar activities and they deserve to be persecuted by law
6. Shah has right to campaign with congress whatever she beleives is right
7. Shah has no right to paint the false picture that H1's in general take away american jobs. What Bill Pascrell has introduced (with the help of Shah) will have profound effects for current H1 in the eyes of their employers and for future H1s.
8. Entities like NumberUSA are always ready to exploit cases like hers, their view are not hidden, you decide.

I hope this clears the confusion.
 
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