CWA Calls for Repeal of H-1B Program

Claiming that the H-1B visa program has "proven to be abusive of domestic workers in several ways," the Communications Workers of America union has passed a resolution condemning program abuses and called for the programs immediate repeal.

The CWA has had reservations about the visa program in past years, union officials said, but the straw that broke the camels back was President Bushs FY 2003 budget proposal, which proposes the elimination of a technical skills training program for American workers that is funded by the $1,000 fees paid by employers that file for H-1Bs. The Bush administration wants to shift some $138 million out of the current H-1B visa-generated training account and apply it, and all future funds, to faster processing of permanent foreign labor certifications—a move the CWA derided in its resolution as adding "insult to injury."

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"We did have reservations in prior years, but we ended up supporting the legislation as it was developed in Congress in that an education and training component was built into the program so companies would be contributing to the fund that would provide training opportunities for U.S. workers in a lot of these technical areas," said Candace Johnson, a spokeswoman for the CWAs national office, in Washington.

"We supported that element of the program as it went forward. But weve seen too many problems with it now."

The CWA represents more than 700,000 workers, the bulk of them in the telecommunications industry. The resolution was passed at the unions 64th convention earlier this month, in Las Vegas. The problems with the H-1B visa program as perceived by the CWA include this list as outlined in a draft of the resolution:

Its Time to Throttle Back on H-1B

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