All is not sunny at the Magic Kingdom. Disney is under fire today in the New York Times, which reports that H-1B visas are being used to replace hundreds of American tech workers at their Florida park with lower-paid substitutes. In many cases, the fired workers are being forced to train their replacements, a humiliating experience that probably explains why they're now leaking documents to the Times.
Technically, these visas are intended for foreigners to fill jobs for which there are no Americans to be found with the requisite skills. Their use should not exert downward pressure on worker wages and working conditions. However, companies are often under no firm obligation to prove they are meeting these guidelines, particularly as many of these visaed workers are simply employed through the local subsidiaries of foreign outsourcing agencies. With Puget Sound serving as a hub for many of these temporary workers in the tech industry, the debate over the proper use of these visas – and any additional new federal regulations regarding them – could end up having a substantial effect close to home.
