Laid-off American tech workers again file suit against Disney in growing H1-B visa scandal, and another call to boycott Disney goes out

The H1-B scandal has now proven Disney will sell out American workers on U.S. soil for their own greedy profits
On October 14, 2014, about 250 American tech workers at Disney World, Florida were told by their Disney managers that they were being laid off and replaced by cheaper foreign IT workers, brought in to the U.S. from India on temporary H1-B guest work visas through dubious offshore "insourcing" firms.

President-elect Donald Trump has now said he will go after companies like Disney
who abuse the H1-B visa program that target American workers on U.S. soil, but much
more can be done as we are calling for a boycott of all Disney products and services
until Disney fires all their H1-B foreign hires and rehires all the tech workers they fired
The news was bad enough, but before these Americans were formally out of a job in January 2015, the displaced American tech workers at Disney World were told they would suffer one last humiliation at the hands of their former Disney masters in having to train their foreign replacements before getting the ax from their ungrateful and greedy former bosses; otherwise, they wouldn't receive any severance pay.

In what could only be described as the single most blatant abuse of backward U.S. immigration laws to displace American workers from their jobs on U.S. soil, solely for the explicit purpose of corporate greed, the Walt Disney Company was thoroughly and publicly shamed for the move, but they have since stubbornly refused to rectify the situation by rehiring many of the laid off IT workers after the story of their greed and selfishness hit the fan in the New York Times in June of 2015.


According to very defiant Disney officials, those American jobs apparently are never going to return to any American workers, despite the fact that all those jobs are all still here on U.S. soil being filled exclusively by foreign tech workers brought into the country on very shady temporary guest work visas and were not exported off to a foreign call center or factory overseas, as other American jobs were exported out of the country as in the case with Carrier or Rexnord in Indiana will be to Mexico.

Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger has no regrets firing 250 Disney tech
workers and replacing them with cheap foreign guest visa holders from
overseas because his pockets got much fuller from the move
So now 30 of those employees who are out of job have filed another federal lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court of Orlando, Florida, alleging discrimination by the Walt Disney Co. on the basis of national origin and race.

Who is Disney discriminating against, you ask? Americans.

The fired Disney employees' attorney, Sarah Blackwell, said the Disney IT workers "lost their jobs when their jobs were outsourced to contracting companies. And those companies brought in mostly, or virtually all, non-American national origin workers."

The new suit alleges Disney violated their workers' civil rights by systematically discriminating against the employment of American high-tech workers "based solely on their national origin and race, replacing them with Indian nationals."

"It was unfathomable for me to think that this would happen," said one of the laid-off Disney IT workers Leo Perrero, "that people would be physically replaced by workers who came in from offshore and were now here in person to replace us."

This is the second lawsuit filed by Disney tech workers represented by Blackwell against the Walt Disney Company. 

A federal lawsuit filed in January by two displaced Disney IT workers against Disney and two IT outsourcing contractors, HCL, Inc. and Cognizant, alleged Disney conspired with those shady outsourcing companies to deliberately discriminate against better-qualified U.S. workers to exploit cheaper foreign labor.


The previous suit, however, lost a key ruling in federal court and was dismissed in October.


This latest legal filing brings in a separate claim, following a different grievance where the parties first filed discriminatory labor practice complaints against Disney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC.)

Donald Trump's surprise upset win in the Presidential elections in November,
reminiscent of Harry Truman's win over Thomas E. Dewey in 1948, was largely
due to his message of saving American jobs resonating among America's
working class in middle America, the rust-belt, and the State of Florida
Since a settlement was not reached, the EEOC then issued the plaintiffs a right to sue letter.

It appears Disney is continuing to be defiant in their egregious abuses of the H1-B visa program and thumbing their noses to the current political tide against displacing and outsourcing American jobs with cheaper foreigners, but the outrageous catch in this particular situation is they are doing here it on U.S. soil, exploiting foreign workers while at the same time hurting American interests for the sole purpose of corporate greed.

In interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger was asked about the company's decision to replace U.S. tech workers with cheaper foreign visa holders in June of 2016.

Like the corporate weasel that he is, Iger defended "insourcing" American jobs on U.S. soil and putting many Americans out of work for the sake of corporate greed and selfish reasons, arguing that it helped Disney upgrade its technology and created more non-American jobs then were lost to more deserving American who need the work to help support their families.


However in typical corporate weasel fashion, Iger only expressed regret about "the way the outsourcing was handled."

Various 'America First' groups have previously called for a boycott of Disney
In the past for replacing American workers with foreign workers on U.S. soil
"The mistake that was made is that we asked people who were leaving to help train this their successors," Iger disingenuously lamented. "That's common in the business, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's right. And looking back, I'm sorry that we did that because there's something insulting about that. That got a huge amount of attention and rubbed people the wrong way, and I completely understand why it would. It's just does not pass the smell test, even if It is common practice."

In other words, Iger said Disney held its nose and abused the law to put 250 U.S. tech workers out of the job to enrich their own pockets and did it in the most insulting way possible, but they're not sorry one bit about doing it. They're only sorry that they got caught, but will do it again, if given the chance.


If the new federal lawsuit is allowed to go to trial, Bob Iger is likely to be deposed and put on this stand in court to testify about Disney's outrageous decision to abuse U.S. immigration laws to displace American workers.

It's time again to boycott all Disney products and services
"I think he is hypocritical by making a public admission that what he did was not okay without ever reaching out to any of the people that were really the victims," said Sarah Blackwell, attorney for the laid-off Disney tech workers. "He is creating a lot of problems and a lot of heartache."

There's good reason to be still worried if you're an existing Disney IT worker. There are still thousands of tech workers whose jobs are in jeopardy at ABC and Disney's various other subsidiaries in New York, Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale and Sherman Oaks.

Iger's disturbing views about offshore "insourcing" of American jobs to foreign visa holders on U.S. soil may also affect many more American jobs than those just at Disney in the tech sectors in Silicon Valley and across corporate America.

Bob Iger serves as the co-chair of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a controversial, un-American and very unpatriotic group of U.S. firms that advocates for the expansion of importing foreign H-1B visa workers from overseas to replace American workers on U.S. soil.

Iger was also recently appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to a presidential advisory forum, along with 15 other business leaders across the country, to help the President "bring back jobs and make America grade again," according to a Trump transition team announcement; however, it appears now President Donald Trump will push back on business leaders, like Bob Iger of Disney, who have abused the H1-B visa program in the past at the expense of America's interests, domestically.


As part of his "thank you" tour in a post-election rally in Iowa last Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump specifically reaffirmed his campaign promise that he would not allow Americans to be replaced by foreign workers, in an apparent reference to specific cases like that of Disney and other America companies who have previously abused the H1-B work visa program, specifically to put hard-working and highly educated Americans out of work.

It's time again to call for a boycott of Disney for hurting American workers on
U.S. soil by abusing and also breaking existing immigration laws
"We will fight to protect every last American life," President-elect Trump told thousands of his supporters in Iowa, referencing the Disney case. "During the campaign I also spent time with American workers who were laid off and forced to train the foreign workers brought in to replace them. We won't let this happen anymore."

"Can you believe that?" Trump went on to say in disbelief to loud cheers and applause from the crowd who helped him get elected. "You get laid off and then they won't give you your severance pay unless you train the people that are replacing you. I mean, that's actually demeaning maybe more than anything else."


There's was no doubt in Trump's speech in Iowa that he was putting Disney in the cross-hairs and putting them on notice to not only stop their H1-B visa abuses, but undo their previous actions at Walt Disney World by reinstating the 250 IT workers that were wrongfully fired. (See video of Trump at the top of the article.)

Time and time again, Disney has scrooged the American worker
If it was unclear to you whom Trump was referring to, he said, "And you know the name of one of the companies that's doing it. I'm going to be nice because we're trying to get that company back."

Clearly, Trump has reiterated he not forgotten his campaign promises, specifically in regards to ending the policy of insourcing American tech jobs at Disney World to cheap foreign guest visa workers.

During the Republican Presidential debates, Donald Trump made specific references to the H1-B visa programs numerous times that had displaced hundreds of American workers with temporary guest visa workers from overseas on American soil. 

Trump vowed during his presidential campaign that these kinds of H1-B program abuses would end from greedy corporate American companies like the Walt Disney Company who are out to hurt American workers.  

At this point, it seems to be a certainty that President Donald Trump will not only confront business leaders like Bob Iger to make a personal plea to save American jobs, but if that doesn't work to get their cooperation, Trump will likely also pressure them with sanctions, added taxes, or other onerous governmental regulations for hurting America's interests domestically.


But there is much more that can be done to make sure that greedy and unpatriotic companies like Disney comply with an "America first" agenda in the labor market. 


We endorse a boycott of all Disney products and services by patriotic Americans concerned about companies like Disney that do not put America's interests first. 


Disney needs to be made an example of to all other companies thinking about doing the same thing since they have been the most egregious violator of the nation's immigration laws to serve their own selfish purposes at the expense of American workers.

Since they don't appear to be afraid of the law, since they have high-paid lawyers that can fight for them in the courts and they can buy off politicians with their deep pockets, the only things they appear to be afraid of are bad publicity and being hurt in the pocket books by a consumer backlash.

Therefore, if you believe Disney is wrong in replacing American workers with foreign guest visa workers, we ask you to boycott all Disney-related products and services until they do the right thing, pledge not to fire any more American workers who will be replaced by foreigners, and hire back their laid off tech workers from 2015.

Don't go to their movies (i.e., Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, especially Rogue One, etc.), attend their theme parks, buy their toys or other consumer or digital products, buys their DVDs, watch their various television media channels, cancel your subscriptions to their cable channels, don't buy tickets to their special events, don't shop in their retail districts or support any of their operating participants in their various retail districts (e.g., Downtown Disney, Disney Springs, etc.)


There already is a call from various pro-Trump groups to boycott Disney's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, starting Friday when the movie opens worldwide in the movie theaters. Don't attend the movie. We hear it's a dud anyway, so you're not missing much to begin with.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has a long history of short-changing
American workers and artists by conspiring with other movie
studios to suppress free market competition for all workers
Virtually all of Disney's business segments and divisions are currently down during the holiday seasons with attendance dropping in their theme parks, consumer products sales plummeting and revenues from their media networks dropping, so Disney has been trying to make up the difference by squeezing more money from existing guests and consumers.

Don't splurge on the extras that Disney is offering if you decide to patronize any Disney-related business (e.g., buy preferential parking, show/dining packages, special tours, etc.)

The purpose of the boycott is to force Disney to act as a more responsible corporate citizen in this country, which in the past they have not been. 

Anyone who has stayed in the Disneyland or Disney World hotel knows that Disney also exploits the hiring of a lot of cheap undocumented labor in their hotels that depresses wages for all Disney workers. All that has to and will come to an end.

This idea isn't new and has been tried before, but the changing current political and economic climate under a new Trump administration and the reversal of Disney's fortunes of late in their business operations certainly makes the likelihood of success from a boycott from the public much more probable for success now more than ever before.


Spread the word to everyone you know. It's time to publicly shame Bob Iger and The Walt Disney Company to do the right thing, which is to do right by their long-suffering, overworked, and underpaid employees. Boycott Disney!


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