Fired Foreigners Face Exile
Just months ago, America's high-tech companies successfully lobbied Congress to triple the number of H-1B visas, so more foreign specialists could come to the US. Then the economic slowdown hit. Today, many foreign workers are out of work, out of money, and perhaps out of luck in their quest to land a green card.
A recent edition of Newsweek profiles the plight of such workers who live day-to-day in a legal Catch 22 - not allowed to get even part-time jobs under INS rules, since their visas were only good for work with the companies that just let them go. Nor is it clear how long the workers can stay in America without a new job. The INS says it will soon clarify its rules. Meanwhile, support groups for the foreign workers are urging emancipation, restoring their right to work. "H-1B workers have become the indentured slaves of companies," one Indian-American entrepreneur told Newsweek.
On the Job Front
BAY AREA - The Great Indoors, a new Sears chain of mega home improvement stores, will open 15 outlets in the Bay Area over the next 18 months. The first Home Depot-like stores will open in Pleasant Hill and San Jose.
CUPERTINO - Portal Software, maker of customer management and billing software, will cut staff by an unspecified amount after reporting a first-quarter loss.
FREMONT - The employees of Peripherals Inc, a network storage company, became peripheral themselves when the firm closed its 120-staff headquarters here following the company's merger with FalconStor Inc of NY.
LIVERMORE - Label maker Valmark Industries is moving from Santa Clara to larger quarters here early next year. It plans to add 60 workers to its staff of 264 . . . Simplex Grinnell, a Dublin company that installs sprinkler and alarm systems, will increase its current staff of 130 by 100 more when it moves to a larger facility here.
MOUNTAIN VIEW - Telecom startup Fantasma Networks has shut its doors after running out of cash. The company had hoped to sell the FCC on a new type of wireless communication dubbed ultraband.
SAN JOSE - Caspian Networks, an Internet telecom, has cut its staff from 340 workers to 310.
SAN RAMON - OnDisplay, an Internet software company, is firing 50, closing its engineering department.
SANTA CLARA - All isn't calm at 3Com Corp, where 3000 workers - almost one third of its workforce - are being let go. The network equipment maker is cutting $1 billion in costs in its push to regain profitability . . . National Semiconductor will lay off 1100 workers, 10 percent of its workforce. The chipmaker cited slumping sales as the cause for the cutbacks . . . Fifteen percent of the workforce at Exodus Communications Inc, operator of Internet data centers for high-profile websites like Yahoo and Blockbuster, is asking 15 percent of its workers - about 675 employees - to exit.
VALLEJO - Former Naval base Mare Island has a new tenant. A Japanese corporation, Kinkishayro Co LTD, has leased a huge building to assemble 100-ft-long light-rail cars ordered by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. The firm is looking to add a dozen workers.
WOODLAND - Captus Networks Inc., a one-year old start-up specializing in anti-hacker technology, has landed $16.1 million in second-round funding. The company, which currently employs 91, hopes to have up to 145 workers by year's end.