Harman Patil (Editor)

Programmers Guild

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Founded
  
1998

Office location
  
Summit, New Jersey

Members
  
400

Country
  
United States

Key people
  
John Miano, Founder Kim Berry, President

Website
  
www.programmersguild.org

The Programmers Guild is an American non-profit corporation that advocates against corporate outsourcing, the H1-B visa program and related topics. The Guild was founded in 1998 by John Miano, a New Jersey programmer. The current president is Kim Berry, a Sacramento based activist on outsourcing and family court issues. As of August 1999, the Programmers Guild had 400 members. The Programmers Guild is incorporated as a 501(c)4 non-profit corporation in New Jersey.

Contents

Mission

The stated mission of the Programmers Guild is to advance the interests of technical and professional workers in information technology (IT) fields and to improve the work and the workplaces of technical professionals across the spectrum of IT fields and disciplines.

The organization stands in opposition to:

  • Replacement by H-1B visa and L-1 visa workers
  • Outsourcing jobs to offshore contractors
  • Shifting jobs to overseas facilities
  • False claims of a labor shortage in IT professions
  • Conversion of pensions to cash balance plans
  • Age discrimination
  • Job ads drafted with intent to exclude U.S. applicants
  • Lack of respect for training, experience, knowledge, and past achievements

    • Actions

    The Programmers Guild claims that the use of guest worker programmers depresses wages in the computer industry. The Programmers Guild circulated the notorious Cohen & Grigsby video in which representatives of the firm explained to employers how "Not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker." This video got picked up by CNN's Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck among others. Founder, and now attorney, John Miano researches and writes on the usage of the H-1B visa program

  • On May 2, 2008 a civil court judge sided with the Programmers Guild in their complaint against a Pittsburgh computer consulting company and ordered it to pay $45,000 in penalties for discriminating against legal US residents by advertising only for developers on H-1B visas. The case was brought against iGate Mastech for placing an advertisement for thirty computer programmers in 2006 "that expressly favored H-1B visa holders to the exclusion of US citizens, lawful permanent citizens and other legal US workers" according to the US Department of Justice.

    • The Guild is a member of the Coalition for the Future American Worker.

    References

    Programmers Guild Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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