Thread: Disney Blacklisted Displaced American Workers

Disney Blacklisted Displaced American Workers

RACHEL STOLTZFOOS
Reporter
9:00 AM 06/09/2015

The American tech workers Disney laid off in January after forcing them to train their foreign replacements were put on a “black list” that disqualified them from hire by any contractor that works with Disney, emails obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation between one of the laid off workers and a recruiting firm show.

The worker, who asked to remain anonymous because he is waiting on legal advice, learned of the black list when he sent his resume and performance review to a local IT recruiting firm that wanted to place him with a company contracting with Disney.

He had plenty of past experience doing similar work for Disney contractors, and had received the highest possible rating on his performance review, so he thought he would be a top candidate for the job.

But in an email sent last week and obtained by TheDCNF, the recruiting firm informed him that he is out of the running because he is on a black list, since he is one of the hundreds of tech workers Disney displaced in January.

“Any Disney employee who leaves Disney or has a contract end (after being on 18 Months) unless it is a unique circumstance, has to wait a certain amount of time before they can be eligible for rehire,” the recruiter said in the email. “Usually that time frame is a year to a year and a half. In this situation it was indeed a year.”



A spokeswoman for Disney denied the current existence of a black list that includes those workers “impacted by the reorganization,” and said in an email to TheDCNF that the recruiting firm simply provided the applicant with the wrong information. She said Disney is calling the firms to ensure they are providing the right information.

“When employees leave for other reasons, based on the situation, there could be a break required before the person is able to return to the same function,” the spokeswoman wrote via email. “But in those situations, the person is able to return immediately in a different capacity.”

Pressed Friday as to whether such a policy disqualifying the displaced workers from contracting work with Disney has ever been in place, she suddenly stopped responding to TheDCNF. Monday afternoon she responded, saying there was never a policy that prevented contractors from hiring the workers.

It’s unclear why the recruiting firm told the Disney worker he was in fact on a list precluding him from hire. The firm declined to comment.

When the layoffs were announced in October, the tech workers were encouraged to apply for other new jobs at Disney, and the layoffs were cast as a restructuring of Disney’s IT program. She told TheDCNF the emphasis of the program has gone from maintenance to developing new capabilities.

The IT team has actually grown by 70 people, she said, and Disney is still hiring for new positions that resulted from the layoffs.
Initially, the ex-employee who spoke to TheDCNF and the other laid off workers he knew were optimistic and began applying for the new jobs Disney posted, but grew increasingly discouraged when they got no response.

“As time went on, we just realized that we’re sending our resumes into a black hole,” he said.

Disney is by far the biggest employer of IT workers in Orlando, he said, and none of the other smaller firms, such as SeaWorld, compare in terms of size or rate of pay. From what he’s heard and understands, the market simply isn’t big enough to absorb the hundreds of tech workers Disney laid off.

“I keep hearing and seeing in the newspaper that there’s all of these great opportunities for IT workers, but I’m not seeing them in my market,” he told TheDCNF.

He knows of just three people out of the hundreds who were laid off that managed to stay with Disney, and estimated about one in four were forced into early retirement. Only one he knew of was able to get a new IT job at Disney.

Most of the workers who replaced him and his American coworkers were brought into the country by the contracting firm Disney hired on temporary work visas known as H-1bs. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are both proponents of dramatically expanding the program, which is intended to help businesses bring in high-skilled workers for jobs Americans can’t fill.

But a number of recent reports show companies — Southern California Edison,Fossil Group and now Disney — apparently abusing the system to displace American workers.

Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has asked the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the H-1b program in light of the Disney layoffs. Nelson voted for the 2013 “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, which would have more than doubled the number of workers businesses can bring in on the visas.

Rubio and Bush, who are running for president, have not commented on the news.

The Obama administration recently refused an earlier request from a bipartisan group of senators to investigate alleged H-1b visa program abuses, especially at Southern California Edison.

The former Disney employee who spoke to TheDCNF has been outsourced twice in his 20 years working in the IT field. Before working directly for Disney, he worked for Disney through a contractor. Disney had indicated they would hire him, but then opted to outsource that work to IBM instead.

He was able to get a job as a contractor with IBM, and several years later Disney did hire him. But he was outsourced again last October.

Despite stellar performance reviews and a raise, he was told his last day of employment at Disney would be Jan. 30. He and the hundreds of other tech workers displaced were told to stick around and train their foreign replacements with a good attitude, or leave immediately and forego their severance packages.

“And having witnessed IBM and Disney take so many jobs offshore for remote workers, and then now where people are literally flown into our country to take over our jobs, I just can’t believe it,” he continued. “I mean, I’m just in shock.”

Nearly 75 percent of Americans with STEM degrees are not working in STEM Fields, according to Census data, and only 3.8 million Americans with STEM degrees actually hold STEM jobs.

The U.S. currently allows one million immigrants and about 700,000 guest workers into the country annually. The Census Bureau recently projected the foreign-born population (legal and illegal immigrants) will hit 51 million by 2023 — the largest share of total population ever recorded in American history.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/09/di...rican-workers/

BOYCOTT DISNEY!! They don't deserve your business. They deserve huge financial losses for violating US immigration law, US labor law and yes, US civil rights laws. When your company decides to replace American workers with foreign workers, you don't deserve 1 red cent from the US market. Not a penny until you've rehired all the workers, sent the H1B's packing back to their home countries, and amended your corporate rules to prohibit firing US workers to replace them with foreign workers and for "blacklisting" any former employee you laid off without cause.

HOW DARE YOU?!

Originally Posted by Judy

BOYCOTT DISNEY!! They don't deserve your business. They deserve huge financial losses for violating US immigration law, US labor law and yes, US civil rights laws. When your company decides to replace American workers with foreign workers, you don't deserve 1 red cent from the US market. Not a penny until you've rehired all the workers, sent the H1B's packing back to their home countries, and amended your corporate rules to prohibit firing US workers to replace them with foreign workers and for "blacklisting" any former employee you laid off without cause.

HOW DARE YOU?!

judy
your 100 % right& i will,not go to Disney any more

The old "non-compete clause" in many contracts, afraid someone else will get "proprietary information." I always contended that they were unlawful, that no one had any right to limit my ability to earn a living or limit my opportunity for employment. Couple times I was threatened with lawsuit, I challenged them to do what you have to do. I never heard from them again and was never sued.

In Disney's case I muse about they want these people available when/if they discover that the new employees don't work out? (Can you see someone with an Indian accent trying to convince a 5 year old that he's Mickey Mouse. LOL Just kidding.)

Originally Posted by southBronx

judy
your 100 % right& i will,not go to Disney any more

Yes! Thank you, southBronx!

It's time to BLACKLIST DISNEY! We need bumper stickers for this one.

BLACKLIST DISNEY

Sounds great to boycott Disney but Disney like many other insanely huge business's know such things are near impossible. Its not just Disneyland but tons of movies, huge amounts of kids toys and cloths, and they have significant shares in tons of other everyday products Americans use. Disney is even involved in many children's classrooms these days in some way or another. Part of the whole *liberal* experience that starts young for our kids. Princessifying the girls into thinking they are somehow so special. Stories and movies that incorporate major liberal and socialist ideals.

These companies just laugh at the notion of boycotting them knowing such things are near impossible.

I just hope after legal counsel that a class action lawsuit comes up and hits Disney in not just the pocketbook hard but makes national news about how they terminate American workers to bring in foreign workers cheaper.

Yes, ReformUSA2012, a class action suit would be an excellent development, because the employers have violated US immigration, US labor and US civil rights laws, both Edison and Disney, and I'm sure many others who use the H1B visa program, probably all of them.

And employees who were replaced by Tata workers through outfits such as Infosys, they need to sue as well, and I'd name Hillary Clinton in the suit since she's the one who set up this crazy outfit in New York when she was a US Senator from New York because she thought she was creating jobs in New York state, all 3 of them at their new office in Buffalo or wherever their new "leased space" was/is.

I still think boycotts are important because they hit their bottom-line immediately.

BLACKLIST DISNEY!

Only to add a thought over boycotts, have you ever considered how much free exposure firms get from even bad publicity? Even here is a film with Disney's name exposed all the way through it.

For the bottom line, bad publicity is better than no publicity!

Originally Posted by kevinssdad

Only to add a thought over boycotts, have you ever considered how much free exposure firms get from even bad publicity? Even here is a film with Disney's name exposed all the way through it.

For the bottom line, bad publicity is better than no publicity!

Well, that's true, but if the bad publicity doesn't get them the sales they need, then the financial harm still works. Most of these consumer products companies can only survive a month or two without meeting their sales projections. If Americans boycott Disney, and I mean all Disney movies, stores, theme parks, everything Disney for a month or so, Disney will be on their knees begging to know what they can do to fix it. Their margins are thin in consumer products, they can't survive 60 days on lost sales, even 20% will create a huge financial problem for them.

Perhaps folks should pressure their legislators in Florida to rescind some tax credits and other little government "freebies" that companies like Disney enjoy.