Nevada construction worker Paul Arnold will be standing out front of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Saturday with his 8-year-old son, leading a protest and calling for a boycott of the iconic American company for its anti-American hiring policies.
But more than anything he said he’ll be protesting the policies of GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
It was Disney’s decision to fire 250 tech workers in its IT department and force them to train their foreign replacements. The Indian workers who will replace them will come to America on H1B “guest worker” visas and earn about $62,000 per year, compared to the $100,000 salaries of the Americans they replaced.
Arnold said he realizes that the entertainment giant was merely taking advantage of laws that allow businesses to give American workers the heave ho in favor of cheaper foreign labor — but it’s members of Congress like Rubio who are the real problem.
Rubio, who supported the immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013 but died in the House, now wants to triple the number of H1B visas handed out to temporary guest workers every year. He is co-sponsoring the “I-Squared” bill with a group of Democrats and moderate Republicans.
‘The amnesty man’
Rubio, who portrays himself as a strict conservative on the presidential campaign trail, “just doesn’t get it” when it comes to outsourcing American jobs, said Arnold, who heads up an anti-amnesty group called Make Them Listen.
He is partnering with John Oliver of Floridians for a Sustainable Population in calling for a boycott of Disney.
“For some reason, a lot of people like Rubio as a candidate and I have no idea why,” Arnold said. “The guy has lied time and again. He was on the Gang of Eight and to this day he’s pushing for the I-Squared bill and still supports amnesty. We call him the amnesty man.”
“But a lot of Republican voters don’t know what’s going on,” Arnold said, and they’re fooled by Rubio’s boyish charm and articulate speaking skills. “They don’t pay attention. They don’t dig too deep. They’re too impatient.”
Rubio is working with Democrats like Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to co-sponsor the I-Squared bill, which is also supported by Disney CEO Bob Iger, and a host of corporate lobbies that want to bring in more foreign guest workers with technology skills, even though studies show American IT graduates are coming out of universities and finding a shortage of IT job openings. Wages for IT workers have also been stagnant for the past 10 years, which economists such as Ron Hira of Howard University and Hal Salzman of Rutgers say is a direct symptom of the glut of IT workers in the U.S.
Hear Professor Hal Salzman’s congressional testimony on how corporations exploit the H1B guest-worker visa system:
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So why would Rubio want to bring in more foreign IT workers?
Some say that question is best answered by looking at his major backers.
The I-Squared bill has the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Software Alliance and heavyweight execs from Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Google among others.
Rubio made a fundraising stop on June 9 to the home of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, seeking fresh cash for his presidential campaign, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Oracle’s top dogs have repeatedly made clear they’re big backers of comprehensive immigration reform,” wrote the Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci.
Oliver will be leading a protest against Disney World in Orlando at same time Arnold is protesting at Disneyland in Anaheim.
“My son and I drove down here all night from Tahoe, got here at 3 in the morning, and found Travelocity did not book our hotel room,” he said. “But we finally got a room and we’re ready to go.”
The protest runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
James Neighbors of Overpasses for America is also expected to participate in the protest rally, as is Robin Hvidston from We the People Rising.
Disney last week responded to the boycott in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel, saying they planned to ramp up their hiring and will focus on hiring Americans this time around.
“So I think we’ve already kind of had a little victory in that Disney even commented on what we’re going to do,” Arnold said. “They said they’re expanding their IT department.”
The question is, will Disney hire back those it laid off?
“They haven’t said that,” Arnold said, but the media coverage of the outsourcing of 250 high-paying tech jobs has had an impact.
“After the media did all those articles about it they came back and said they hired some of those people back, 100 or so of them, but there are articles in ComputerWorld saying only a few were hired back and they got a new job within the Disney empire making lower wages than they were making before.”
“They had originally replaced 250 so I just think it’s funny they are now saying they are increasing their IT department. If that was their plan then why did they fire 250 to begin with?
“And these were seasoned employees, many of whom had received commendations for doing a good job. Another thing Disney said is they replaced those workers with H1B workers because they’re focusing on innovation. The thing is the largest employer within the empire is Disney Parks and Resorts, and their job was to maintain the system for everyday operations like ticket sales and operations. They said the H1B replacements were hired for future innovation. ”
Arnold and Oliver also have a petition on their website, boycottdisneynow.com.
Disney not alone
While Disney may be the best known of the companies that have exploited the H1B visa laws, they are just one of many such corporations.
Southern California Edison, Cargill, Harley Davidson, Deloitte, Northeast Utilities, and other corporate giants have all used the H1B to replace American tech workers with foreigners who will work for about one-third lower salaries.
Rubio is one of eight Republicans and four Democrats to co-sponsor the “I-Squared” bill in the U.S. Senate. It would triple the number of temporary guest workers allowed into the U.S. on the H1-B visa each year, from 65,000 to 195,000, while also allowing the visa holders to bring in family members and handing out unlimited visas to universities.
News broke June 26 that another Florida company, the St. Petersburg-based digital media firm Catalina Marketing, is employing the Disney strategy, using foreign workers to replace 50 of its IT workers and making the Americans train their foreign replacements.
Rubio, along with Jeb Bush, are the most vocal GOP supporters of the guest-worker program, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, where Cargill replaced 900 U.S. workers last year, is also on board with the program.
Arnold said he won’t give up the fight against corporate outsourcing and their enablers in Congress.
“I’m a stone mason. I’ve lost jobs because of bad immigration policies,” he said. “I’ve suffered. I’ve devoted my life to stopping this.”
Iger, the Disney CEO, has served on the board of the Partnership for a New American Economy or PNAE, one of two powerful corporate lobbying groups pushing for I-Squared, the resettlement of Third World refugees into American cities and other mass immigration programs.
The other group is Fwd.us, headed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
On the Fwd.us website is this statement:
“FWD.us has focused on immigration reform first because America’s broken system prevents far too many talented immigrants from fully contributing to our communities and our economy. FWD.us supports a comprehensive legislative fix to our broken immigration system. It’s been a hard fight, but we have celebrated great victories along the way. Thanks to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, nearly five million individuals will soon be able to apply for work permits to contribute to our economy, and millions of families will live free from the fear of deportation and separation from their loved ones. Additionally, the White House has pledged to make it easier for immigrant entrepreneurs to come to the United States to create American jobs, and for the world’s best and brightest to continue contributing to our country after studying at our universities.”
PNAE has the same agenda but has a powerful membership roll that includes top CEOs plus the mayors of most major U.S. cities.
“These mayors, they’re under pressure from all the businesses in their cities, so the mayors want to get that immigration reform through,” Arnold said. “They couldn’t get that passed so now they’re trying to increase visas and make it easier for people to come here legally. That’s even worse. A lot of people say ‘we welcome legal immigration,’ but they just don’t understand the results are the same.”
