Thread: Unemployment Benefits Run Out: The 99ers 99 weeks

Unemployment Benefits: The 99ers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... wpdGyIY2fQ

October 24, 2010

Even after an extension of unemployment benefits to 99 weeks, many of those about to go off the program are in a quandary. Scott Pelley talks to some of them in Silicon Valley.

I support unemployment benefits 100%. Especially, since I used them when laid off work. They really helped me through two rough patches. However, them must end at some point. Ninety nine weeks is long enough.

Rob Sanchez, noted H-1B activist, has pointed out that a lot of the 99-ers' stories have an age discrimination component that ties directly into our national practice over the last 10 years of importing youthfull Asian workers on guestworker visas. During those years, many foreign bodyshops took root here, came to dominate the contingent labor market in certain white collar fields, and played some dirty tricks to push incumbent American workers out. They also had American C-suite execs as collaborators, because of their practice of focusing on short term figures. Coincidence that we are now seeing unemployed white collar workers who were in fields once thought to be in demand? No way.

In the late 90's you couldn't hire an IT specialist to save your life. They were all busy. Many of them were working to program "fixes" for the impending Y2000 programing meltdown. To hire someone for a simple web page could cost $5,000 !

To combat this labor shortage and demands for premium pay, companies starting hiring IT personnel from India, and else where. Today, many of these jobs exist as "contract laborers", without benefits. This field has been flooded with applicants from around the world. The older, experienced IT professionals have been replaced by contract workers and low cost employees from over seas.

If this is your major in college or IT school, you job prospects are slim.

Corporate America (actually corp. globalization) has worked to destroy any group or union that promotes better pay and working conditions for it's members.

Alan Greenspan admitted, and this quote can still be found in the Boston Globe, is that the reason for bringing all these foreign white collar workers over here was to lower the salaries of American white collar workers. He was worried about an unfair concentration of income, but he didn't mean the rich. He meant computer programmers, financial analysts, business people, etc.