By now we have all heard the news: Microsoft gave a lay-off to 14,000 of its workers in January 2009, and gave them severance pay.

Shortly afterward the company realized that because of a computer "glitch" workers had been overpaid on the order of $4,000.

USA Today Feb. 23, 2009
  

So, what does it do?

Microsoft mails out letter to about 25 laid-off employees asking for the money back. Several letters hit the internet and go viral. A red-faced Microsoft changes direction and allows the workers to keep the "overpayment"

CNet News
  

Meanwhile back in D.C. legislators have discovered H1-B visas.

In October the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS) released a report showing rampant fraud in the H-1B visa program.

Eleven people in six states were detained suspected of H1-b visa fraud on February 11th.

Also an IT services company, Vision Systems Group, has been indicted on ten federal counts including conspiracy and mail fraud.

Business Week
  

Amidst all the hoopla Microsoft seeks to distance itself from all the investigations and allegations of fraud, even as it lobbies for a doubling of the yearly cap on H1-b visas.

Yet the fact remains:
Microsoft was the U.S.-based company with the highest number of H1-B Visa Immigrant workers in 2008. How many exactly? Microsoft received approval for 1,037 visas.

Hmmm . . . bring in foreign workers then layoff American workers!
Absolutely no connection whatsoever we are reassured by Microsoft. :-)

Well, we have a suggestion for reassurance to Microsoft’s workers: unionize.

Don’t know where to begin?

Now it is time for them to join a union; this is one place to start as good as any:
WashTech/CWA was formed in 1998 by Microsoft contract employees in Redmond, Washington and quickly affiliated with the 700,000-member strong Communications Workers of America (CWA).

P.S. List of H-1B visa employers for 2008
  

Search and sort the database of employers who received approval for new H-1B visas

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