Tesla has replaced some of its US employees who were let go as part of a big wave of layoffs...

Summary

Tesla replaced many laid-off U.S. workers with foreign H-1B visa holders after a 2024 wave of layoffs affecting 15,000 employees.

These visas, tied to employer sponsorship, often lower compensation and give employers significant leverage over workers.

Critics argue this displaces U.S. employees, as senior engineers were replaced by lower-paid junior engineers.

CEO Elon Musk, while advocating for expanding H-1B visa caps, faces backlash, especially from conservatives, for “job-stealing” concerns.

Musk contends there’s a U.S. skill shortage, but critics highlight potential exploitation tied to Tesla’s demanding work culture and visa dependence.

  • ofcourse@lemmy.ml
    24·
    6 days ago

    I would love to see a source of this claim from the article for high skilled jobs. The H1B application requirements are so strict that you cannot hire them at lower wages than US workers.

    This has more to do with replacing experienced workers in “senior roles” with new workers in “junior roles”, except with the same role expectations.

    But yes, it is the case that H1B holders are more willing to be knowingly exploited to work in junior roles and lower salaries despite being fully aware of the shitty company practices. They are simply trying to live in a country they moved to legally, often studied in universities here, were included in the same layoffs, have to pay off the same mortgages, and often pay more taxes than equivalent domestic workers because none of the tax loopholes are available to them.

    So why blame them when it’s the employers who are skirting the law by misrepresenting role requirements rather than H1B workers stealing jobs?

    • ChlkDstTtr@lemmy.world
      8·
      6 days ago

      I don’t think any reasonable person is blaming the workers. In my experience the employers do two things:

      1. They hire H-1B workers at the bottom of the pay range (or as you said misrepresent the job)
      2. They do a half-assed (or no-assed) job of trying to fill the position with an American. They’re supposed to post the job and take applications, but I worked for a large corporation (for less than 2 years because I couldn’t stomach the culture) that would just post the job internally on bulletin boards knowing there were no eligible internal candidates that would see the physical posting.

      This is definitely an employer abuse problem, not a candidate problem.

      • ofcourse@lemmy.ml
        22·
        6 days ago

        The way this article is written though makes it appear like a domestic vs foreign worker issue. You can just look at all the comments here shitting on foreign workers.

        An employer only posting jobs internally is definitely against the law so the entire focus here should be on

        1. Employers doing illegal shit
        2. USCIS rules that make it possible for this exploitation to occur - through role responsibility misrepresentations, starting a ticking clock of 60 days for laid off H1B workers to find a new job, and not allowing them to start their own businesses (unless ofc you have daddy’s money to lie on your visa applications).