Trump vows executive order against H-1B abuses

Referring to fired Disney employees who were reportedly forced to train their replacements, he says: “We won’t let… this… happen… anymore.”

In his first trip to Iowa, a state where he trounced his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by more than 9 points, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to not let US companies replace American workers with H-1B labor.

“One of my first executive orders will be to ask the Department of Labor to investigate all visa abuses that undermine jobs and wages for the American worker,” he said.

Speaking at a thank-you rally at the Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines, the Republican said: “During the campaign I … 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.”

Trump was referring to the accusations by two former Disney employees — Leo Perrero and Dena Moore — that the entertainment giant had forced them to train the replacement workers and they were laid off.

“Can you believe that?” Trump continued. “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.”

As The American Bazaar reported in April 2015, Disney claimed the layoff, which happened in October 2014, was not intended to displace American workers. “We have restructured our global technology organization to significantly increase our [staff] focus on future innovation and new capabilities, and are continuing to work with leading technical firms to maintain our existing systems as needed,” a spokesperson for the company said at the time.

READ RELATED POSTS:

Disney wins lawsuit filed by Americans replaced by H-1B visa workers, but Cognizant, HCL America face new legal hurdle (October 14, 2016)

Bernie Sanders criticizes Walt Disney Co.’s use of H-1B visas, firing American workers (May 25, 2016)

Disney worker laid off with H-1B visa worker, critics lambast H-1B visa program before Congress (February 25, 2016)

OPINION: Walt Disney World should be ashamed of hiring H-1B visa workers to be trained by laid-off workers (January 28, 2016)

Mark Thompson, CEO, New York Times, is working on H-1B visa: Walt Disney World (January 26, 2016)

H-1B visa is abused, claims lawsuit by former Disney tech workers (January 25, 2016)

Training H-1B worker from India was like a guillotine, I was dead: Disney worker (October 30, 2015)

Hundreds of IT workers at Disney replaced by H-1B, L-1 visa workers from India (April 30, 2015)