Tesla has changed a few of its US workers who have been let go as a part of a giant wave of layoffs earlier this yr with overseas staff utilizing H-1B visas, which CEO Elon Musk is now campaigning to extend.
During the last week, Elon Musk has been selling the rise of H-1B visas, that are used to convey overseas staff into the US for “specialty occupations.”
Certified overseas staff have to be sponsored by an organization to get the visa, which lasts three years, extendable to 6 years, after which the holder must reapply.
The visa holder should preserve employment on the visa sponsor to retain the work visa. The employee must depart the nation if the employment ends for no matter cause. This has led to some criticism because it offers large energy to the employer and may result in a contemporary model of indentured servitude.
Whereas there are apparent advantages to bringing expert staff into the US, persons are divided on the difficulty as a result of these staff are sometimes paid lower than US staff, placing adverse stress on compensation, particularly within the tech trade, on high of the ethical questions on holding visas over the heads of overseas staff.
That’s why the US Congress has mandated a 65,000 visa cap limiting the variety of H-1B visas that may be issued every fiscal yr, plus an additional 20,000 for overseas individuals popping out of graduate applications at US universities.
Tesla has been a giant person of these visas, and its CEO, Elon Musk, has been utilizing his newfound political affect to advertise rising the cap of H-1B visas. He acquired vital pushback from his new associates on the correct aspect of the political spectrum within the US, who see this visa as getting used to steal jobs from People.
He’s fairly passionate concerning the concern, to say the least:
To be truthful, Musk didn’t come to the US on a H-1B visa. He got here on a pupil visa, and later, his personal brother admitted that they have been unlawful immigrants within the early days of launching their Zip2 startup within the US.
Tesla’s use of H-1B visas
Over the previous few days, a number of present and former Tesla staff reached out to Electrek to disclose that Tesla ramped up its use of H-1B visas to exchange US staff it let go throughout a wave of layoffs earlier this yr.
We reported that roughly US 15,000 workers have been let go at Tesla round April 2024. Each division was affected, however the layoffs have been concentrated in Texas and California, the place Tesla has extra staff than anyplace else.
Present and former Tesla workers stated that most of the laid-off US staff have been changed by overseas staff utilizing H-1B visas.
These claims are backed by US Division of Labor knowledge, which present that Tesla requested over 2,000 H-1B visas through the time it was shedding US staff (by way of Reddit):
Once more, there’s a cap of 65,000 visas for the complete US yearly, and Tesla alone tried to recover from 3% of them.
Tesla staff stated that many workers let go have been extra senior engineers with larger compensation they usually have been changed with junior engineers from overseas nations at a decrease pay.
Electrek’s Take
To be clear, I’m not taking a stance on H-1B right here. It looks as if there needs to be good makes use of for this visa, nevertheless it definitely might be abused. My purpose is to share extra info that would clarify why Elon would need extra of this visa for his companies, and perhaps not for the correct causes.
On the core, individuals see the issue of hiring staff from different nations who’re prepared to work for decrease pay than US staff – taking jobs from People and placing stress on total compensation within the US.
There’s definitely worth to the argument. Elon’s counterargument is that the US doesn’t have sufficient expert staff, and he wants to rent individuals from different nations to compensate.
This argument additionally has some worth, particularly for particular sectors, like manufacturing engineering, which has turn out to be much less widespread within the US.
Nonetheless, at Tesla and with Elon, the issue is way deeper than this.
The issue stems from the employer’s weight over the employees as a sponsor of their visas. Elon is famously arduous on staff, and he doesn’t like the normal 40-hour workweek. He typically pushes Tesla workers to work 60 to 80 hours per week.
Many Tesla workers have fortunately accomplished this for years, and the primary motivator has been the assumption in Tesla’s mission to speed up the arrival of electrical transport with a view to curb local weather change.
Some individuals nonetheless imagine on this mission, however Elon has eroded it over the previous few years by shifting concentrate on self-driving and advocating for eradicating EV incentives within the US. It’s changing into more durable to make individuals imagine that Tesla’s major purpose is to speed up the arrival of EVs when its CEO is speaking extra about Tesla changing into “probably the most useful firm on the earth” than its affect on local weather change. And let’s not neglect that he has spent an amazing quantity of effort and cash during the last yr to get deniers of the human affect on local weather change elected.
However he has discovered one other efficient strategy to encourage staff to work more durable and for longer hours: maintain a visa over their head.
The character of the H-1B visa being connected to your employer places large stress on the employees.
On high of it, Tesla, like many different firms utilizing H-1B visas, tends to rent from nations the place longer workweek are already the norm. For instance, India is already totally on a 6-day workweek.
I don’t wish to Tesla staff killing themselves working 80 hours per week, but when they do it passionately, by selection, for what they imagine to be a fantastic mission, it’s arduous to argue in opposition to that. It’s their selection.
But when they do it as a result of they need the “American dream” and they’re afraid that getting let go will kill or decelerate their probability of immigrating as a result of they’re within the nation on a H-1B visa, that looks like exploitation to me.
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