Energy Industry Layoffs and Strikes (Houston: racism, Koreans, park)

[swopoe]

Originally Posted by ethanw

I am an American Citizen paying my taxes and my dues just like every citizen of this country. Big difference. Unlike millions I came here legally in 89 and I happen to call this place home. I also happen to care about this place just like every other citizen. I never took one penny from the government and never will. I volunteer, donate and serve and probably do more than someone who is born here. Perfectly integrated and contributing citizen comes to mind.

This country is made of immigrants and I am sure your ancestors come from somewhere. Should you go back to Jerusalem? All will be then left is just native indians.

Real funny. I actually do have Native American blood, in addition to foreign blood (some been here since the 1880s). Do your kids go to public school? If so, you are taking from the government.

On the OP though, my husband's company laid off a ton of people in March. And the bonus this year is going to be a lot less. Lucky to still have a job though. No more talk of layoffs though, and they are starting new projects.

[testmo]

This drop is nothing like the 80s. The impact on houston has been minimal and things are improving. May drop again but just to what it was earlier (40s) and balance at what historical highs were (50s-70s).

Oil being over 100 was laughably insane.

And yeah Ethan's post was horrifically racist. You have announced you work at schlumberger. I guess you feel confident no one else here works there so you can keep your job...

[radiolibre99]

Then what's all the doom and gloom on here about?

[testmo]

People not managing projects in oil and gas can have their own opinions is my guess

[Memorialite]

ConocoPhillips to shed 1,000 jobs | Fuel Fix

[bazookabang]

Originally Posted by ethanw

What's a disgrace to this country is replacing hard working and perfectly qualified americans with cheap imports, and this is not about the imports origin or color of their skin. That is a TRUE DISGRACE.

Originally Posted by ethanw

I even outsourced some of my departments work to Prague and Argentina.

So, which one is it?

[fulshear]

ethanw- So, is your problem the quality of their work or their race/color?

If it's quality of work then I guess you guys are just hiring bottom of the barrel in order to save costs. Cheap engineers are substandard anywhere in the world. Good ones are expensive anywhere in the world. CEO's of GOOG and MSFT are not cheap nor their work is substandard.
Corporate america is not democracy, so you and your higher up buddies have all the power-simple solution just dont hire them.

If you have a problem with their race/color then you are just RACIST. [Of course you will say it isn't racism]


God bless you!!!!

[mos6502]

Lot of virtue signaling going on in here. If you want to talk about racism, explain to me why teams made up entirely of Indians don't raise eyebrows? This is rampant where I work in IT. Not an exaggeration, teams of 20+ plus people that are all Indian. I guarantee you that a team of 20 white folks would not be allowed.

Take a ride down the Metro Park and Ride route downtown after 5PM and watch the crowds lined up. Didn't look quite like this even 5 years ago, certainly not 10 years ago. I've seen the bill rates for contractors from TCS, InfoSys, etc. One quarter to one fifth that of US employees or contractors. Don't give me crap about quality, we're not talking about Silicon Valley here. Pure dollars and cents, the vast majority of these Indian contractors from the body shops are worthless, but when you can hire 2 or 3 and still come out cheaper than a US citizen, what does it matter to the higher ups? They think it won't ever happen to them, while the US citizens getting replaced are intimidated into silence by fears of being called "racist" or having their severance withheld.

At the place I work, the QA department just let go the remainder of their employees, all replaced by contractors from TCS. The entire QA department is now Indian, without exception. Total BS. And the company bleats constantly about diversity, but turns a blind eye when an Indian manager only hires other Indians.

When an H1B is hired, the company has to post a listing notifying everyone it is seeking an H1B and lists the wage offered. The last one posted here, for a software developer position, was for $66k. Almost 20 years ago, I was making $70k two years out of college as a software developer. See what H1Bs have done to wages? Almost two decades (and lots of inflation) later, compensation has gone down in both nominal and real terms.

All you people smugly patting yourself on the back for how enlightened you are may be singing a different tune when this sort of thing gets around to your field or company.

[v2four]

the last few pages of this thread have really "evolved" to say the least...

I will concur on the number of Indians and Pakistani's that seem to have taken over every IT, software and programming dept not only in Oil/Gas, but in energy, medical, education/academics and state/local governments...but, there are what, 1 Billion Indian citizens? and a couple hundred million pakistani's?

Its total BS that our major energy companies, who donate out the wazoo to both rethuglicans and demochumps, would be laying off thousands of American citzens and replacing them with H1B card carries from southeast Asia.

ever notice when you call a 1-800 number for any service, some foreign speaker with broken english is on the other end of the phone? when I get them, I hang up and call back.

back to the thread....both of parents worked in the Oil industry in the 80's...My mom was in contracts and I dont know what my dad did, but they were both laid off within a week of each other and it was freaking hell.

the same thing happening in O&G now happened in energy in the early part of this century when enron, dynegy, shell, calpine and others put 15k energy workers on the street.

our economy is a much better in 2016 than in 1983..Houston is more diversified, and Id say that Medical is now the bell cow here in Houston, with O&G coming in 2nd right now...however, no industry can stand the loss of 25,000 plus workers and business closures...it has a trickle down effect as resturants who used to feed those workers have to downsize or close, cleaners, daycare centers, grocery stores, lawn maintenance companies, etc.....

[fulshear]

Originally Posted by mos6502

Lot of virtue signaling going on in here. If you want to talk about racism, explain to me why teams made up entirely of Indians don't raise eyebrows? This is rampant where I work in IT. Not an exaggeration, teams of 20+ plus people that are all Indian. I guarantee you that a team of 20 white folks would not be allowed.

Take a ride down the Metro Park and Ride route downtown after 5PM and watch the crowds lined up. Didn't look quite like this even 5 years ago, certainly not 10 years ago. I've seen the bill rates for contractors from TCS, InfoSys, etc. One quarter to one fifth that of US employees or contractors. Don't give me crap about quality, we're not talking about Silicon Valley here. Pure dollars and cents, the vast majority of these Indian contractors from the body shops are worthless, but when you can hire 2 or 3 and still come out cheaper than a US citizen, what does it matter to the higher ups? They think it won't ever happen to them, while the US citizens getting replaced are intimidated into silence by fears of being called "racist" or having their severance withheld.

At the place I work, the QA department just let go the remainder of their employees, all replaced by contractors from TCS. The entire QA department is now Indian, without exception. Total BS. And the company bleats constantly about diversity, but turns a blind eye when an Indian manager only hires other Indians.

When an H1B is hired, the company has to post a listing notifying everyone it is seeking an H1B and lists the wage offered. The last one posted here, for a software developer position, was for $66k. Almost 20 years ago, I was making $70k two years out of college as a software developer. See what H1Bs have done to wages? Almost two decades (and lots of inflation) later, compensation has gone down in both nominal and real terms.

All you people smugly patting yourself on the back for how enlightened you are may be singing a different tune when this sort of thing gets around to your field or company.

Are you angry and pissed off at the higher ups who are screwing locals to save on project budget/get more bonus and the govt with their worker visa policies or the fact that Indians are coming?

I hope you understand that if not Indians those very higher ups/ govt will find the next third world country and you will be seeing the next wave of probably Nigerians.

If you really think the fault lies with Mexicans/Indians/Chinese because they come here and steal jobs then sir you are living in ignorance. Policy changes and strict enforcement of law at federal/state level can easily change that but hey the country needs cheap labor and at the end of the day IT'S ALL ABOUT MONEY.