Computer World: Congress to hear from replaced Disney IT worker in new hearing

February 23, 2016

By Patrick Thibodeau

Subcommittee to hold hearing Thursday on H-1B visa

The Senate Subcommittee on Immigration will hold a hearing Thursday on “The Impact of High-Skilled Immigration on U.S. Workers.” Its first witness will be an IT worker who trained his visa-holding replacement.

Leo Perrero, an IT worker at Disney until he was laid off in January 2015 — along with 200 to 300 co-workers — is one of six scheduled to testify.

This is not the first time lawmakers will hear this story.

Patricia Fluno, a computer programmer in Orlando, testified before Congress in 2003 about losing her job to a foreign worker.

“We lost our jobs and we had to train our replacements so there would be little interruption to Siemens,” said Fluno, in her testimony.

“This was the most humiliating experience of my life,” said Fluno.

The visa-holding “replacements are sitting at our old desks, answering our old phones, and working on the same systems and programs we did, but for one-third the cost. This is what a manager at Siemens told me,” said Fluno. The IT workers received an average salary of $75,000 each.

Others to appear before the congressional panel include John Miano, an attorney who has represented the Washington Alliance Technology Workers in litigation aimed at the H-1B program. … Read the full story by Patrick Thibodeau.