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IEEE
Orlando Section
PACE
(Professional
Activities Committee for Engineers)
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- Region
3 PACE Chair
Report
- Recent
efforts have been devoted to updating the roster
of PACE section chairs, and reassessing the
unemployment problem for electrical/electronics
engineers and computer scientists/systems
analysts. To this end, all Region 3 sections not
listing a current PACE chair were contacted and
requested to provide a name for the PACE
function. In some cases, this was a section
chair or past chair. That is a good choice
because of the breadth of experience a volunteer
has accumulated by the time s/he becomes a past
section chair.
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- A
problem was identified in the delay encountered
in updating the RAB geographic roster with new
information. The contact work was done in
February, and most sections organize their
offices for the coming year in December, but
several sections reported that the information
still posted in February was not the latest that
they had submitted to IEEE Hq.
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- In
connection with this roster updating was an
effort to encourage participation in the Seattle
PACE Workshop next weekend, for which Sean
Haynes is both the conference chair and the
Region 3 budget coordinator. There are 21 Region
3 attendees signed up who are not region
officers.
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- The
Grassroots Priorities for IEEE-USA in this
Workshop include H-1B Visas, UCITA (Uniform
Computer Information Transactions Act - a
state-by-state issue but one with far-reaching
implications), R&D Policy (as industry cuts
back on R&D for engineering technology,
goverrnment can take up the slack by pushing for
a doubling of funding over five years in this
field as it already has for the life sciences),
and IT Security Issues (one of the problems with
offshore outsourcing is the transfer of your
personal data to India (where American Express
has its service desk/back office operation now)
or Malayasia.
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- Lee
Stogner will present how services and products
can be delivered to IEEE section members. Ken
Doniger, chair of the Employment & Career
Services Committee will present on members'
careers, professional development, and
employment issues.
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- One
of the issues in continuing education is the
funding of training for displaced engineers. The
H-1B visas include a $1,000 fee to pay for
worker training, but this typically has gone to
students and to lower-level non-degreed workers
-- not to the workers actually displaced by
H-1Bs (who must have a degree or "equivalent
work experience".
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- Communications
at the section level are essential if PACE is to
reflect the "real world" to our leaders on
Capitol Hill. We have learned, for example, that
unemployment statistics for engineers typically
understate the extent of unemployment. This
occurs because the method used by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics to define unemployment is a
sampling poll, called the Current Population
Survey. An engineer laid off for an extended
period of time, who takes a job as a school
teacher to make the mortgage payments, is no
longer counted as an unemployed engineer, but as
an employed schoolteacher. Even so, just taking
the BLS data at face value, when engineering
managers are also included, the unemployment
numbers for EE/CS/SA approaches a quarter
million.
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- One
non-member, working as a direct employee in IT
for a financial firm in Tampa, reported that she
was being displaced as the work was outsourced
to another firm. In that case it was not clear
whether the outsourcing was overseas, but
another case, in central Florida, involved
replacing U.S. software engineers, working as
consultants, with Indian software engineers,
also working as consultants. The latter came
into the U.S. through intra-company transfers on
L-1 visas, from Tata Consultancy India to Tata
Consultancy U.S., where they were detailed to
the company purchasing their services much as a
job-shopper would be. This case was highlighted
in a TV investigation by an Orlando TV station
and also reported by Business Week. The company,
Siemens, well-known as a German maker of power
equipment, had attempted to shore up its bottom
line several years ago by acquiring
telecommunications assets (the central Florida
plant was a maker of telecom switching
equipment). However, with the collapse of the
telecom sector, it was attempting to cut its
costs further. The company's response to the TV
reporter stated just that -- it was a cost
cutting move to displace 20 U.S. engineers and
replace them with Indians.
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- Verizon
Communications' chief information officer, known
as a cost cutter, was quoted as saying he could
hire three Indian software engineers for the
price of one U.S. one (Wall Street Journal,
March 11, page 1).
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- The
PACE chairs in each section can assist by
monitoring the unemployment situation and
reporting it to area/council and regional PACE
officers.
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- Newsletter
editors can publicize the IEEE-USA Legislative
Action Center, where links are available
simplifying communicating with legislators on
such key issues as engineering unemployment.
https://capwiz.com/ieeeusa/home/
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- I'll
appreciate any feedback from Region 3 members
that may help in putting our case before the
policy-makers.
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- For
some other insights on the problems the U.S.
faces, see the book "America: Who Stole the
Dream?", by Donald L. Barlett and James B.
Steele, 1996, Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel;
paperback, $9.95 (241 pp.). It is available for
bulk purchase at a quantity discount, from
Special Sales Department, Andrews and McMeel,
4520 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
64111.
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- The
same authors earlier wrote "America: What Went
Wrong?"
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- The
cover notes that both authors are investigative
reporters for the Philadelphia Inquirer who have
won Pulitzer Prizes for their work.
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- George
McClure
- g.mcclure@ieee.org
- 407-647-5092
- Fax
407-644-4076
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