Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

As a white-skinned (yeah I just said that), top tier US university educated H-1b holder, I’m amazed at how much I can disagree with both sides at the same time. First of all, immigrants should not be “proud” of attending grad school in the US. All it probably means is that you could afford it and nothing more, so it doesn’t make any of us superior or smarter. Americans already have undergrad debt, imagine if they had to pay grad school too.
Is the H-1b system broken? Yes. Are the visa abusers from a certain country? Yes. But it’s most likely irrelevant to the FTE H-1bs at Nike (and any other big company). How you think Nike would hire FTEs from “degree factories” is beyond me… They’re not that stupid. They hire agencies for the dirty stuff. Also the fact that “so many CEOs are immigrants” is laughable and irrelevant. It’s a numbers game and it says nothing about the cognitive ability of an entire nation.

It is supposedly a requirement of the work visa that the job offer goes to the H-1b holder only if an American citizen with an equal skill set has not been found, after the job has been properly advertised. And the “H-1bs accept lower salaries and work longer hours” is all BS for the types of positions FTEs get at Nike. This only applies to the fraudsters from the staffing agencies, and those would only be contractors to Nike. So no, the H-1b you might have on your team is most likely not one of those people.

Gotta love identity politics.

Someone says H1B is broken and being used against workers with and without the visa.

They get called racist.

They bring receipts including a congressional report and the USCIS themselves.

Thread gets deleted because it breaks the narrative.

Another recent thread re H-B visa holders got deleted so I expect this thread will shortly as well, so here's my quick reply before this goes up in smoke lol: sad to see folks turning on each other which is literally how capitalism is designed to work. They've got us viciously fighting each other for table scraps while the SLT make out like robber barons. Stick together folks - it's the only way we'll ever get anywhere and earn true workers rights in the US. "United we bargain, divided we beg."

So food for thought. Nike made all its money from Black Athletes. Jordan, Serena, Tiger. The infrastructure is maintained by highly qualified legal immigrants with specialized skills. That is what gives you entitled frat boys a job. Respect all people. and don't confuse Legal immigrant with undocumented border jumpers which are the problem. 45% of the population is nonwhite so we are one nation. The Indians who work for Nike in Leadership are Americans. Indians create a lot of jobs with innovation and talent building companies that hire people. Next time you go to the Hospital you will find quite a few Indian Doctors, Surgeons and Nurses. We are all the decedents of Migrants. The question is to separate legal from undocumented. Nike has no undocumented people working for it so quit the bigoted commentary and grow up. We are all in this together.

Is now a good time to ask why these visas aren’t reciprocal?

The TN visa goes both ways. Canadians can work in America, Americans can work in Canada.

When will India, China, & others allow what they’re demanding from others?

@1lbh+1r7iGrpb

AI has no effect on H1B. There are shortage of AI professionals in the US and there is an executive order from the White House to retain AI talent: Open AI is opening an office in India to fuel their growth.

Please stop spreading hate 🙏 please stop fighting each other 🙏

LOL! Who knew Nike had so many H1B on the payroll? Well, they didn't until Ratnakar came aboard. Then the guy leaves after mucking everything up. Go figure. 60 days is too long

Just curious… honest question (from a non H1B)… have you all thought about how AI might affect your status in the coming years?

I want to thank you for this post. As an Indian American employee, I feel so disheartened by all of the recent racist posts. I’m actually in shock that I might be working with people who speak and feel this way. Immigrants are not the problem. They never have been. For the immigrant/BIPOC employees feeling their hearts breaking with all of these posts, I’m here with you. We are qualified, worthy, and our otherness is what makes us who we are ♥️. I think even if I survive this round of layoffs, I’m really considering leaving. I’ve worked at several companies and have never seen the level of racism. I hope that rather than pointing blame we can choose to come together and support each other.

First, we all come from somewhere whether born here or not. Somebody in your family came here and possibly started from the bottom like most past immigrants. Second, there was an invasion from India and had to do a lot because of they got training/education subsidized by their government or software satellite offices over there unlike American born citizens here that had to get into heavy debt in order to get an education. They speak English that is hard to understand at first but then you get used to it. A lot of people from India somehow got a shoe in searching for tech workers to place in government or private contracts ahead of everybody else. Possibly there was some sort of agreement to make them "recruiters". One implied requirement ought to be some cultural introduction because they cut the line always and in America, we don't do that. We respect others, especially when doing a line for something. Lastly, people from India do not "assimilate" for the most part and that is their biggest mistake. They don't adjust to our way of living, thinking and thinking. I am generalizing. They ought to start businesses like there is no tomorrow and help others as well and many do. They are smart and deserve the respect and love we give to others. Love thy neighbor as you love yourself someone said a long time ago....

@1swq+1r7iGrpb the oh poor me silver spoon so I deserve more is a hierarchy of trauma bullsh-t. There are plenty of people in this country who have no access to money or state support and to be fair, HEALTHCARE costs. You came here for an opportunity and now are complaining you’re not getting more

And yes there is enough people in tech here or you wouldn’t see hundreds of thousands of unemployed tech people who can’t get jobs for over a year because there are not enough jobs in tech right now.

Don’t come here with your my life in another country was hard so you should give me xyz bullsh-t. We all have struggles, and before you say anything I’ve lived in multiple countries and feel pretty damn clear about pros and cons of many of them.

"I would rather hire a US college grad than nearly 90% of the foreign-born, master-bred foreign students that I have encountered" - You are not alone in thinking this. Imagine the odds H1Bs have to face every time they are let go. A lot of companies will never even interview someone on a visa. You are having an upper edge always. Also all the tax money H1Bs on visa give to government funds this country. We even pay social security tax that does not benefit us a bit. We pay for the homeless aswell.

"What right do you have to push them down?" - we just gave the same interview that the US born person did. the company selected us despite having to pay extra for recurring visa transfer and legal costs. You should know that a lot of so called "self-taught" us graduates and "bootcamp learned" us citizens wont have a chance if the level playing field was same and the person interviewing never knew who they were interviewing or acted for the best interest of business rather than putting in their emotions.

"US isn't producing enough tech" - this is still true. why do you think tech is paid soo much? because there are not enough people to do it. companies dont have unlimited money and if they had options they would hire cheaper talent but there isnt enough available. do you honestly think your salary is justified for the amount of labor you put in physical or mental? if you believe so you are dreaming. you are just lucky to be born in a country which highly favors its own citizens than rest of the world and that talent is extremely rare here which drove the wages up. wait for some time, kids are learning to code, one day people like you will start crying that you were treated unfairly because of ageism in culture. the fact is that you need things to be on your side by birth or race in order to even survive if the playing field is same for everyone.

Also once laid off/fired, H1B gets nothing, no support of any kind while you get backing from state. H1B has to leave the country within 60 days, while you get breathing room. The person you are against is already fighting against soo many odds. Dont get me started on if they get a racist boss (which does happen). You were born here, the person on visa knows very few people here. Also I have seen US citizens do s-xual harassment and bad things, and still get another job, a person on visa has to leave the country even on a DUI or any sort of criminal charge. You are born with a silver spoon my friend, just dont speak up without understanding the struggles of someone else.

honestly people stop believing anyone is stealing your jobs or working for cheap here. these are false narratives fed to you by politicians for votes or organizations for donations. wake up and see things from your own eyes.

Canada has hundreds of “colleges” pumping masters degrees out of stripmalls.

But also. Who the funk relies on a masters degree in tech? We’re not writing the cutting edge here. It’s a bunch of CRUD & ReactJS.

I’d be embarrassed if I claimed that needed anything more than 2 years of education, let alone 6-8.

@1sgr+1r7iGrpb Because I think the US undergrad program is better than the masters program, which is why I would rather hire them. Most masters program is now filled with foreign students, and they aren't better just because they have a higher degree. In fact, they tend to be worse. No DEI is needed.

@1ivl+1r7iGrpb "I would rather hire a US college grad than nearly 90% of the foreign-born, master-bred foreign students that I have encountered" . That is why DEI plan is in place! Because of biased people like you

In other countries, a work visa is just that -- for work. If you don't have work, you need to leave. Why is it that H1B visa holders think they can come and expect to stay if they lose their jobs?

And don't think for a minute that you are so special that you are the only person who can do your job. Do you really think what you are doing is sooooooo difficult and specialized that out of the literally millions of people in the U.S, we can't find even one U.S. citizen to do your job? That's the ridiculous premise of the H1B visa program.

Let's all face it -- our government sold us up the river to big companies (tech in particular) so that they could get cheap foreign labor under the guise of "scarcity".

H1B visa started in 1990 and was encouraged by people like Bill Gates who wanted cheap labor for tech. The whole argument that "US isn't producing enough tech" is just bunk. There are plenty of US graduates to fulfill the requirements.

As for the foreign students in masters programs, the US undergrad program is actually harder to get into and more rigorous than most masters program in the US. It is a dirty secret that most universities don't tell you about since they want to collect money from the foreign students. And after sweating through the undergrad programs, most US students don't want to take on more debt to their masters. You wouldn't know this because you didn't go to undergrad here. I did, and I graduated from one of the top universities for both my undergrad and grad.

I would rather hire a US college grad than nearly 90% of the foreign-born, master-bred foreign students that I have encountered.

As for all of the H1B being in management, they hire their own. When the Rat came in, who did he bring in? A bunch of people that looked just like him. For all of the people whining about the white bro culture that Nike had (I am not defending this), where is your outrage when Ratnakar did the same frickin' thing?

America’s immigration is defined by bo-m & bust periods. People come when there’s work and not enough workers.

Apparently there were only 700 new IT jobs on the market in 2023.

Something like 85% of H1B visas are for tech workers. Why are we undercutting American wages, flooding the market with 72,000 extra workers? (Not even counting the annual +100,000 American CS graduates).

You’re willing to work anywhere in the world. These kids are trying to find a job near home.

What right do you have to push them down? There simply aren’t the opportunities you wish there were.

Bro.

Today’s H1B are not equivalent to tech’s Indian CEO’s. Those individuals were all networked and practically royalty before they moved over seas.

If we’re playing this game you should start calling me Rockefeller.

OP, you don't have to respond to trolls here. Btw I'm on an H1B