Pink Slips at Disney. But First, Training Foreign Replacements.
More and more reports are coming in that any growth or stability in US stocks is almost entirely due to cost cutting measures, like this one, not increased sales or productivity. Disney laid off 250 tech workers in Florida only to sponsor immigrants through H-1b visas to come in and do the exact same jobs. The immigrants, mostly from India, do not demand the same salary as the American workers they replaced. To add insult to injury, the laid off employees had to spend their last days on the job training their own replacements.
And when blue chip companies run out of places to cut..?
Don't assume the economy is as healthy as the indicators suggest.
From the New York Times:
"ORLANDO, Fla. - The employees who kept the data systems humming in the vast Walt Disney fantasy fief did not suspect trouble when they were suddenly summoned to meetings with their boss.
While families rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and searched for Nemo on clamobiles in the theme parks, these workers monitors computers in industrial buildings nearby, making sure millions of Walt Disney World ticket sames, store purchases and hotel reservations went through without a hitch. Some were performing so well that they thought they had been called in for bonuses.
Instead, about 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India..."
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