Nuisance lawsuits and threats of legal entanglement, long used by Indian H-1b labor contractors to silence Indian tech workers, have now been aimed at an American tech worker website, endh1b.com, for reposting an Indian H-1B worker's testimony of mistreatment by Apex Technology Group.
A New Jersey judge sided with Apex Tenchnology Group on Wednesday and ordered Facebook, Yahoo, and Comcast and to reveal the identities of three John Does named in the injunction. Endh1b.com's hosting company has already complied with the order and shut down the site.
If successful, this injunction will threaten every American's security to post their workplace complaints anonymously. It will create a credible threat that, at any time, web hosting and web site companies could be forced to reveal the identity of anonymous posters.
The silencing of both American and Indian IT worker sites will also put a chill on the nascent movement to end the legal discrimination of American IT professionals and end the exploitation of Indian IT workers on corporate H-1b and L-1 visas.
How do I know about this intimidation?
Because in 2007, I helped the owner of goolt.com, an India H-1b tech worker website, respond to this intimidation from another Indian labor contractor.
Because EBusinessware, a heavy user of the h-1b program, successfully forced PRNewswire to remove Brightfuturejobs.com's press release from their site when I refused to remove their "H-1b targeted want ad" for 12 job openings in Pennsylvania. See their ad for yourself, #5 in the series.
(Businessweek featured a link to the offending "H-1b Only Want Ads" in their coverage and Senator Durbin’s S.887 Corporate Visa Reform Act will bar companies from placing such targeted ads. These provisions are also included in Rep. Gutierrez’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill.)
So what prompts these companies to intimidate us?
It’s the posting of illegal, but wide-spread use of bond contracts. Bond contracts indenture an employee to the company for a specified length of time. If the employee leaves the company, her/she is forced to pay exorbitant fees to the employers.
Endh1b.com reposted an abbreviated version of this post:
http://ripoffatapextgi.blogspot.com/
While American and Indian tech workers openly quarrel and flame each other on the internet, both segments are united on the principle that IT workers should be free from corporate intimidation when they post personal testimony about their treatment.
Below are portions of an email message from the editor of Techgoss.com, an Indian tech web site:
Hello from Techgoss
While we may not agree with you on some points, we certainly respect
your freedoms to blog and write what you feel like. In fact, my personal
opinion is that you write very well.
As you would have seen from my articles, I make it a point to tell the
Indian tech community both sides of the story. We feel that in a democratic system they should hear your version as well and so we have linked to your postings as well.
Once again, many thanks for updating us. Be assured our only interest is to give the truth to our readers.
Please keep us in the loop. Confidentiality guaranteed.
The widespread coverage of Pilipino teachers’ indentured servitude from these bond contracts could not have gained the American Federation of Teachers attention without the expectation that anonymous posts would remain anoymous.
American workers, especially those that don't have access to unions, rely on the internet for confidential reviews of an employer's HR practices. This is not just an issue of free speech, but an essential tool to fight back against an employer's intimidating tactics to squelch "word-of-mouth" wisdom.
As an American techie, I will not allow this intimidation to prevent us from transforming the circumstances of our lives and restoring the America Dream.
Here's the judgement:
http://www.brightfuturejobs.com/...
Here's an idea of endh1b and what a former h-1b has to say about the program: http://www.halfsigma.com/...
As a Kossack, can you get the word out to progressive bloggers and come up with creative actions to defend our ability to fight against employers that intimidate us when we post on the internet?