Making Things Worse

Sorry, everyone, but this will be another “Told ya so!” post, commentary on yesterday’s unanimous jury decision in favor of Tata Consultancy Services, finding that TCS does not discriminate against US workers.

I’ve long warned activist critics of the H-1B work visa program that they were shooting themselves in the foot with their obsession with the IT outsourcing firms such as TCS — what I term the “Intels Good, Infosyses Bad” syndrome (IGIB). Under IGIB, it is presumed that the outsourcing, “rent a programmer” firms like Infosys and Tata are the main abusers of H-1B, while the “Intels,” firms that hire H-1Bs from the foreign student populations at US universities, use the program responsibly.

I’ve explained numerous times that, not only is the IGIB premise incorrect — the Intels are highly culpable too — but also the activists’ emphasis on IGIB will be a political disaster. In the end, Congress will enact some mild sanctions on the Infosyses while rewarding the Intels, with an expanded H-1B program and a “staple a green card to their diplomas” act. In short, the activists’ IGIB strategy/mentality will make things worse, with MORE foreign workers than before.

Well, with the TCS verdict, now it’s happened, though in a slightly different manner. The jury unanimously sided with Tata, setting a (moral if not legal) precedent. Sorry, H-1B activists, but you have indeed made things worse for yourselves.

I’ve long held that cases like this one do not have a firm legal basis. More on that shortly, but first, how could the plaintiffs’ legal counsel possibly have chosen Oakland as a venue? This is one of the most liberal areas in the nation — large minority population, and very liberal whites — and as a liberal myself I say, good for them. But apparently the jury saw this in solidarity-with-People-of-Color, resist-Trump terms.

As reported by Bloomberg,

The trial casts a spotlight on work-visa programs that companies use to bring overseas workers to the U.S., a practice President Donald Trump has criticized in his protectionist push. TCS, Asia’s largest outsourcer, and rival Indian information technology staffing firms Infosys Ltd.and Wipro Ltd. have all been squeezed by the Trump administration…

Mumbai-based TCS denies any unlawful bias in its U.S. operations and says in court filings that the Caucasian American leading the lawsuit was removed from one of its projects and ultimately terminated over “performance concerns.”

Ah yes, Trump is working to protect lazy, incompetent whites against competition from Immigrants of Color. This would resonate with any upstanding progressive Oaklander. How could a juror show her face around Lake Merritt or the Temescal district after voting for the plaintiffs and thus failing to support minorities and quelle horreur, siding with Trump?

Suing TCS in Oakland? What was lead plaintiffs’ counsel Daniel Kotchen thinking?

Actually, I had warned Kotchen (he and I have served on a couple of panels together) that I’ve long believed that discrimination on the basis of national origin is the wrong grounds for a lawsuit, going way back to the Guy Santiglia case in 2002. Yes, there is discrimination involved, but NOT on the basis of national origin. Instead, it’s discrimination on the basis of immigration status (US citizens and green card holders vs. work visas)  He found my comment interesting but has proceeded anyway.

The H-1B-critic activists, notably including the immigration reform organizations, have viewed the Infosyses as the low-hanging fruit, the most obvious abusers. Now with this verdict endorsing TCS’ hiring practices, a JURY verdict mind you, the activists have shot themselves in the foot.