tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12242254916319087162023-11-20T01:15:34.242-08:00PDX-TIE.ORGUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-10423983511643596842023-03-24T14:33:00.013-07:002023-04-13T19:02:01.621-07:00Walking on Water<br /><p align="center" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguExsGWzXi25RdpN1gwHZ6iO81xle2pshAUvKBDBa1KerRfO4XvLyGImOGYaoNYopw0QxY70M2fexsNysTlvjA83tc7LY7Wgfn1z2w65UVtyGqhgAMaML0PpaGs7f5OXgc6u5VEjSKGsnc3IfkteaOCZT--0iC8q7o1-QD2bamTrvABjjJQ7aWWUBfIw/s2048/image.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1532" height="623" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguExsGWzXi25RdpN1gwHZ6iO81xle2pshAUvKBDBa1KerRfO4XvLyGImOGYaoNYopw0QxY70M2fexsNysTlvjA83tc7LY7Wgfn1z2w65UVtyGqhgAMaML0PpaGs7f5OXgc6u5VEjSKGsnc3IfkteaOCZT--0iC8q7o1-QD2bamTrvABjjJQ7aWWUBfIw/w465-h623/image.jpeg" width="465" /></a></i></span></div><span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i><br /> </i></span><p></p><p align="center" class="western"><span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>Walking
on water, where angels fear to tread</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>I
dream of us marching to the rhythm of a band</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
music is thunder, the music of a gale</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
wind keeps on blasting and the sky is spitting hail</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
chimneys of the sky break open and swell</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>And
the whirlwind is swinging and sounding the bell</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
crest of the waves is foaming with pride</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>They
welcome each other with a head-crushing ride</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
eye of the storm is conducting the score</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>It
gestures and points the baton to the shore</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>A
platoon of cyclones reacts to the call</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>They
escort the fat lady back to the South Pole</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>Like
all things in life, a peak has been reached</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>It
is time for good nature to return to its creed</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
big parade can no longer hold its glory</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>Time
to begin a new chapter of a never-ending story</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>As
if they were walking the plank, right at dawn</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
almighty flotilla of breakers is gone</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>The
gold solar ball not a ghost would dare face</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>Categorically,
this was the end of the race</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>What
a show that is was, not a run of the mill</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>I
thank you oh Zeus for the scare and the thrill</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>Walking
on water, keeps my dreams afloat</i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i>However
I’d rather wake up cheerfully, sailing in a boat!</i></span></p><p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p><div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Copyright(c) 2023 by Ron Tsur<br /></span></div>
<p align="center" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><style type="text/css">p { color: #000000; line-height: 120%; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-US }p.cjk { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt }p.ctl { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: ar-SA }</style><span style="font-family: Ubuntu Light; font-size: large;"><i> <br /></i></span></p>
<style type="text/css">p { color: #000000; line-height: 120%; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-US }p.cjk { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt }p.ctl { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: ar-SA }</style>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-16561136418056017722021-02-17T14:30:00.328-08:002022-07-02T20:09:35.526-07:00The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Issues Legal "Determination" Finding Intel Corp. Systemically Violated Civil Rights of its Older Employees<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.208px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""trebuchet ms", sans-serif">All
truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it
is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.</span></span></i></span><br style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18.48px;" /></span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18.48px;" /><span face=""arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18.48px;"> --Arthur Schopenhauer</span></span></span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #3e3f42; display: inline; float: none; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">1858 Days and Still Counting</span></span></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;">On February 12th, 2021, the Federal <b>Equal Employment Opportunity Commission</b> (<b>EEOC</b>) issued a Determination letter with a legal finding that Intel Corp. systematically violated Civil Rights of its employees. The finding was issued in conjunction with the 2015 layoffs action in which 1,155 employees were permanently laid off, in addition to several hundred additional employees and managers who were forced to accept early retirement.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: red;"><b>It took the EEOC, a U.S. Federal law-enforcement agency, more than 5 years (61 months) to issue its Determination Letter to both Intel Corporation and the affected employees, who were laid off in 2015. </b></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">What did the EEOC do during the 1858 days, since a formal complaint against Intel Corporation was officially filed with the EEOC?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">The official position of the EEOC is that it is <b>"working with the Employer"</b>. What does it mean? <b>A law enforcement agency of the U.S. Government <span style="color: red;"><u>collaborating</u></span> with a Civil Rights law violator?</b></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Note that according to U.S. Federal law</span><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">29 C.F.R. § 1601.6(a). <span style="color: red;">The
EEOC field office can request issuance of a Commissioner charge for
inquiries that relate to individual or systemic discrimination. A
Commissioner also may file a charge without receiving a referral from a
field office</span>. </span></span> <br /></b></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Are we facing yet another case of "Corporate Welfare" program where a U.S. Government agency is hiding from the public the ability to examine and understand the substantial systemic Civil Rights violations facts of the case? Is this a case where a corporation such as Intel Corp. gets immunity from prosecution or from exposure to public scrutiny, just because of its monetary wealth and Washington D.C. lobbying powers?</b></span></span> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Note that the EEOC already found Intel Corp. guilty of multiple violations of the ADEA as evidenced by multiple, official legal determination letters, issued by the EEOC. After more than six years of process, what prevents the EEOC from filing its own law suit against Intel Corp. and by doing so deterring bad actors from further violations, in addition to recouping the cost of litigation from a <b>serial law violator</b>?</span><br /></span></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>The Human Capital Factor</b><br /></h2><p style="text-align: left;">The <b>Intel July 2015 layoff</b> was the first step of a strategy, conceived by then <b>Intel CEO Brian Krzanich (BK)</b>, to replace aging employees with younger and much cheaper newcomers. For Intel Corp., this layoff also marked the beginning of a five year spiraling down series of manufacturing failures resulting in the company losing its leading position in the semiconductor industry to multiple competitors.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Less than a year later, (<b>March-April 2016</b>) Intel Corp., upped the ante and <b>laid off additional 12,000 employees,</b> most of them very experienced. In spite of the oddity and timing of these subsequent "reductions in workforce" (RIF) actions, the consequences of the massive layoffs were not immediately apparent at the time that they occurred.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">However, in reality, by ridding itself of experienced employees Intel Corp. lost the ability to execute the reliable <b><i>High Volume Manufacturing processes </i>(HVM),</b> which the company excelled at for many years in the past. <b>Successful execution of HVM is the "make-or-break life blood" of all chip factories (commonly known as FABs).</b> </p><p style="text-align: left;">You can refer to a previously published article on our website for further reference about Intel Corp. strategy for replacing its
(older) experienced workforce with younger and cheaper replacements.</p><p style="text-align: left;">See:<br /> <a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/08/useful-diagrams-for-explaining-intel.html" target="_blank">Useful diagrams for explaining Intel Corp selection of employees for termination in 2015 and 2016</a> <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Although the EEOC in its official capacity is charged with monitoring for employers' discriminatory behavior on a continuous basis, <b>the EEOC claims that it was not aware of the employee discrimination cases until one of Intel Corp. employees, who were affected by the layoffs, presented the Commission with indisputable evidence of <span style="color: red;">systemic wrongdoing</span>.</b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpkqzAvtGdU9JZGh_ZwuNDowBJ9GDKk0xlcAbKGT0wiP9YOMMGfBat-FWKN4ZEDoxQvayePchAYf-Sysdq5ppCqnAu-nefXL-GfeS0U4xlUHt9DXZMOjF-fcM4GOSEq8yXXhVKdTtTd87/s716/Ron+-+INTELligence+Presentation+2015-06-23_1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="551" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpkqzAvtGdU9JZGh_ZwuNDowBJ9GDKk0xlcAbKGT0wiP9YOMMGfBat-FWKN4ZEDoxQvayePchAYf-Sysdq5ppCqnAu-nefXL-GfeS0U4xlUHt9DXZMOjF-fcM4GOSEq8yXXhVKdTtTd87/w493-h640/Ron+-+INTELligence+Presentation+2015-06-23_1.jpg" title="Ron Tsur delivering presentation during Summer 2015" width="493" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ron Tsur delivering presentation at Intel technical conference<br /> during Summer 2015</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">The individual who brought the EEOC's attention to Intel Corp. systemic law violations is <b>Ron Tsur</b>, who prior to being laid off by Intel Corp., held the position of Principal Software Architect for Intel Corp. Electrical Validation Enabling Department.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Note that <b>although Mr. Tsur's case is highlighted here in greater detail, his age discrimination case and the facts that support the legal case charges against Intel Corp. represents a group of an estimated 2000 similar cases</b>.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Mr. Tsur case is an exception only from the perspective that his pursuit of bringing Intel Corp. to justice took place in the open since 2015 and endured relentlessly, through the last seven years. <br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;">*** </span><br /></span></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="color: red;">April 30, 2021 UPDATE</span><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b>"The Register" news outlet published an online article covering Mr. Tsur recent Federal Court lawsuit filing.<br /> <span style="background-color: white;">(See: <i><a href="https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/30/intel_age_discrimination/" target="_blank">Intel laid me off for being too old, engineer claims in lawsuit</a></i>).</span></b></span> <br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="color: red;">*** </span></b></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;">Prior to his inclusion in the July 2015 mass layoff, Mr. Tsur worked at a corporate-level department with responsibility for validating, qualifying and certifying leading-edge (newly designed R&D prototype) computer chips, during the critical preliminary evaluation phase, preceding the silicon designs move into <b><i>High Volume Manufacturing</i></b> (<b>HVM</b>) at Intel Corp. FABs.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Note that HVM process execution with terrible failure rate is exactly what Intel Corp. is experiencing for the last six years.<br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">Is there a correlation between the 2015 layoffs of approximately 1200 experienced employees, the "follow on" layoff of 12,000 employees in 2016, and the subsequent Intel Corp. consistent series of manufacturing blunders? Coincidence?</span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Back in mid 2015, Mr. Tsur and his supervisors were shocked at the company HR decision to lay-off Mr. Tsur from his job as part of the mass layoff. To Mr. Tsur and his management chain, the layoff notice seemed at first as an "administrative error". Nothing made much sense in the way that the company presented either the reasons for the layoffs or the way in which employees were selected for "termination".<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">More specifically, Intel Corp. HR mandated layoff edict was particularly puzzling to both Mr. Tsur and his management chain. This is to a great extent because Mr. Tsur at the time, led a major strategic effort to develop advanced testing and analysis methods that would enable the company to focus on identifying the root cause of the <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">endlessly repeating </span><b><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">new chip failures</span>,</b> found during internal validation and testing of the (then) <b>new 14nm silicon manufacturing process.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">During 2014 and 2015, Mr. Tsur, being the <b>principal Systems Software Architect</b> within the Intel Corporation <i><b>Electrical Validation Tools and Enabling</b> department</i>, was leading, defining, architecting and prototyping, modern data analysis solutions that were aimed at significantly upgrading the capabilities of Intel Corp. (outdated, 20th Century legacy) chip electrical test methodologies. Mr. Tsur and his collaborators focused among other novel approaches, on the collection of real-time electrical behavioral data, directly from Intel Corporation customer's (OEM) product prototypes, using "big data" analysis. Other advanced techniques included deploying machine learning tools to establish cause/effect relationship, by using advanced "semantics-based" data collection methods.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The goal of Mr. Tsur's leading initiative was to utilize high volume, data-driven, testing and rapid failure analysis methodologies, taking advantage of recent 21st Century data collection and analysis capabilities. <b>This approach was among other things, focused towards eliminating tens of thousands of man-hours that were otherwise, spent on manual fact finding and (slow) manual analysis. </b>Mr. Tsur lead initiative was directed at increasing the efficiency of the electrical validation process, thereby saving the company tens of million dollars each year in engineering work hours. Mr. Tsur also lead the development of a <b>"unified, semantics-rich" hierarchical-data framework</b>, aimed at removal of ambiguities and uncertainties from the manufacturing-tests data sets. This capability was a key component for enabling quick turn-around of chip manufacturing process corrections.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Mr. Tsur did not operate in vacuum, his R&D "path finding" projects were initiated after it became apparent to Intel Corporation <b>Electrical validation Department </b>staff (in 2014), that <b>the new 14nm and 10nm based silicon designs presented significantly new reliability testing and manufacturing challenges</b>, necessitating radically new methodologies and novel problem solving approach. <br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>Intel Corp. High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) Problems Connection to the Human Capital Factor</b><br /></h2><p style="text-align: left;">As mentioned above, immediately prior to his inclusion in the 2015 mass layoff, Mr. Tsur's department at Intel Corp. was focused at enabling the company to effectively identify the possible nature and root cause of the <b>HVM problems</b> that plagued the 14nm and upcoming 10nm manufacturing processes.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Note that electrical validation work is routinely conducted during the R&D and early manufacturing phases of every company new silicon product, not only at Intel Corporation. However, Intel Corporation (quite smartly) provided early prototype samples of future chip products to its network of OEM customers, such as <i>Dell</i>, <i>HP</i>, <i>Lenovo</i>, <i>Asus</i>, Etc., as "engineering Samples", subject to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Early exposure to even partially functional new chips, is very helpful
policy for enabling the OEM design engineers with a "head start" to better evaluate and
understand new product features, <b>adopt better system integration doctrines</b> and thereby cut down market readiness of their final consumer products.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">However, in early 2014, significant <b>"Head-Start" failures</b> of silicon engineering samples produced an <b>alarming warning signal with OEMs</b> who began to <b>seriously suspecting </b>Intel Corp. ability to deliver promised new silicon chips for OEM new line of products, using the 14nm silicon manufacturing process.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Today, after more than seven years of repeating HVM manufacturing blunders, this multi-year series of failures is already a well established historic fact. Intel Corp. excuses for its inability to overcome its production quality problems, continued for long time to be presented as "<b>technical in nature</b>". The corporate PR machine was apparently, operating at full steam, <b>hiding the human factors associated with Intel Corp. failure to deliver reliable silicon chips to its customers. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;">In particular, the <b>long-term effects that the 2015 and 2016 massive employee layoffs inflicted on Intel Corp. internal organization and its ability to execute and produce were either ignored or shoved under the carpet, in order to keep company stock and bond investors at bay.</b><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Intel Corp. Executives Ulterior Motives<br /></h2><p style="text-align: left;">In spite of his management chain's protests to the HR department, highlighting the potential damage caused by ridding Mr. Tsur expertise from the company, the <b>layoff process inertia</b> dominated the scene and subsequently, Mr. Tsur was laid off in mid-July 2015, alongside approx. 1200 of his peers.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It is not very clear if Intel Corporation actually gained a lot by firing 1155 of its experienced employees during July 2015. <b><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">Today it is quite apparent that Intel Corp. executive management in 2015, did not consider their own experienced employees, as tangible assets.</span><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">It has become apparent that <b>CEO Brian Krazanich and his executive team viewed all employees as an easily replaceable "commodity". "Shopping for Employees"</b> was viewed, not unlike shopping for toilette paper or paper clips, Krzanich and his cronies, apparently believed that that junior candidates and lowest bidders could successfully displace their mature "human capital". Highly experienced employees no longer counted as the core "asset" of the company. This represented a<b> major departure from the heydays of Intel Corporation, </b>under the leadership of its late Co-founder,<b> Dr. Andrew Grove, </b>who expressed on many occasions that<b> Intel Employees are the Principal Asset of the company.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>As Dr.Ian Cutress recently wrote on his popular <i>AnandTech</i> blog:</b><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span face="Arimo, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">ex-Intel engineers have a long line of accolades at the company, having worked on and built the fundamental technologies that power Intel today. The exact reasons why they left Intel in the first place are varied, with some peers are keen to cite <b>brain drain during CEO Brian Krzanich’s tenure</b></span></i></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;">Kraznich and his top executives zealot efforts to drive the company stock to a higher value by ridding the company from a large number of older employees, were apparently never properly scrutinized for possible negative consequences, by the company board of directors. Perhaps, they were even encouraged by the Board. For reasons that have never been explained by Intel Corporation the permanent layoff of Mr. Tsur and many of his colleagues was never given a fair HR legal review or a chance of appeal, as required by documented HR procedures. The <b>Intel Employee Handbook</b>, specifically spells the right of any employee to question, rebuttal and appeal management decisions, including employment termination, via formal hearing, known as "<b>Open Door</b>". Intel Corporation violated its own HR "checks and balances" procedures by blocking all venues for Mr. Tsur and his management chain to represent their facts, in support of reversing Mr. Tsur's layoff. Intel Corp. executive management was apparently not interested in what is good for the company's future, as much as what is good for getting their bonuses, due to expected favorable stock market reaction to the massive layoffs. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Although "Open Door" appeals hearings during 2015, were openly well documented in the company's HR Employee Handbook, the HR department blatantly violated its own rules. Since the Intel HR Employee Handbook is part of the employment contract between the company and its employees, in addition to issues of State and Federal Civil Rights violations, a violation of private sector employment terms, also constitutes breach of contract.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">In 2015, Mr. Tsur was informed by an HR Legal Investigator that <b>direct orders from Intel Corp. CEO and its executive management committee</b>, (internally known as <b><i>MCM</i></b>) instructed the HR Legal department to <b>block any such investigation or hearing at the very moment that selected employees were issued the 30 day termination notice.</b></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Curiously, some other employees, younger than Mr. Tsur, were granted "open Door" hearings and some of them, actually received a reversal of their layoff order. <b>Others were given a chance to convert their involuntary layoff into forced (involuntary) "early retirement", in return for some perks, conditioned on keeping the terms of their separation, silent and hidden from public exposure.</b><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: center;">Age Discrimination Statistical Evidence <br /></h2><p style="text-align: left;">While still serving at the Jones Farm campus of Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon, after receiving his a 30 day termination notice prior to his layoff in July 2015, Mr. Tsur (62 years old at the time) who among other things, is also an experienced data scientist, examined the content of the 2015 layoffs report that was issue to him along with 1200 other employees, as part of their layoff notice.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">[<b>Note</b>: the referenced report is a Federally mandated document, known as <b>OWBPA</b>, specifying the company job categories, and the ages of employees selected for layoff, vs. those who were excluded from layoff]</span></p><p style="text-align: left;">Upon scrutiny of the facts, Mr. Tsur discovered from his data analysis of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/older_workers_benefit_protection_act_(owbpa)">OBWBPA</a> report, a <b>very</b> <b>conspicuous correlation between an affected</b> (selected to be laid off) <b>employee age and the probability of such employee to be laid off</b>.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Mr. Tsur's conclusions regarding the apparent age discrimination "<b>disparate impact</b>" present in the 2015 layoffs, were independently affirmed a few weeks later, when the <b><i>Oregonian</i></b> news outlet ran an independent analysis of the OWBPA Report. The <b><i>OregonianLive</i></b>, published an article, written by Mike Rogoway, highlighting the <b>overwhelming age-related correlation</b> manifested at the core of the 2015 layoffs, as demonstrated in the chart below.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlCraesvyUlYsrQotI-g8hA07nneS6sPzwz537R6idkm0swgq5jafoNoVmRYjYD8m5PEE0q721EzzVU9uRf8NX4iRt6w7FlPD19E_lAzqGAVp-NRmgy57HuEJ3xE8-9GvjZtgjEsrxTyY/s615/Intel+-+2015+Layoffs+by+Age+chart.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="615" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlCraesvyUlYsrQotI-g8hA07nneS6sPzwz537R6idkm0swgq5jafoNoVmRYjYD8m5PEE0q721EzzVU9uRf8NX4iRt6w7FlPD19E_lAzqGAVp-NRmgy57HuEJ3xE8-9GvjZtgjEsrxTyY/w550-h372/Intel+-+2015+Layoffs+by+Age+chart.png" width="550" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mr. Tsur was 62 years old at the time of his layoff, accordingly and based on the above <i>OregonianLive</i> published chart, it is apparent that Mr. Tsur chances of being selected for layoff were <b>more than four times (4x) higher than an employee who is under 40 and six times (6x) higher than employees 30 year old or younger.</b> Note that Federal and State employment laws, such as the <b><i>Age Discrimination in Employment Act</i></b> (<b>ADEA</b>), were written by the U.S. Congress, specifically, to protect employees of age 40+ or older from age discrimination.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mr. Tsur concluded that Intel Corp. violated the civil rights of a large number of employees who were 40 years old or older. Mr. Tsur was one among the many whose Civil Rights were trampled upon during the July 2015 layoff.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Establishing that his employment termination was in fact unlawful, for multiple reasons, <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">Mr. Tsur refused to accept the separation agreement that Intel Corp. (euphemistically name) "<b>People Movement</b>" department, tried to coerce him to sign</span>. Mr. Tsur was not going to give up his rights for pittance, particularly since he knew very well that <b>his employment termination was not only unjustified but unlawful too.</b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h2>The Whistleblower Case<br /></h2></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After spending a few months of investigating the peculiar ways in which Intel Corp. presented the 2015 layoff in its communications to company employees and the company's PR statements, Mr. Tsur filed an age discrimination complaint with <b><i>Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry</i></b> (BOLI) and concurrently with the Federal Government <b><i>Equal Employment Opportunity Commission</i></b> (<b>EEOC</b>).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>[Note</b>: Oregon BOLI (see: <i><a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/08/fair-employment-practices-agencies.html" target="_blank">FEPA</a></i>) acted as a paid subcontractor to the EEOC for registering and filing civil rights and discrimination complaints of employees charging their employers with unlawful conduct. Mr. Tsur's complaint was co-filed with BOLI and the EEOC on January 12th, 2016. This filing was officially recorded <b>longer than six years ago</b>.]</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As a <span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><i>Whistleblower</i></b></span>, Mr. Tsur also provided Oregon BOLI and the EEOC with information indicating that <b>Intel Corp. systematically violated both State and Federal laws, meant to protect employees from age discrimination in employment practices.</b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The EEOC claims that the average<span> </span></span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">time</span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>it takes to investigate and<span> </span></span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">resolve</span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>a<span> </span></span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">discrimination charge</span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>was about 10 months in 2015.</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fiction vs. Reality</span><br /></span></span></b></div> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">During the next <span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b>1,858 days</b></span>, Mr. Tsur kept providing the EEOC with ample evidence of employment discrimination, legal arguments and first-person sworn witness testimonies, including sworn testimony affidavits from his former supervisors at Intel Corp. Additional testimonies were collected from other company managers and ex-employees. Mr. Tsur expected the EEOC to quickly determine the merit of his charges, since these charges were significantly substantiated and supported with clear evidence. Apparently, Intel Corp. attorneys used every trick in the book to slow down the EEOC investigation deceive the investigators, and keep the company violation facts hidden from the public.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: red;">Ageism appears to be a particularly rampant phenomena in the High Tech economic sector</span></span></b><br /></div> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #202124; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #202124; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">besides Intel Corp. the rampant age discrimination practices were revealed to the public through recent law suits brought against Google, IBM, Apple and many other "high tech" companies. Without exception, these companies reward their executives with enormous stock-based bonuses. Older workers are no longer viewed as the backbone "human capital" of the company, in spite of their extensive knowledge and experience. To company executives, company business longevity seems secondary to their personal pocketbook calculations. As recently, evidenced, a significant number of high tech companies are facing severe shortages of experienced workforce, mostly due to company executives egotistical abuse of their employees in the past.<br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #202124; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: red;">April 30, 2021 UPDATE</span>: <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">"The Register" news outlet published an online article covering Mr. Tsur recent Federal Court lawsuit filing.</span> (See: <i><a href="https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/30/intel_age_discrimination/" target="_blank">Intel laid me off for being too old, engineer claims in lawsuit</a></i>).</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Mr.
Tsur expressed that he is hoping that an open court trial will expose to the public, the
rampant age discrimination that Intel Corp. practiced over a long period
of time, while the company never faced any substantial consequences for its law violations.</b></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mr. Tsur showed EEOC investigators evidence of systemic Civil Rights violations exercised by Intel Corp. that affected thousands of employees. This evidence initiated the EEOC investigation of the company and under suspicion of shady HR practices. The EEOC investigation began as early as 2016, <span style="font-family: arial;">after</span> Mr. Tsur provided the EEOC with significant facts about the ADEA violations systemic case.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">However, as the years went by, without visible action on the part of the Federal agency, Mr. Tsur began sensing that he is being treated as an "enemy of the state" by the Federal bureaucracy, for his persistence of seeking justice for himself and his peers. This is the typical sad reality that most "whistleblowers" are facing from our current Government, legal and corporate systems.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>By all standards, the unusually long record of <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">1,858 days</span> to process the evidence that Mr. Tsur presented to the EEOC, does not cast favorable light on the performance of the EEOC and its bureaucracy, as being effective in performing its role as the Civil Rights employment law enforcement agency of the U.S. Federal Government.</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In spite of enduring significant personal sacrifices over many years of being "black listed" by employers in the high-tech industry, due to his public confrontation of Intel Corporation mistreatment of its employees, Mr. Tsur persisted relentlessly to drive the EEOC to come up with case Determination that found Intel Corporation in violation of its older employees Civil Rights on February 12 2021.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(See: <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2019/12/age-discrimination-intel-investigation-drags-on-for-years-highlighting-legal-pitfalls.html">https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2019/12/age-discrimination-intel-investigation-drags-on-for-years-highlighting-legal-pitfalls.html</a>).<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>After five years and one month </b>(61 months, or 1858 days to be exact). The EEOC finally issued, a "Determination Letter" stating that Intel Corp. violated the age discrimination provisions of Title-VII and the ADEA afforded to employees of age 40+.<br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The <i>Oregonian</i> news organization that has been following up on Intel Corp. mass layoffs since 2015, recently published an article covering the current state of this case. See: <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/02/intel-discriminated-against-eight-older-workers-in-2015-layoffs-eeoc-finds.html">https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/02/intel-discriminated-against-eight-older-workers-in-2015-layoffs-eeoc-finds.html</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Unfortunately, even the <i>Oregonian</i> article only scratches the surface of the Intel Corp. employment discrimination case. It is very likely that a public trial will be the only avenue to expose the full extent of Intel Corp. unlawful employment practices while also highlighting how both the State and Federal agencies that are in charge of employment law enforcement in our country seem to be incompetent and are systemically operating in a mode, seemingly rigged to fail employee plaintiffs attempts to achieve justice. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Considering the <b>ADEA</b>, that last major law governing protection of employee civil rights in the U.S. was <b>written in 1967</b> and all attempts to revise this law were systematically quashed by lobbying campaigns financed by large corporations. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The <b>U.S. Congress lack of remedial legislative action to update existing employment related laws to match today's job market realities, is also a major dereliction of duty, contributing to unabated and long enduring age discrimination phenomena</b>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Important Notes</b></span></h4><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span>Recently, key investor <i>Three Point LLC</i> warned Intel Corp. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #3e3f42; display: inline; float: none; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">and threatened
to begin installing new members on Intel’s board if the company didn’t
take steps to address its “human capital management issue” and
manufacturing delays.</span></span></b></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b>As CRN reported on May 20, 2021, Intel top management behavior created serious credibility and trust issues with company shareholders:</b><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #3e3f42; display: inline; float: none; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/intel-shareholders-reject-executive-pay-plan " target="_blank">Intel Shareholders Reject Executive Pay Plan</a><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #3e3f42; display: inline; float: none; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Let it be clear on this point: <b>corporations are not people</b> and we have no animosity towards Intel Corp. as a (non-person) business entity. On the other hand, <b>employees and company executive officers, are people</b>. People make mistakes and even commit crimes and atrocities that have consequences. <span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="background-color: white;">When operating within the context of for-profit business corporations,</span> <b>company managers and executive officers are responsible for their own individual actions; however, in addition to that, the corporation caries liability for its managers and executives actions. </b></span></span><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The layoff of thousands of experienced employees, some of them at key positions (like Mr. Tsur who had direct expertise in monitoring and systemically analyzing the 14nm FAB failures), robbed the company of valuable human assets. Due to this mass employees departure, "human capital" with pertinent long-term expertise of system knowledge and problem solving was permanently lost to the detriment of Intel Corp., affecting the company's abilities to execute most of its missions.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"1300 Thieves"</b></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span></span><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Very unwisely and perhaps also illegally, CEO Krzanich ordered that the HR department mark the personal record of each laid off employee with a "special code", barring all laid off employees from being rehired by Intel Corp. <span style="color: red;">for life... </span></b><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: red;">This move ensured that the "human capital loss" would become permanent!</span><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">IT employees who worked at the company at the time testified that the BK ordered "special code" to be inserted into personnel files of all employees who were laid off in July of 2015 to guarantee that no such employee will be ever rehired by the company. The IT department actually implemented the executive order by marking all 1155 employees as "<b>thieves</b>". This ensured that the HR department will be "signaled" each time that a hiring manager attempts to hire an employee that was included in the 2015 layoff, and subsequently, block the potential employee re-hiring means of "automatic decree"...<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Secretly "profiling" employees and attributing unproven criminal charge on their personnel record is a serious offense. This specific allegation was brought to the attention of the EEOC investigators and publicized on our web site in 2019 (see: <a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2019/06/intel-corp-marked-employees-as-thieves.html">https://www.pdx-tie.org/2019/06/intel-corp-marked-employees-as-thieves.html</a>). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We have no notion if the EEOC ever investigated the facts behind this specific charge and how the EEOC is treating the "profiling" phenomenon from a legal perspective. <b>If the agency did not investigate the specific facts associated with the above mentioned "employee profiling", perhaps the EEOC agency itself becomes complicit in the violation.</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 37px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><i>You
can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all
the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.</i></span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/abraham-lincoln-quotes&source=gmail&ust=1613925606377000&usg=AFQjCNFjVEU86dfkcGJDv1iH35pUTw0uEA" href="https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/abraham-lincoln-quotes" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0000aa; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Abraham Lincoln</a></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The evidence of Intel manufacturing systems failures beginning immediately following the mid-year 2015 layoffs is indisputable. For those of us who spent our careers in the semiconductor industry, Intel executives' false moves, to coverup its crumbling manufacturing capacity, as a "technical issue" seem rather pathetic. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Instead of recognizing the devastation of the company internal culture, following the 2015/2016 mass layoffs as root cause, they resorted to cheap hiring practices and bad external acquisitions, all seemingly frivolous actions, lacking business sense and allowing Intel competitors to displace Intel from its leadership position in the semiconductor industry.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Even after disgraced CEO krzanich was fired from his position and replaced by another CEO, the loss of "experienced human capital" was devastating. Intel Corp.was not able to make up any gains in execution at the FABs. Using the cheaper and inexperienced young workers to fill up the company ranks and the loss of many experienced "mentors", sunk employee moral to the bottom, deepened the distrust between the "rank and file employees" and executive management. Ignorance, loss of personal motivation and shear incompetence displaced the "Intel Culture" that was the life-blood of Intel Corp. during its hey days.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Treating employees as "<b>commodity</b>" rather than as an "<b>essential</b> <b>asset</b>" had a corrosive long-term effect. Exploiting <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">cheap "indentured laborers" through H1B visas and "green card" sponsorship, in addition to employing "foreign labor interns" who earned very little money under the OPT program was another way for Intel Executives to cut labor costs. Who of these executives really cared about "company culture"</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> as being essential for achieving execution results? Quality and cohesiveness of the company "human capital", were not even part of the picture for these executives, i</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span>n their zeal to collect their annual executive bonuses</span>.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> <span style="color: red;"><b>"Swan Wars - The Empire Strikes Backwards"</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #121212; display: inline; float: none; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> <br /></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">No wonder that Mr. Swan (an accountant by trade) who succeeded BK as Intel CEO was <b>unable to put the genie back in the bottle</b> in the aftermath of his predecessor's blunders. In spite of correctly identifying the company's main problems as employee culture-deterioration related, not much could be repaired without radical course correction to reestablish employee trust in executive management.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(See: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/technology/intel-culture-robert-swan.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/technology/intel-culture-robert-swan.html).</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Even the new CEO's best intentions and grand declarations had limited effect, due to the permanent decimation of the old "Intel Culture" practitioners. Mr. swan's bookkeeping mastery may have kept the stock holders at bay for a while longer; however, from many external points of view his efforts could be depicted as: "Swan Wars - The Empire Strikes Backwards"...<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">The genie is not anything that you want (or can) mess with</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Transactional HR policies initiated to save the company money in the short term, by trading older (and more expensive) with cheaper, inexperienced younger replacements (NCGs in "Intel Speak"), resulted in major backfires due to the disastrous HR practices and edicts, initiated by Intel Corp. CEO Krazanich and the abysmal degree of supervision on the part of Intel Board of Directors.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Trained Labor "Shortages"</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All employees laid
off en-mass during the 2015/2016 massive layoffs and were forced to sign separation agreements that <b>excluded them from being rehired by Intel Corp. for the rest of their lives</b>. By implementing such policy Intel Corp. deliberately excluded almost 17,000 experienced workers from its potential workforce. At the same time, Intel Corp. claims that it cannot find enough qualified employees in the U.S. and therefore lobbies the U.S. State Department to import tens of thousands of cheap foreign workers, through H1B visa sponsorship programs, "Green Card" sponsorship and foreign worker "internship programs", known as Optional Practical Training (OPT).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We will cover the rampant sponsorship of foreign labor and the shenanigans that U.S. corporation are practicing to save on the cost of labor in an upcoming article. However, here is Intel Corp. record of H1B visa sponsorship over the last decade:<br /> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDwtYUvaT4UAVG0wjrc-vOoPSfTJWQeZDVkOxjysAB6DRhdZH4QwXm3KcGVSK52KbH_kPZ0srEzm_qmpFVZXc2yfvWDYXiGJCiNCvQ7NtwhBf7G8f7KVEfHWctanp6TVRegWeCtuTDrIqAO0dQOGhx1PhNOY02mJFkCJRoAnUGx7b1MVIGyJ3M5FhRtg=s630" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="630" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDwtYUvaT4UAVG0wjrc-vOoPSfTJWQeZDVkOxjysAB6DRhdZH4QwXm3KcGVSK52KbH_kPZ0srEzm_qmpFVZXc2yfvWDYXiGJCiNCvQ7NtwhBf7G8f7KVEfHWctanp6TVRegWeCtuTDrIqAO0dQOGhx1PhNOY02mJFkCJRoAnUGx7b1MVIGyJ3M5FhRtg=s16000" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> H1B visa sponsorship allowed Intel Corp. over the years, to receive labor replacements at a low cost. H1B visa holders are indentured employees who are at the mercy of their employers to stay in the U.S. and therefore are reluctant to come up with any salary demands for the duration of their visa term. No wonder that H1B visa is so popular with large corporations like Intel Corp. when the main criterion for hiring is keeping employee salaries at bay.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><h2><b><span style="color: red;">The National Security Farce</span></b></h2><h2><b><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></b></h2><h2></h2></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJOiwOzkviOD8142ulM6lz7ANXcswDuY5vZj3jhkRQSBRHkF06KXoFhVtAyIkdi9jx9EXmm3pRcFC6Z63hD7id_3kOHdb37QiWI3duQur-nYWa8FHgDk85lVN3klnSQQjlItl-vNQV44HgM55gfeCs1Jn9zpMqERkmptJg84dq_tz_1vuvMckuHHq00g=s2592" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2592" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJOiwOzkviOD8142ulM6lz7ANXcswDuY5vZj3jhkRQSBRHkF06KXoFhVtAyIkdi9jx9EXmm3pRcFC6Z63hD7id_3kOHdb37QiWI3duQur-nYWa8FHgDk85lVN3klnSQQjlItl-vNQV44HgM55gfeCs1Jn9zpMqERkmptJg84dq_tz_1vuvMckuHHq00g=w640-h480" title="Intel Chengdu Campus (PRC)" width="640" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Picture taken at the Intel Chengdu (PRC) campus Cafeteria<br />(click on image to enlarge detail) <br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The above picture was taken at the cafeteria in the large facility of Intel Corp. in Chengdu, China (PRC). As you can readily see from the picture, many people present in this corporate space are wearing the <b>Chinese Popular Liberation Army (PLA) uniforms</b>. Make no mistake, these are Intel Corp. employees. In fact all the people wearing uniform are either managers or high level technical contributors. <b>Intel Corp. does not want you to know that these PLA army officers are their employees</b>, because, as members of the Chinese Armed forces, Intel can pay them meager salaries. However, When it comes to taking orders and serving the interest of either the Chinese Government, or. Intel Corp. it is not clear which entity prevail... Clearly, For Intel Corp. significant savings on payroll expenses of 10,000 employees is a major bonus. <b>National security...? Don't ask don't tell.</b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Intel Corp. is also mobilizing its high-powered PR machine to convince the current U.S. Government to <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">"donate" our tax payer's money to subsidize their manufacturing facilities to the tune of tens of Billions of dollars.</span> Currently (2021) Intel Corp. is known to employ about 10,000 people in China and maintains multi-billion dollar facilities in the following location in:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dalian, China - FAB Production Site<br /></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Shanghai, China <span style="font-family: inherit;">- </span><span face="intel-clear, tahoma, Helvetica, helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #555555; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">assembly and test site</span><span> <br /></span></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Chengdu, China - <span face="intel-clear, tahoma, Helvetica, helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #555555; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">assembly and test site </span></li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #555555; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">In addition to other facilities in:<br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">San Jose, Costa Rica</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kulim, Malaysia</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Penang, Malaysia</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam</li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">Suddenly, semiconductor manufacturing becomes a matter of National Security. </span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Never mind the multi-billion dollar investment that Intel Corp. established in China over the last decade and the<b> $84 billion</b> that Intel Corp. chose to spend on <b>stock buyback</b>, rather than invest in further expansion of its U.S. domestic manufacturing and R&D facilities and pay salaries to U.S. domestic employees.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(see: <a href="https://www.eetimes.com/with-chips-act-us-risks-building-a-white-elephant/" target="_blank">With CHIPS Act, US Risks Building a White Elephant</a> and</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/does-america-want-a-chips-for-buybacks-act" target="_blank">Does America Want a CHIPS for Buybacks Act?</a>)<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b>Apparently, National Security was not considered a problem until after Intel Corp. began experiencing business losses stemming from laying off their domestic, experienced (and older) employees...</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>To some politicians it still makes sense to subsidize a large corporation, such as Intel Corp. that lay off their domestic experienced employees and replace them with imported foreign labor, financed by our taxpayer's dollars! </b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">Ask your own Senator or member of Congress about their reasons to vote for "Corporate Welfare" of this kind, with no strings attached or any <span style="color: red;">perceived</span> benefit to the average taxpayer, who is not a shareholder of a semiconductor company. </span></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: red;"> </span></b></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><span style="color: red;">Just to remind our politicians, there already a well established mechanism for public financing of corporations--it is known as the <span style="font-size: medium;">stock market</span>!</span></b></span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><h2><b><span>Suggested Corrective Actions</span></b></h2></div>For the benefit of ex-employees who were wronged by the company, as well as for the well-being of current employees and the future benefit of Intel Corp. stock holders, Pat Gelsinger, the new appointed CEO will see good reasons to correct the situation. This must begin by negotiating a fair settlement with wronged ex-employees, correct HR procedures regarding hiring and firing and release the company stock holders from liabilities imposed on the company by ex-CEO Brian Krzanich terrible legacy. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>References</b>:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2020/07/for-last-five-years-they-continue-to.html" target="_blank">For The Last Five Years They Continue to Wish We Were Dead</a></b></li><li><b><a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2019/06/intel-corp-marked-employees-as-thieves.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: medium;">Intel Corp. Marked Employees as Thieves to Prevent Their Rehiring</span></a></b></li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: left;"><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/30/intel_age_discrimination/" target="_blank">Intel laid me off for being too old, engineer claims in lawsuit</a></span></b> <br /></div></li><li><b><a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2019/12/age-discrimination-intel-investigation-drags-on-for-years-highlighting-legal-pitfalls.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Age discrimination: Intel investigation drags on for years, worker protections lag</span></a></b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/news/eeoc-says-intel-discriminated-2015-layoffs" target="_blank">Feds Say Intel Discriminated Against Older Workers in 2015 Layoffs</a></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Impact, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-boeing-was-set-on-the-path-to-disaster-by-the-cult-of-jack-welch" target="_blank">How Boeing Was Set on the Path to Disaster by the Cult of Jack Welch</a> </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Impact, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/social-responsibility/the-economic-impact-of-ageism?cid=other-eml-nsl-mip-mck&hlkid=fe2c1b16fdef42e4945a54e4ba3f727a&hctky=12690814&hdpid=166e2956-a182-4ea9-a00b-c988e6c24c8e" target="_blank">The economic impact of ageism</a> </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Impact, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/does-america-want-a-chips-for-buybacks-act" target="_blank">Does America Want a CHIPS for Buybacks Act?</a> </span></span></b></li><li><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Impact, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/16807/intel-continues-to-rehire-veterans-at-some-point-theyll-run-out" target="_blank">Intel Continues to Rehire Veterans: At Some Point They’ll Run Out</a> </span></span></b></li><li><b><a href="https://www.eetimes.com/with-chips-act-us-risks-building-a-white-elephant/" target="_blank">With CHIPS Act, US Risks Building a White Elephant</a></b><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Impact, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></b><b><a href="http://pdx-tie.org" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Impact, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></a></b></li><li><div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/intel-shareholders-reject-executive-pay-plan" target="_blank">Intel Shareholders Reject Executive Pay Plan</a> <br /></span></b></span></div><div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></b> <br /></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Impact, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></li></ul><p><a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2021/02/the-federal-equal-employment.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></a></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-92042485658911137912020-08-22T11:16:00.019-07:002020-08-29T09:17:19.756-07:00Intel Corp. ExecutivesShady or even Criminal Behavior<p>We have covered the massive age discrimination practices that resulted in forced retirements and massive layoffs of older Intel Corp. employees in 2015, 2016 and beyond. When I talk face-to-face with members of <a href="http://PDX-TIE.ORG">PDX-TIE.ORG</a> or other ex-Intel employees (less frequently, due to COVID-19) I am surprised about their ignorance regarding the fact that the company is faced with so many very significant lawsuits due to various shady and perhaps criminal behavior of its senior executives and the board of directors.</p><p>From my own perspective, the 2015/2016 layoffs were the <b>event that "broke the camel's back"</b> and proliferated the seeds of corruption and mistrust between Intel Corp. Executive management and the remainder of employees workforce.</p><p>While the "Executive Class" at Intel Corporation looked at their bonuses and the stock market evaluation of the company as their main goal, they lost their "moral compass" to unproductive finger-pointing, coverup and greed. Make no mistake, technological challenges always abound in the engineering world. This is why people who pursue engineering as a career, typically belong to "problem Solver" personality class. The main challenge for true engineers (not "engineers" in title or even by university degree) is to get their managers to overcome their "risk aversion" and "cover your ass" attitude. Technology may be challenged by rules of physics; however, management and particularly Executive Management is challenged by human behavioral factors that are essentially all "man-made". <br /></p><p>The old "<b>Intel Culture</b>" defined the path for coexistence between both "risk taking" (as in venturing to achieve extremely high goals) and "risk management" (challenging the validity of ideas based on data or provable facts through the "constructive confrontation", rules of debate). These principles were the core values of the company and enabled its workforce to great achievements, through "thick and thin", while facing both technological challenges as well as tough competition in the Semiconductor market segment.<br /></p><p>The great principles of "Intel Culture" were eroded, slowly but surely, over a long period of time,after <i>Andrew Grove</i> was replaced as CEO of the company by a series of successors.</p><p>The worst Intel Corp. CEO without a doubt was Brian Krzanich (BK), who did not only violate the basic principles of "Intel Culture", but actually made a great effort to overrule and wipe it out in his <b>zeal to receive his Executive Bonuses</b>. It is ironic that BK was forced to resign his post as CEO, due to blatant violation of the the Employee Handbook--the same operational handbook that spelled the rules of "Intel Culture".(see: <a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2018/06/mf-intel-ceo-resignation-raises-more.html" target="_blank">https://www.pdx-tie.org/2018/06/mf-intel-ceo-resignation-raises-more.html)</a><br /></p><p>The major side<b> effect of getting rid of experienced (and older) employees,</b> who grew up on principles known as "Intel Culture" (attributed to ex-CEO <i>Andrew Grove</i>), was the erosion of the company founders values. "Intel Culture" promoted transparency and discipline from employees at all levels, including the Executives level of offices up to the CEO level.</p><p>The sudden disappearance (due to forced "early retirement" and massive layoffs) of older employees (who themselves grew up on "Intel Culture"), left the younger generations of Intel Corp. employees, who replaced the "old timers", having to learn their way around the various company operations, on their own.</p><p>The Intel Corp. Executive Class was so detached from reality that they believed in younger replacement employees' ability to ramp-up on-their own, without the benefit of experienced employees, being around to consult and guide the newcomers (in Intel speak the "NEOs"). Apparently, these executives believed that product design engineers and Fab workers can perform their job by watching <i>YouTube</i> videos and sharing messages through <i>Twitter</i> or <i>Facebook</i>.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZKrD6UJLoNM2LRZBnGOHozJ-N9TResx0flhqIwHvbe8kV7f3npV87ZK4twneRuLgjxfjOD-88ZEgnhC_tCcl1xDfbPWX1nbN7HUbT6EePw1W2d7cUOAl_11EPt_rqUi9b2Y3IjzuAjiA4/s300/lack-of-trust-300x200.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZKrD6UJLoNM2LRZBnGOHozJ-N9TResx0flhqIwHvbe8kV7f3npV87ZK4twneRuLgjxfjOD-88ZEgnhC_tCcl1xDfbPWX1nbN7HUbT6EePw1W2d7cUOAl_11EPt_rqUi9b2Y3IjzuAjiA4/s0/lack-of-trust-300x200.jpg" /></a></div> <p></p><p>Over the last five years, we have seen plenty of evidence to the aftermath that was left following the 2015/2016 layoffs, as the "<b>transparency</b>" "<b>Open Door</b>" "<b>problem ownership</b>" and "<b>constructive confrontation</b>" elements of Grove's "Intel Culture" were <b>replaced by coverup and severe suppression of facts,</b> in addition to the fabrication of "<b>fake news, public relations campaigns</b>" designed to keep both company employees and stock holders, at bay.</p><p>Unfortunately, there are too many similarities of <b><i>Executive Class</i></b> behaviors in corporate America that are created by people whose <b>self-interest and greed</b>, end up <b>working against the company's long-term interests as well as the company employees best interests.</b></p><p>The <b>Boeing B737MAX program fiasco</b>, has so many parallels to the Intel story, in terms of Corporate <b>Executives forcing their way on their underlings by decree and without listening to employees feedback</b>. Between the <i>Boeing</i> case and the <i>Intel Corp.</i> case there is only one exception: thus far (as far as we know) Intel Corp. actions did not result in the loss of human lives. <br /></p><div></div><div><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">Currently, there are a number of legal processes undergoing against Intel Corp., which allegedly, involve anything, from mismanagement of the old employee pension fund (that was in effect until 2009), to long-term coverup of functional "bugs" that are "featured" into the Intel chips "Architecture", to making false statement to stock holders and potential stock holders of INTC equities.<br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div>The most significant decision of the<b> Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) </b>to<b> </b>allow the law suite against Intel Corp<b>. "old pension fund", </b>originally filed in 2015 by former Intel engineer <b><span style="background-color: white;"><i>Christopher Sulyma</i></span></b>, to proceed without delays. <b>This should be the talk of the day</b>. For some reason, this law suit is not getting much attention in the press.<b><br /></b></div><div> </div><div>Since <span style="font-size: small;">the <span style="font-size: medium;">Sulyma</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> <span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Employee Retirement Income Security Act</i> (<b>ERISA</b>)</span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> legal </span>case reached the SCOTUS level of jurisdiction, it is easy to understand that <b>Intel Corp. legal defense strategy is and has always been, based on eroding the resolve of individual plaintiffs</b>, by resorting to legal <b>maneuvering</b>, <b>stalling</b>, and <b>outright lying</b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>I believe that every current or ex-employee of Intel Corporation, as well as current or past investors of INTC shares, should follow-up on these articles:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-intel/u-s-supreme-court-allows-retirement-plan-lawsuit-against-intel-idUSKCN20K2B1" target="_blank">U.S. Supreme Court allows retirement plan lawsuit against Intel</a></li><li> <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200804006104/en/INTEL-ALERT-Bragar-Eagel-Squire-P.C.-Announces" target="_blank">Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed Against Intel Corporation and Encourages Investors to Contact the Firm</a></li><li> <a href="https://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases-intel-corporation-class-action-lawsuit.html" target="_blank">Intel Corporation Class Action Lawsuit</a></li><li><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/intc-investor-alert-bernstein-liebhard-llp-announces-that-a-securities-class-action-lawsuit-has-been-filed-against-intel-corporation-301105108.html" target="_blank">Securities Class Action Lawsuit has been Filed Against Intel Corporation</a> </li></ul><p>All the best,</p><p> --Dr.Flywheel <br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-50319771412009205892020-07-15T13:08:00.012-07:002021-01-29T20:39:32.359-08:00For The Last Five YearsThey Continue to Wish We Were Dead<div>Today, July 15th, 2020 marks the fifth anniversary date for the first Intel Corp. massive layoff of the 21st century. 2015 also represents the year in which Intel Corp. lost its leadership position within the semiconductor industry, due to a continuous wave of operational flops and process-engineering disasters, most of them due to bad management decisions and a rising wave of mistrust between management and employees.</div><div></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlCraesvyUlYsrQotI-g8hA07nneS6sPzwz537R6idkm0swgq5jafoNoVmRYjYD8m5PEE0q721EzzVU9uRf8NX4iRt6w7FlPD19E_lAzqGAVp-NRmgy57HuEJ3xE8-9GvjZtgjEsrxTyY/s615/Intel+-+2015+Layoffs+by+Age+chart.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="615" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlCraesvyUlYsrQotI-g8hA07nneS6sPzwz537R6idkm0swgq5jafoNoVmRYjYD8m5PEE0q721EzzVU9uRf8NX4iRt6w7FlPD19E_lAzqGAVp-NRmgy57HuEJ3xE8-9GvjZtgjEsrxTyY/w500-h338/Intel+-+2015+Layoffs+by+Age+chart.png" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Intel Corp. 2015 Layoff Action<br /> Age Composition of Affected Employees </td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /> </div><div>Intel Corp. management, under the leadership of CEO Brian Krzanich (BK) focused on lowering the cost of labor by laying off thousands of veteran employees, instead of fixing organizational and technological issues that plagued the company for many years. The company was unable to fix its high volume manufacturing (HVM) problems for chips manufactured in 14nm for longer than five years. The follow-up 10nm production line never matured into commercial viability. This type of phenomenon never happened at Intel Corp. at anytime in the past. Having the benefit of hindsight today, this colossal inability to deliver reliable silicon products, can clearly be attributed to the scarcity of technical and organizational leadership among the remainder of the company engineering workforce, following the 2015 and 2016 massive layoffs. </div><div> </div><div>Laying off more than 16,000 employees, many of them in senior grades with decades of experience under belt, was a very costly business move. Intel Corp. replaced experienced employees with much cheaper and inexperienced workforce. Company executives apparently had a notion that their veteran workforce was nothing but an easily replaceable commodity. The immediate result of the mindless mass layoffs created bad employee morale, lack of trust, led to operational chaos and penalized the company with enormous lack of productivity--a great deal of which still persists inside the company to this day.</div><div> </div><div>In spite of external criticism of his actions, CEO Brian Krzanich continued to prove his leadership incompetence for a few more years of spiraling chaos, during which Intel Corp. lost its credibility as well as its world leadership position as a result of the company's inability to deliver on its promises to its customer base. </div><div> </div><div>Fighting the sinking reality of the semiconductor market slipping away, year after year, Intel Corp. expensive PR campaign to save face, met its eventual limits. Due to ever repeating lack of meaningful operational results, Intel Corp. Board took action and fired BK in June 2018.</div><div> </div><div>To protect INTC stock value, the Board explained the firing of BK with a "Roger Stone style story" utilizing a sexy connotation that was meant to distract public attention from the incompetence of Intel Corp. C-Suite as well as the incompetence of the company Board of Directors itself.</div><div> </div><div>Apparently egomania and greed can never be satisfied. Even after leaving his CEO position with the company, Krazanich himself is under <a href="https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1538580.htm" target="_blank">SEC investigation for insider trading of Intel stock</a>. Regrettably, as we have witnessed over the last decades, how U.S. Government agencies seem to operate more like "paper tigers" than "Rambo". Rich executives can continue to live the high life as long as they keep paying their "high shelf" high hourly rate lawyers.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4Dvb_kxO7BcWp9JTZdJdOPH85B-_qIbL2eAYqoUd7WOdryGreB2VjNS_2wMAGHbFnIKuxx9B_szRKQiNj28At3iLQQbB0xaO1vN8kH8ovf0zhyphenhyphenJ5T-GKbe7S3cqwr4UfnGy1lqaNOKGF/s703/BK+Mansion.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="703" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4Dvb_kxO7BcWp9JTZdJdOPH85B-_qIbL2eAYqoUd7WOdryGreB2VjNS_2wMAGHbFnIKuxx9B_szRKQiNj28At3iLQQbB0xaO1vN8kH8ovf0zhyphenhyphenJ5T-GKbe7S3cqwr4UfnGy1lqaNOKGF/w500-h281/BK+Mansion.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr align="center"><td class="tr-caption"><p class="Lh(1.15) Fz(40px) Fz(36px)--modalMinWidth Mb(14px) Ff($ff-primary) Lts($lspacing-md) Fw($fweight) Fsm($fsmoothing) Fsmw($fsmoothing) Fsmm($fsmoothing) Wow(bw)" data-reactid="4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial";"><font size="3">Ex-Intel CEO Lists Lavish Silicon Valley Compound</font></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div><div>Intel Corp. worst legacy is still lying ahead. In its hasty effort to restructure its workforce the company laid off thousands of older workers, as well as forced many more thousands of senior employees to retire under duress. By doing so, Intel Corp. management violated the civil rights of older workers ("older workers" defined as employees who are 40 year old or older). Such workers are classified by Federal regulations as a "protected class", which requires employers to take specific actions before laying them off.</div><div> </div><div>Specific U.S. Employment Law rules and regulations were set in place to protect employees aged 40+ from discriminatory practices. Most of such protection rules are defined in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, otherwise known as the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/age-discrimination-employment-act-1967" target="_blank">ADEA</a>.</div><div> </div><div>Although employers are allowed to lay off older employees, the <b><i>ADEA</i></b> specifically requires employers to follow employment practices meant to guarantee that older employees are not to be discriminated against during the whole course of their employment as well as during the hiring and/or firing process. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="dhillon_scaled" src="https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/migrated_files/eeoc/images/dhillon_scaled.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Janet Dhillon - EEOC Chair<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div>Members of PDX-TIE.ORG filed and brought forward substantial evidence that Intel Corp. knowingly violated the ADEA in many ways, during the course of Mr. Brian Krzanich rein as Intel Corp. CEO. Charges written by members of our organization (<a href="http://PDX-TIE.ORG">PDX-TIE.ORG</a>), submitted and filed with the Federal government Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2016 are in full progress of investigations.</div><div> </div><div>We recently received yet another confirmation that the EEO investigation is still in "active" state. It is already more than 4-1/2 years since our charges have been filed and the clock keeps ticking on the Federal investigation. Amazingly, Janet Dhillon, the Chair of the EEOC, appointed by President Donald Trump in May 2019, testified under oath in a hearing in front of congress:</div><div><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fce8b2;"><font size="2">It is the sad reality that too often,<b> justice delayed is justice denied</b>. Evidence can be misplaced, and memories fade with the passage of time. The opportunity to quickly stop and remedy a discriminatory practice can also be lost – potentially to the detriment of other impacted employees. To ensure quality service, it is critical that private sector charges and federal complaints are handled promptly and fairly – and so we must work to reduce backlogs across all program offices.</font></span></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #fce8b2;"><font size="2"></font></span><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 40px;"></div><div>Shall we take her for her word? Do words stated under oath inside the halls of the U.S. Congress, have a meaning if not translated into enforcement actions?<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>One of the advertised policies of the EEOC over the last few years was "working with employers", namely convince employers to police themselves, in matters associated with employees age discrimination in the workplace. In the words of EEOC Chair she is driving the EEOC to pursue a "<b>Litigation Last</b>" policy namely, avoiding law enforcement, seemingly at all costs to the U.S. Government. This type of "soft talk, self policing" methodology has been exercised extensively, by another Federal agency, the <b>FAA</b>. The results of such actions (or lack thereof) turned out to disastrously manifest their outcome in the <b>Boeing 737MAX fiasco</b>. <br /></div><div> </div><div>The result of forfeiting external supervision on large corporations and "<b>letting the dogs guard the hen house</b>" cost the lives of hundreds of innocent people and at the same time pushed the Boeing company to the brink of bankruptcy. There are very serious lessons to be learned from this story. <b>Lack of external supervision and dereliction of duty on the part of Government Oversight, unavoidably leads to a situation where everyone, corporations, clients, employers and employees turn to become big losers.</b><br /></div><div><br /> </div><div>With the above being said and judging from the "snail's pace" at which justice for older employees affected by the Intel Corp. layoffs is being pursued, many of us may be dead already, before Intel Corp. is brought to justice by the Federal Government. Many of us are older and form the most vulnerable segment of the U.S. population at risk for COVID-19 severe infections and ultimately death.</div><div> </div><div>Clearly, the political and the corporate echelons would rather wait and see us (the "problem" in their view) vanish into oblivion, as more of our members meet their demise. With no proactive actions on the part of the U.S. Congress, and with the EEOC forfeiting their law enforcement actions, dereliction of duty continues to rule the day.<br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiI43SIRtjWqJICjN4OZ-tDZn_alACxbU9trtngW2SwiISNJ3bBlFrTUrK0xbsRIMXR5rlmeV4jVho49EOwhJZCtxyv-dJAtdE4pURNACNmHJmEgvUQUy6yulAf0Ikg_Vy6YhI3UnZ4S8a/s828/Unemployment+picture+2020-07-14+11-54-10.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="828" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiI43SIRtjWqJICjN4OZ-tDZn_alACxbU9trtngW2SwiISNJ3bBlFrTUrK0xbsRIMXR5rlmeV4jVho49EOwhJZCtxyv-dJAtdE4pURNACNmHJmEgvUQUy6yulAf0Ikg_Vy6YhI3UnZ4S8a/w500-h318/Unemployment+picture+2020-07-14+11-54-10.png" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Latest unemployment Trend Charts<br />(click on image to enlarge)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The <a href="https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf" target="_blank">latest unemployment data report</a> clearly demonstrates that the U.S. is in the middle of a major economic trough, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the circumstances, it is very likely that many workers, particularly those aged 40 and older, will never return to their original jobs. This situation presents employers with the perfect opportunity to "weed out" their most expensive employees, which in most cases are the most senior and experienced, namely "older", replacing them with younger and certainly "cheaper" workers. Past experience demonstrates clearly that commercial corporations that view their workforce as "replaceable" commodity, tend to fail "big time", while business entities that treat their employees as an "asset" tend to flourish. Look at IBM, GE, and of course Intel Corp.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It is important to note that in most companies, older employees serve as de-facto mentors to younger and less experienced employees. The value of mentoring has been proven to be a major contributing factor to the success of business. Clearly, with proper management policies, a good balance of employee diversity is not only required by employment laws--it actually contributes to cohesion of the workforce and increased productivity.</div><div><br /></div><div> <span style="color: red;">Unfortunately and to detriment of many companies, for the average C-Suite executive, having mostly inexperienced workers onboard, does not seem be an issue of great concern. By the time that the business begins experiencing serial operational failures after getting rid of its experienced workers, the executives have already harvested their mega bonuses and pulled their "golden parachute" cords to pursue "new opportunities"...</span></div><div><br /></div><div> Intel Corp. serves as a perfect example of a company that "lost its soul" due to getting rid of its "experienced" workforce, while rewarding its egocentric executives with fat monetary rewards. It may have taken five years to note the destructive effect of the 2015/2016 massive layoffs; however, it is now widely recognized that the "Intel Empire" is collapsing from the inside, due to so called "cultural" problems. (see: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/technology/intel-culture-robert-swan.html" target="_blank">Intel’s Culture Needed Fixing. Its C.E.O. Is Shaking Things Up. Robert Swan, who leads the world’s biggest chip maker, is pushing his 110,000 employees to confront internal problems more openly).</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> During these days when the world is facing a major pandemic, it may be convenient to ignore problems that could have made headlines in the past. However, it is futile to deny the demographic trends in the U.S., which clearly show the working population is getting significantly older.</div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="640" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXHrJvGYEJsoa1bETEYSVIeC2mubMMEWpH0TdmTO0skyu2xEZEilgQ9Jm4KR4AGij74cLSnyg6vcXDG27aeI32kU8wonOaOk1VKA63UGCLz2MP6tfx-rnf52LHJcYMxo_xe3imNfAFZpl/w500-h301/Millennials+Workforce.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Workforce-age Group Composition<br />(click on image to enlarge)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOXHrJvGYEJsoa1bETEYSVIeC2mubMMEWpH0TdmTO0skyu2xEZEilgQ9Jm4KR4AGij74cLSnyg6vcXDG27aeI32kU8wonOaOk1VKA63UGCLz2MP6tfx-rnf52LHJcYMxo_xe3imNfAFZpl/s640/Millennials+Workforce.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><b>OLD at 40 YEARS of Age?</b></span></div><div> </div><div>Remember what we said earlier in this article about the ADEA defining older workers as those who are 40+ years of age? Well, if this fact eludes you for one reason or the other, Millennials, namely people who were born between 1980 and 2000 are in the process of entering this class of "older" workers. People who were born in 1980 are already 40 years old! <b>Having the largest representation in the current workforce, Millennials have every reason to be concerned about age discrimination in the work place.</b> Seeing your chances of keeping a well-paying job diminish as you cross the "magic 40" line, could be a nightmare come to life unless corporate greed, with its insatiable appetite for cheapening the cost of labor is met with effective enforcement of laws that have been written to serve the public, as opposed to serving the corporate world.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArBmLJ07t29VFlDjtN6d9p0RNmXOcmZtJqUE6IBSQ0OXXsw-TVPwO_VbSKlzW5BxUg01NHEY4g7iS4RNJvZ3kXKlXCfwOCdknPyuzDBPgvbUpiGhCcSOLyOWaYeTSX5rRWaNbKUL0aOrk/s1920/Millenials.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1105" data-original-width="1920" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArBmLJ07t29VFlDjtN6d9p0RNmXOcmZtJqUE6IBSQ0OXXsw-TVPwO_VbSKlzW5BxUg01NHEY4g7iS4RNJvZ3kXKlXCfwOCdknPyuzDBPgvbUpiGhCcSOLyOWaYeTSX5rRWaNbKUL0aOrk/w400-h230/Millenials.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>It is unnerving to think that the U.S. economy can continue to function by the rules of the corporate world with automation and major layoffs producing whopper bonuses to enrich the few individuals sitting in corporate C-Suite roles while denying the actual workers from the ability to maintain sustainable living wages. What are we going to do with people in the 40s, 50s, and 60s who can no longer find a decent-paying job? It is time to recognize that "older" is a relative term and that term applies to every single person throughout their lives. <span style="color: red;">There is no cure for aging unless jumping from a tall bridge is your favorite hobby</span>. One day the other guy is "old" and on the next day you are "the other guy".<br /></div><div></div><div><br /></div><div>Achieving equal rights for women is getting a new life in the political arena, particularly when it involves equal pay for equal labor. However, <span style="color: red;">very few proponents of women's rights acknowledge the fact that "older" women bear much harsher treatment from employers due to age discrimination, than men of similar age</span>. The <i>MeToo</i> movement made remarkable progress to expose and (hopefully) curtail sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Maybe it is time to up the ante, use the momentum and declare the birth of the "<b><i>Me-Three" (Me-3.00)</i> movement</b> to fight rampant age discrimination for women.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It is an "open secret" that Corporate America is in charge of the country, at least for the last 40 years. We have the "best politicians that money can buy", regardless of their political party affiliation. The current political system is totally fueled by money, which it seems to guzzle at an alarmingly high rate.</div><div> </div><div>Although we currently (2020) have a President who seems to continuously make the wrong choices and then cover up in order to save face, both houses of the U.S. Congress seem to be stuffed with people of similar ego maniacal core. Congress and the U.S Senate are stuffed to the gills with recycled politicians who obey the wills of their donors, as opposed to the wishes of their constituents.</div><div> </div><div>This situation is hard to explain, since most voters do not identify with either the RNC or the DNC propaganda. <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx" target="_blank">Gallup polls</a> conducted frequently over the last few years consistently indicate that there are many more "independent" voters than voters that identify themselves with either "R" or "D". The latest poll conducted during the first week of June indicates that independent voters amount to 40% of the voting population as opposed to 25% Republicans and 31% Democrats.</div><div> </div><div>To the best of my visibility, most people are more motivated to vote "against" a particular political candidate than "for" an alternative candidate. With this type of voters' psychosis, it is no wonder that <span style="color: red;">the whole country is falling apart at the seams and what unifies us as voters are our differences...</span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-K_ZCLAiZuzgfJs2P_dEI6JaEjIhAjSfH3zUMcYy8mHY1F7RM1phoHYPx531rVuRrr4dqb4fA7WtwElsivfHrLI6jONap8xnYYtyxv41o3Xn3qcwoFmarEAzKIl-Rh-ri1AMvfjALaH-/s800/Street+Protest+Demonstartion.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-K_ZCLAiZuzgfJs2P_dEI6JaEjIhAjSfH3zUMcYy8mHY1F7RM1phoHYPx531rVuRrr4dqb4fA7WtwElsivfHrLI6jONap8xnYYtyxv41o3Xn3qcwoFmarEAzKIl-Rh-ri1AMvfjALaH-/w500-h281/Street+Protest+Demonstartion.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>While disaffection with both of the major parties has been rampant, attempts at creating a significant third party that could act as a tie-breaker in both houses of Congress have not been successful thus far. The political system is essentially rigged by the current players to prevent newcomers from taking political power from the entrenched establishment. As much as I would like to see a large "Independent Party" taking place in U.S. politics, it is difficult to imagine that such a phenomenon would come to life, absent a major long-term crisis. While the COVID-19 pandemic could potentially extend into a full blown existential crisis, most of the American public still believes that full recovery is a matter of a year or two. <span style="color: red;">Throughout history this type of apathetic shortsightedness has always been the "Achilles Heel" of the plebiscite.</span></div><div><br /></div><div> In reality, elected politicians must be "supervised" on a continuous basis. The power of money, concentrated in Washington D.C. lobbying firms, can be defeated if the voting constituents regularly and continuously check their representatives' actions by looking at their day to day, actions and voting records. Congressional representatives ears must be be kept open through continuous stream of messages sent to them by their constituents. In the absence of meaningful communication from their constituents, Congressional Reps attention becomes captive to be grabbed by D.C. lobbyists who's time is well paid to deliver their master's messages.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div> Calling politicians' bluffs does not need to wait for the next elections cycle. The Internet provides access to most Congressional records and it is too bad that most people do not care to read these records to enlighten themselves.</div><div> </div><div>We all carry responsibility to manage our Reps, since otherwise, the money'ed interests in D.C. remain the only entities that interact with them. While big demonstrations in the streets have a significant "splash factor", such events tend to fizzle quite quickly. Generally, politicians have short attention span. In the absence of continuous follow-up on the cause, our politicians will not change their behavior, since most of them depend on money to retain their seat and the money supply is still concentrated in the hands of the "one-percenters" and the big corporate interests.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take charge and call on your elected representative today! Tell them what you really care about.<br /></div><div><br /> </div><div>Stay healthy and all the best!</div><div><br /></div><div>--Dr. Flywheel</div><div><br /></div><div>References:<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul><li> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/technology/intel-culture-robert-swan.html" target="_blank">Intel’s
Culture Needed Fixing. Its C.E.O. Is Shaking Things Up. Robert Swan,
who leads the world’s biggest chip maker, is pushing his 110,000
employees to confront internal problems more openly</a></li><li><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-intel-ceo-lists-lavish-165632561.html" target="_blank">Ex-Intel CEO Lists Lavish Silicon Valley Compound</a><br /></li><li><a href="https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf" target="_blank">UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS</a></li><li><a href="https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/DhillonTestimony091919CRHS.pdf" target="_blank">STATEMENT OF JANET DHILLON, CHAIR U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES</a><br /></li><li><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx" target="_blank">Gallup Polls - Party Affiliation</a></li><li><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/patriciagbarnes/2019/07/04/age-discrimination-is-a-womens-issue-that-womens-groups-tend-to-ignore/#716fefe85dc7" target="_blank">Age Discrimination Is A Women's Issue That Women's Groups Tend To Ignore</a></li><li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/26/why-age-discrimination-is-worse-for-women/" target="_blank">Why age discrimination is worse for women</a><br /></li></ul></div><div> <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-13813302121840086382019-12-12T15:58:00.009-08:002021-04-12T09:21:32.808-07:00Intel Corp. - Is That “Mea Culpa”?<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Mea culpa is a Latin phrase that means "through my fault" and is an acknowledgement of having done wrong.</i></span></span></span> </div>
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(source: Wikipedia)</div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">It is not unusual for criminals caught in the act by law enforcement to plead guilty to a lesser charge in order to cut a deal that (they hope) will reduce the impact of their sentencing. Usually such “deals” are cut during the period of time when an active investigation by law enforcement is taking place and prior to public filing of the official charges in court.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVKTQ-Xr1a7tZCcrhN9jzc1a6E0M7bCfVRzM1dtzNF-zS3bHuarUImFHNhETWfPhjw-0RteHApfSehqjJ3g6QKE9klGHgrjKdvgH5MJviAwRofLdyegweHOxGo2_kgoushjf4uSk4GWIg/s1600/Is-that-mea-culpa.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1520" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVKTQ-Xr1a7tZCcrhN9jzc1a6E0M7bCfVRzM1dtzNF-zS3bHuarUImFHNhETWfPhjw-0RteHApfSehqjJ3g6QKE9klGHgrjKdvgH5MJviAwRofLdyegweHOxGo2_kgoushjf4uSk4GWIg/s320/Is-that-mea-culpa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />It is no surprise at all that Intel Corp. decided to expose their EEO-1 data for the years 2017-2018 to public view, attempting to create the impression of being a “cooperative good citizen”. See: <a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/diversity/2017-2018-eeo-1-pay-disclosure-report.html">Intel 2017-2018 EEO-1 Report</a></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />Interestingly, Intel Corp. own official published report demonstrates staggering lack of equality or diversity within the company’s workforce composition. Check out this Bloomberg article for a summary of the Intel Corp. EEO-1 reports data: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-12-10/intel-s-gender-pay-data-highlights-challenges-in-silicon-valley">Intel Is First to Share Detailed Pay Disparities. It’s Not Flattering...</a></span></span><br />
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The Bloomberg article notes:<br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Among 52 top executives at Intel, who all earn more than $208,000—the top pay band the EEOC tracks—29 are white men, 11 are Asian men and 8 are white women. The remaining tally is 1 each for Asian women, Hispanic women, black women and black men, with no Hispanic men among executives in that top tier.</span></i><br />
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The same article goes to say:<br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The ratio was similarly skewed across manager, professional and technician job classifications, with white and Asian men dominating top pay groups and women and people of color clustered in the lower bands. One in four white men at Intel are in the top salary tier, earning at least $208,000, a higher share than any other group. Rates are far lower for women and underrepresented minorities; less than 10% of black employees are top earners.</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The immediate questions that come to mind are:</span></span><br />
</b></span><ol><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>
</b></span><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">What drives Intel Corp. to expose to the public, information that it must report only to the EEOC, and why right now? </span></span></b></span></li><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>
</b></span><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">What is the overwhelming factor that drives Intel Corp. to seemingly admit to fault in public?</span></span></b></span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The timing question could be explained by the fact that details about the EEOC investigations of Intel Corp. age discrimination practices indicate the investigation is coming to a head. Interestingly, Intel Corp. public exposure of their EEO-1 reports, came out only two days after Mike Rogoway of the <b><i>Oregonian</i> news outlet</b> published an article in the Sunday edition of the paper entitled: <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2019/12/age-discrimination-intel-investigation-drags-on-for-years-highlighting-legal-pitfalls.html">Age discrimination: Intel investigation drags on for years, worker protections lag</a>. In his article, Rogoway spells quite clearly that the <b>multi-year investigation</b> of rampant employee age discrimination practices exercised by Intel Corp. is in full force.</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Under the latest circumstances, it is clear that Intel Corp. exposure of its blatant lack of diversity is not happening in vacuum. It is well known by now that the company is undergoing federal investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for gross violations of federal employment laws, more specifically, for massive age discrimination targeting a large number of its older employees. Since the company laid off more than 17,000 employees over the last four years, mostly during 2015 and 2016, and since many of these employees were not women or minorities, Intel Corp. pretends that laying off older employees was done to balance the lopsided composition of its workforce. In reality, the EEO-1 reports show very little change and a clear discrimination of women and minorities compensation basis. It is interesting to note that the EEO-1 reports do not require data aggregation on the basis of age, while they do include gender and minority attributes. It is likely that aggregation by age and year-to-year comparison of the reports would have revealed a clear trend of replacing older employees with younger employees. On the other hand, when the EEOC investigates the company, they can find the age aggregation numbers if they wish to do so. I will be surprised if the investigators did not collect this information.</span></span><br />
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />When examining Intel Corp. seemingly “unusual” action of exposing the EEO-1 aggregated reports for 2017-2018, we must consider two important points:</span></span><br />
</span><ol>
<li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The type of violations reflected through the EEO-1 reports carry hardly any legal liability for the company and can be relatively easily deflected as “unfortunate” and non-intentional by the company defense attorneys.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Unlike the violations exposed through the EEO-1 reports, Intel Corp. exercising massive age discrimination violations in the employee layoff cycles of 2015 and 2016, do confer significant legal liability and represent potential heavy financial cost to the company, once taken to court.</span></span></li>
</ol><span style="font-size: medium;">
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The results of the active EEOC age discrimination investigation have not been published yet, so it makes sense that potential charges officially filed against Intel Corp. by the EEOC will be far more severe than what the company is willing to admit to publicly. Under these circumstances, it can be understood that Intel Corp., portraying itself to be a cooperative “good citizen” by declaring “mea culpa” to lesser charges, is making a bet to lessen the public opinion impact (and perhaps also the court sentencing) associated with the company’s blatantly illegal practices.</span></span><br />
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />On this website, we reported that in 2015, Intel Corp. deliberately (and criminally) marked the personnel records of more than a thousand employees as “thieves”. They took this radical step to simply block the possibility of any one of these laid off employees from being rehired. See: <a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2019/06/intel-corp-marked-employees-as-thieves.html">Intel Corp. Marked Employees as Thieves to Prevent Their Rehiring</a>.</span></span><br />
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />We also reported that Intel Corp. deployed armed guards to coerce employees who were laid off in 2016 to sign documents, relinquishing their rights for legal recourse against their employer. See: <a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2019/07/armed-guards-were-used-to-coerce-laid.html">Armed Guards Were Used to Coerce Laid-off Intel Corp. Employees in 2016</a></span></span><br />
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />Note that all the information that we reported was volunteered by Intel Corp. employees and ex-employees who held key positions at the company over the course of several years and had access to inside information at the relevant time. The EEOC was presented with this information in a timely manner and their investigators were invited to interview our witnesses during the course of their ongoing investigation.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3kBAcMAJ_lzLPPYhzAQ7hesphOqEa8itQkX28M6xczHYbCNayX8oxFl5IilBahW-6ZaG994WnrNcx6k2iwhWCalDACTtrXYfgpq-XMdN-V7I-Uc7pekF5kSMt4jpMMoI-3biYkrdYKru/s1600/Lion_Air_Boeing_737-MAX8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="928" data-original-width="1600" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3kBAcMAJ_lzLPPYhzAQ7hesphOqEa8itQkX28M6xczHYbCNayX8oxFl5IilBahW-6ZaG994WnrNcx6k2iwhWCalDACTtrXYfgpq-XMdN-V7I-Uc7pekF5kSMt4jpMMoI-3biYkrdYKru/s400/Lion_Air_Boeing_737-MAX8.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />Unfortunately, there is a growing trend over the last two decades for our government agencies to bail out of their oversight and inspection responsibilities and let large companies regulate and audit themselves. Relying on “</span></span><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">foxes to guard the hen-house</span>” may work very well to advance the interests of “big business”; however, such <b>dereliction of duty on the part of government agencies does not serve the interests of the citizenry</b>.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">Typically, large companies can get by and continue to behave badly with lack of external supervision, until something bad happens and the “shit hits the fan”</span>. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">A case in point is the recently exposed failure of the FAA to supervise the qualification of the <b>Boeing 737-MAX airplane</b>. Self-policing of the B737-MAX airworthiness qualification saved Boeing a lot of money and allowed the company to shorten time to market for their product. However, it took the tragic loss of many lives to expose the systematic distortions and criminal neglect that was exercised in the process of self-policing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH9t3mtBM6UcHA619TagpK4qjiZrV20u6IQ4Vv9wMko16KGFjltpAYkuAwuMA239ZFkwZjkMh2A1Msi5z0MKxgbbay3NefbptOzl2LSa0emJxc-8WUmR7dfPd0-yD8hIDu06oFGw2Jcl4a/s1600/B737-MAX+crash.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="768" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH9t3mtBM6UcHA619TagpK4qjiZrV20u6IQ4Vv9wMko16KGFjltpAYkuAwuMA239ZFkwZjkMh2A1Msi5z0MKxgbbay3NefbptOzl2LSa0emJxc-8WUmR7dfPd0-yD8hIDu06oFGw2Jcl4a/s400/B737-MAX+crash.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">
<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />Both the FAA and EEOC are U.S. Government agencies that operate with a great deal of autonomy and have a clear mandate to serve the American People and not the corporations. When such agencies get caught “sleeping at the helm” and letting the “</span></span><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">fox guard the hen-house</span>”, the U.S. Congress must forcefully intervene to correct the behavior of the agencies, before a major disaster happens.<br /><br />Though no smoldering wreckage and charred bodies can be shown on TV, systemic exclusion of older workers from the American workforce through massive layoffs and almost non-existent law enforcement against age discrimination, is an extremely destructive practice. We are going to witness the long-term economic ill effects of such discrimination in the coming years and the cumulative damages are far-reaching and even fatal to the millions of people affected by premature forced retirement and long-term unemployment.</span></span><br />
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<span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Additional References:</span></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://www.hrdive.com/news/outlawed-for-50-years-age-discrimination-remains-employments-open-secret/515407/">Outlawed for 50 years, age discrimination remains employment's 'open secret'</a> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/intel-faces-age-discrimination-claims-1527264300">The Wall Street Journal - Intel Faces Age-Discrimination Claims</a> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/oh-intel-not-youtoo-age-discrimination-investigation-underway">IEEE Spectrum - Oh, Intel, Not #YouToo? Age Discrimination Investigation Underway</a> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2018/05/eeoc-investigates-intel-over-age-discrimination.html">EEOC investigates Intel over age discrimination claims</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2019/12/age-discrimination-intel-investigation-drags-on-for-years-highlighting-legal-pitfalls.html">Age discrimination: Intel investigation drags on for years, worker protections lag</a> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opDVRgPQd8w">FAA analysis warned of 737 Max risks after Lion Air crash</a> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/11/faa-chief-says-boeing-737-max-recertification-to-stretch-into-2020.html">FAA chief says Boeing 737 Max recertification process to stretch into 2020</a> </span></span></li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-9105403810136077092019-07-23T19:19:00.001-07:002019-07-23T20:41:05.074-07:00Dr. Flywheel "Wisdom on The Fly"On The 7th Rule of Successful Consulting<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyDPS-h49VduiOXxUPXCr9HO2LjLT_G1BCkZg3xlU1eBPo94Ai19yMH4vV8fWreBjVKIHLgzQIGJCCOJcSV55XWi4AlPPnERgLoodvxaB-ZubE4X373QdaHR-ns9M7aRkeVETDG9ztV-T/s1600/trapped-mouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="694" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyDPS-h49VduiOXxUPXCr9HO2LjLT_G1BCkZg3xlU1eBPo94Ai19yMH4vV8fWreBjVKIHLgzQIGJCCOJcSV55XWi4AlPPnERgLoodvxaB-ZubE4X373QdaHR-ns9M7aRkeVETDG9ztV-T/s320/trapped-mouse.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The 7th Rule of Successful Consulting</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"The Early Bird Gets The Worm; However, The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese"</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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During my long and diverse consulting career, I learned that my ability to produce good and effective results for my clients increased by a long shot, if my predecessor on the job was fired for lack of perceived meaningful progress. "Lack of progress" was of course, always presented from the client's point of view.<br />
<br />
However, my own <i>post-mortem</i> analysis of the situation indicated that almost without exception, the client was at fault for hiring my predecessor on the basis of low hourly rate, rather than on the basis of their qualifications and match for the required job outcome. In the real world, you typically get what you pay for.<br />
<br />
--Dr. Flywheel<br />
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References:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/the_early_bird_gets_the_worm">the early bird gets the worm</a></li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-26888460625871202672019-07-13T17:24:00.000-07:002020-01-07T10:08:33.301-08:00Armed Guards Were Used to Coerce Laid-offIntel Corp. Employees in 2016<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); font-family: "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 20px;">Forcing employees to quit on their own or in some cases, take forced retirement under terms, unilaterally dictated to benefit the corporation, seems to be standard practice in the corporate world. </span><br />
<br />
PDX-TIE.ORG interviewed a number of people who testified that uniformed armed
guards hired by Intel Corp. management, were in full view, as part of a
psychological move by the company to coerce laid off employees to sign
the separation agreement that was laid on the table in front of them, during the 2016 major employee layoff period.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1qseeHPCIT3-eymzjfBHPDwW7PHmv3WStUQ1eMTw5XKKvTAjCm4ynbCN3608UEXobn7GcTiGO6lHR6TIy6ZCntyrAbPz8LzWTHQrTDVpB7_vgqhU7aUyXd9wkMQiE3MDrkYvMR2IVM4x/s1600/Armed+Guards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="620" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1qseeHPCIT3-eymzjfBHPDwW7PHmv3WStUQ1eMTw5XKKvTAjCm4ynbCN3608UEXobn7GcTiGO6lHR6TIy6ZCntyrAbPz8LzWTHQrTDVpB7_vgqhU7aUyXd9wkMQiE3MDrkYvMR2IVM4x/s400/Armed+Guards.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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According to these witnesses, employees were, unexpectedly called, one-by-one, to a room where they were notified that their employment with Intel Corp. is terminated immediately. Most people were immediately stripped off of their company ID badge and their laptops were confiscated during the same session. Following the termination statement subject employees were given an explicit choice to either get out of the door with minimal severance pay or sign the severance agreement that was laid out on the table in front of them. Some witnesses, claimed that they were so shocked by the circumstances and particularly by the full view of armed guards in the vicinity of the "execution" rooms that they felt like hostages and actually experienced a "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome">Stockholm Syndrome</a>".<br />
<br />
Many laid-off employees claimed, after the fact, that they signed the separation agreement without being able to comprehend the document content in sound mind, due to the psychological pressure that they experienced during the reign of Brian Krzanich as CEO of Intel Corp. Some ex-employees claim that the presence of armed guards a few feet away from them, during the firing session, in addition to the psychological shock of suddenly losing their job, drove them into deep personal depression and continued insecurity for a long time, after their last day of employment.<br />
<br />
<div>
Apparently psychological coercion of employees is a common method used
by corporations to get rid of employees with minimal backlash to
corporate management. A recent court trial in France, involving <i>Orange S.A.</i> (formerly <i>French Telecom</i>)
reveals that corporate management came up with an "innovative way" to
reduce their workforce while minimizing public backlash to the company
due to major layoffs. As Fortune Magazine reports:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17.008px;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In
2008 and 2009, dozens of employees of France Telecom took their own
lives or attempted suicide amid a massive restructuring at the company. A
52-year-old technician who killed himself in July 2009 described the
situation as “<b>management by terror</b>” in his suicide note. Starting this
week, six former executives, one current exec, and the company
itself—now known as Orange SA (ORAN)—are in court to face a devastating
question: What role did they play in 35 employee suicides?</span></i></span><br />
<br />
In a previous article we discussed the manner in which Intel Corp., under the leadership of Brian Krzanich as CEO, marked the personnel files of about 1300 laid-off employees as THIEVES, in order to prevent them from being rehired by the company for the rest of their lifetime. We know that Intel Corp. has chosen to mark such a large group of employees as THIEVES for nefarious reason that served the narrow interests of the CEO, the Board and a few company executives. We do not contest the right of companies to lay off their employees within the boundaries of the law and for sound business reasons. However, when the official records of the 2015 and 2016 layoff rounds clearly demonstrated disproportionate age-based discrimination, we expect the Federal and State governments to step in vigorously and enforce the relevant workers civil rights laws.<br />
<br />
With the additional recent revelations regarding the coercive tactics that Intel Corp. executives used to implement the layoffs, including the threatening deployment of armed guards and marking personnel files with false information in order to block people from being rehired by the company, the American Public must pay close attention to the severe deterioration in corporate behavior.<br />
<br />
The question remains, how long can corporations continue to use dubious unethical tactics to serve the narrow interests of a few executives and in addition, continue practicing age-discrimination at large, without any penalties imposed upon such behavior.<br />
<br />
Blocking the rehiring of former employees by a company represents a practice that is completely incompatible with the "Equal Employment Opportunity" laws of the U.S. This practice is particularly insidious when such employees are labeled as THIEVES, without proven legal cause.<br />
<br />
It is the responsibility of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to take corporate systemic violations of this kind very seriously. They must prosecute law violators to the utmost degree possible, before tragic and violent circumstances, like the ones associated with the France Telecom case become news of the day in the U.S.<br />
<br />
--Dr. Flywheel<br />
<br />
References:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2019/06/intel-corp-marked-employees-as-thieves.html">Intel Corp. Marked Employees as Thieves to Prevent Their Rehiring</a></li>
<li><a href="https://fortune.com/2019/05/08/french-telecom-orange-trial-suicide/">France Asks a Devastating Question: What Role Did Telecom Executives Play in 35 Employee Suicides?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36733572">France Telecom suicides: Prosecutor calls for bullying trial</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome">Stockholm syndrome</a></li>
</ol>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-85724173079894427572019-06-12T10:10:00.001-07:002019-07-13T16:14:31.357-07:00Intel Corp. Marked Employees as Thieves to Prevent Their Rehiring<div>
Back in July 2015 Intel Corp. laid off about 1300 employees. Information gathered from the Federal Government mandated <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_severance-agreements.html" target="_blank"><b>OWBPA Report</b></a>, associated with this layoff, revealed that <b>employees over 40 years of age were targeted for this layoff in a disproportionate way</b>. At the time of the layoff the <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2015/07/intel_ceo_addresses_employees.html" target="_blank"><i><b>OregonLive</b></i></a> web site produced an analysis demonstrating this fact, as shown in the chart below.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlCraesvyUlYsrQotI-g8hA07nneS6sPzwz537R6idkm0swgq5jafoNoVmRYjYD8m5PEE0q721EzzVU9uRf8NX4iRt6w7FlPD19E_lAzqGAVp-NRmgy57HuEJ3xE8-9GvjZtgjEsrxTyY/s1600/Intel+-+2015+Layoffs+by+Age+chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="615" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlCraesvyUlYsrQotI-g8hA07nneS6sPzwz537R6idkm0swgq5jafoNoVmRYjYD8m5PEE0q721EzzVU9uRf8NX4iRt6w7FlPD19E_lAzqGAVp-NRmgy57HuEJ3xE8-9GvjZtgjEsrxTyY/s400/Intel+-+2015+Layoffs+by+Age+chart.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click on image to enlarge detail)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
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<div>
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<div>
However, under the discretion of <b>Brian Krzanich</b>, Intel CEO at the time, the HR department was directed to prevent any possibility of Intel Corp. managers, rehiring any of the 1300 laid off employees. Consequently, the employee records of each one of the laid-off employees, in the HR database were marked with a special code, declaring them as <b>THIEVES</b>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
By marking an employee record with the THIEVE code, a warning would be issued through the Intel Corp. HR database system, to any hiring manager who would examine the eligibility of an ex-employee to be re-hired. This warning would block the potential re-employment of such person, permanently. Note that the rehiring ban applied to all categories of employment: Regular Employee (Blue Badge), Contract Employee (Green Badge), Full Time, or Part Time.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We were able to interview a number of people who worked, at the relevant time, in various capacities at Intel Corp. HR and other departments. These witnesses confirmed to us that all 1300 laid-off employee records were marked with the special<b> THIEF code,</b> within the company's Employee Data Archive database.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Note that Intel Corp. is the largest payroll employer in Oregon and a major employer in several other states. By marking laid-off employees as THIEVES, Intel Corp. essentially wiped out a potential source of income for a significant number of people. This capricious corporate edict would persist for the rest of these affected ex-employees lifetime, unless Intel Corp. is brought to justice and the policy is consequently, reversed.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There is an open question whether a company can be <b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "graphik web" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">disparaging</span> a group of laid-off employees</b> <b>as THIEVES</b> and get by without legal scrutiny. Clearly, such behavior is discriminatory action all by itself and a strong argument can be made that such action is <b>intentional and criminal in nature</b>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>We are hereby calling upon the U.S. Government, the State of Oregon Government, our U.S. Congressional delegation, the EEOC and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to inspect and seriously review the relevant Intel Corp. Employee Records and databases in order to investigate the facts stated above.</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
--Dr. Flywheel<br />
<br />
<b>Update July 13, 2019</b><br />
<br />
We interviewed a number of people who testified that uniformed armed guards hired by Intel Corp. management, were in full view, as part of a psychological move by the company to coerce laid off employees to sign the separation agreement that was laid of in front of them, on the spot.<br />
<br />
Apparently psychological coercion of employees is a common method used by corporations to get rid of employees with minimal backlash to corporate management. A recent court trial in France, involving <i>Orange S.A.</i> (formerly <i>French Telecom</i>) reveals that corporate management came up with an "innovative way" to reduce their workforce while minimizing public backlash to the company due to major layoffs. As Fortune Magazine reports:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17.008px;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2008 and 2009, dozens of employees of France Telecom took their own lives or attempted suicide amid a massive restructuring at the company. A 52-year-old technician who killed himself in July 2009 described the situation as “management by terror” in his suicide note. Starting this week, six former executives, one current exec, and the company itself—now known as Orange SA (ORAN)—are in court to face a devastating question: What role did they play in 35 employee suicides?</span></i></span><br />
<br />
See reference #5 in the notes below.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.85); color: #494949; font-family: , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Notes:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ENfyVLfhLA858dRIkMKdXUiH03Wd-VN7" style="font-family: proxima-nova, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Can you sue an Oregon employer for defamation based on a reference?</span></a></li>
<li><h1 role="heading" style="border: 0px; color: #111111; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.35em; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://employment-law.freeadvice.com/employment-law/hiring/libel_supervisor.htm">If my boss recorded false statements in my personnel file, is this libel?</a></span></h1>
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://employment-law.freeadvice.com/employment-law/hiring/libel_supervisor.htm"> Flawed Separation Agreement Does Not Bar ADEA Claims :</a></span><i><br />Every separation agreement for an employee who is age 40 or older should include an ADEA waiver and the protections required by the OWBPA. Failure to include these provisions does not necessarily make the entire agreement invalid or create a separate legal claim, but <b>the employee will have the ability to proceed with ADEA claims against the employer despite the payment he or she has received.</b></i></li>
<li><i><b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/business/dealbook/wells-fargo-faces-scrutiny-for-black-marks-on-ex-employee-files.html">Wells Fargo Faces Scrutiny for Black Marks on Ex-Employee Files</a></b></i></li>
<li><i><a href="https://fortune.com/2019/05/08/french-telecom-orange-trial-suicide/">France Asks a Devastating Question: What Role Did Telecom Executives Play in 35 Employee Suicides?</a></i></li>
</ol>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-8144981424223313652019-04-06T13:13:00.000-07:002019-04-06T13:13:37.065-07:00Eliminati meetups - May 7,8,9<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
Inviting both the new 2019 class, as well as older members to help mentor.</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
Meetups are a place to process our group experiences with leaving Intel. We have captured many lessons on our <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pdx-tie.org&source=gmail&ust=1554531875612000&usg=AFQjCNFAiZ2mqo2OcjyD_jEtixkxw00Lnw" href="https://pdx-tie.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://pdx-tie.org</a> website from such talks. Come join us for a session.</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<br /><div style="font-size: small;">
<i>May 7 - 1:00pm</i></div>
<div>
<b>Ava Roasteria - Timberland</b></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
In the Cedar Hills Market of Choice shopping center</div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
<i>May 8 - 6:30pm </i></div>
<div>
<b>Hillsboro Brookwood Library</b></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
Upstairs in the conference room area</div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
<i>May 9 - 2:00pm</i></div>
<div>
<b>Hop Cycle Brewery, Banks Oregon</b></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
Extra parking along street or by the HW Store</div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
(Hop Cycle is a business started by an Intel retiree)</div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
Eliminati members in other geographies are asked to just organize and host meetups as well. </div>
</div>
rviredayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10151385324076438961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-43431061766910293852019-03-29T14:18:00.001-07:002019-03-30T16:33:57.010-07:00Message To all Intel Corp. Employees Who Will be Losing Their Jobs SoonAs reported in the <i>OregonianLive </i>article entitled <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2019/03/intel-lays-off-hundreds-of-tech-administrators.html" target="_blank"><i>Intel lays off hundreds of tech administrators</i></a>, It is apparent that hundreds of Intel Corp. employees are about to loose their job.<br />
<br />
Note that signing a severance waver with your employer, does not negate you legal rights to file a discrimination complaints with the EEOC. If you are 40 years old or older Intel Corp. must provide you with a copy of the OWBPA report, indicating the job functions and ages of all laid off employees.<br />
<br />
The OWBPA, which is part of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), safeguards older workers' employee benefits from age discrimination. Among other things, this means that employers must take certain precautions when seeking a release from older workers that waives rights under the ADEA<br />
<br />
Please also refer to this article on our web site:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2017/11/understanding-waivers-of-discrimination.html">UNDERSTANDING WAIVERS OF DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS IN EMPLOYEE SEVERANCE AGREEMENTS</a></span><br />
<br />
<div>
Protect your civil rights if you know that you have been a victim of discrimination in the workplace.</div>
OWBPA reports are mandated to be distributed to affected employees who are of age 40+, by Federal laws and therefore, are not considered company confidential for that reason.<br />
<br />
If you received a OWBPA report please consider sharing the content with the editors of <a href="http://pdx-tie.org/">PDX-TIE.ORG</a>.<br />
<br />
Also consider joining our internal mailing list, by following this link:<a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/05/how-to-join-pdx-tiegooglegroupscom.html">http://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/05/how-to-join-pdx-tiegooglegroupscom.html</a><br />
<br />
--Dr.Flywheel<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-12872100063844644482019-01-09T15:18:00.002-08:002019-03-18T14:26:04.993-07:00Ageism in the Workplace Affects Multiple Generations-- Time to Sound the Alarm Bells --<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">The Millennials' Trap</span></b></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">By taking workers who are older than 40 but younger than retirement age (67) out of the workforce, or even by just forcing their income to be significantly reduced, the major burden of maintaining the economy for the general population, over the next few decades, will fall on the "millennial" generation.</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
It looks like age discrimination in the workplace is finally getting more public exposure. The video clip below, taken from the CBS "This Morning" program, provides a glimpse to this incredibly important issue, currently affecting mostly workers who are 40 years old or older. Seemingly, only older workers are being directly affected at the present time; however as we examine the facts more closely, we can see that the dire side effects of age discrimination are going to dominate the economy of all generations of Americans equally badly. In addition, let us not forget that everyone gets older day-by-day and the process of aging is irreversible. It is clear that employers lay off older workers in order to reduce the cost of labor and not because such workers do not bring great value to the business.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5Pnj74WxkaQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
(Click on the above image to play the embedded video clip in your browser)<br />
<br /></div>
Studies of company layoffs, conducted over that last few years indicate that among workers older than 40 years, women are further affected than men as they get laid off at an earlier age. The most insidious aspect of age-based layoffs is the skewed statistics of executive layoffs. While most workers as well as low and mid-level managers are subject to age-based layoffs, the "executive class" in most companies enjoys great on-the-job longevity and even reaps benefits from employee layoffs. Such executive benefits are realized in the form "efficiency bonuses" that executives receive, due to their initiation of "head cutting" actions...<br />
<br />
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is the Federal agency, in charge of enforcing anti-discrimination laws in employment, seems to be very weak in pursuing age-based discrimination cases. However, the real culprit is the U.S. Congress, controlled by highly paid "special interest" lobbyists who insured that laws protecting age-based discrimination would remain weak and very difficult to enforce. Though there were several attempts to revise the laws and update the compensation that can be awarded to proven victims of age-discrimination, a long succession of proposed Bills to revise the applicable laws have met their silent death in the U.S. Senate. The latest of these proposed Bills in Congress is <b><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6811/related-bills">H.R.6811 - Age Discrimination in Employment Parity Act of 2018</a>. </b>A similar U.S. Senate Bill <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/443/all-info">S.443 - Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act</a> remains buried in committee...<br />
<br />
Among other things, the compensation levels awarded to age-discrimination victims remained unchanged since 1967. Due to the significant inflation that the U.S. economy underwent since 1967, the compensation amounts set for victims by the existing laws look completely ridiculous by today's standards and have never been indexed or revised. Consequently, very few employment attorneys are willing to take on the case of age-discrimination victims, since the litigation costs would typically exceed the monetary recovery expected after successful litigation. The outcome of keeping the current laws very weak, outdated and unchanged, results in employers firing older employees en-mass and with almost complete impunity. Legal challenges are very rare and Government enforcement of the laws through the EEOC is a long and convoluted process. Without a "sheriff" in town, employers are left unchecked to violate civil rights of older workers at will.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixXZ4bDgLqcN_xXEd-dOEx5W6o0L-ALFl2eLgriWULQ9f1Fd4eQ6ejGy7ZdFkKL5jodMS-vM9SAQFpY2r1WOLvy59vSLPAXvaxoeR7j7ch_-3k87xIt2oXhjC2yl4eWpLub38J_-pe2yaR/s1600/world+GDP+2030+Projection.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="698" height="322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixXZ4bDgLqcN_xXEd-dOEx5W6o0L-ALFl2eLgriWULQ9f1Fd4eQ6ejGy7ZdFkKL5jodMS-vM9SAQFpY2r1WOLvy59vSLPAXvaxoeR7j7ch_-3k87xIt2oXhjC2yl4eWpLub38J_-pe2yaR/s400/world+GDP+2030+Projection.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>World Leading Economies 2030 GDP Projections</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(click on image to expand detail)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Considering the demographic trends of the U.S. population over the next 20 years, we are going to see tremendous unemployment and poverty replacing the relative prosperity that we see today. As more older employees are forced out of the workforce or delegated to take significantly lower paying jobs, the U.S. economy, which is predominantly controlled by consumer spending (see table below), is bound to sink to levels never seen before. Considering that there are credible predictions for China (and very likely, also India) replacing the U.S. as the world leading economies by 2030, we have very little time to prepare for the future.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNY6UddURmz1uMHkWHDMHldwtqTt4AoMRCdKtqMjZNwRhqNnLflnoyOTbD-XuyXNtiAQMJ6O5jd3ZiOA1N3U7X9czo7Wyje7lP5Taa6AdTTQ4CwM-QlHlOXot8SjHjlzn32GCAFtGhpKRz/s1600/Components+of+the+2017+GDP.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="868" data-original-width="493" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNY6UddURmz1uMHkWHDMHldwtqTt4AoMRCdKtqMjZNwRhqNnLflnoyOTbD-XuyXNtiAQMJ6O5jd3ZiOA1N3U7X9czo7Wyje7lP5Taa6AdTTQ4CwM-QlHlOXot8SjHjlzn32GCAFtGhpKRz/s640/Components+of+the+2017+GDP.png" width="361" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click on image to expand detail)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
You do not need to be an economist to understand that unemployed or low-paid workers may not have extra money to spend and consequently consumer spending will be sharply curtailed. This growing portion of the population will also not be able to contribute much to government revenue in the form of tax payments to finance necessary public services. Consequently, it is not hard to predict that a regenerative process of sinking of the U.S. economy is bound to happen sooner or later, if employment policies that utilize age discrimination are going to be left unchecked due to legislative neglect. <b>Demographic trends cannot be waved off or ignored in the same manner as climate change</b>, obviously they are mankind made...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitVChXzLhcQ7hFIE7bK6ef08pDRcRPI107MQ1ipF1CDUchv1ozpj6sSlvnJuqahlZ0XHD2zlvti6dQ1fOtAmMCkiDuzTSOnK5ijI2hhoekUhCIZiuVKuk3VkLyHLn_yY-OzbzUL8m5kSZ6/s1600/Projection+of+U.S.+Older+Population+2020+to+2060.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="413" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitVChXzLhcQ7hFIE7bK6ef08pDRcRPI107MQ1ipF1CDUchv1ozpj6sSlvnJuqahlZ0XHD2zlvti6dQ1fOtAmMCkiDuzTSOnK5ijI2hhoekUhCIZiuVKuk3VkLyHLn_yY-OzbzUL8m5kSZ6/s400/Projection+of+U.S.+Older+Population+2020+to+2060.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click on image to expand detail)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>By taking workers who are older than 40 but younger than retirement age (67) out of the workforce, or even by just forcing their income to be significantly reduced, the major burden of maintaining the economy for the general population, over the next few decades, will fall on the "millennial" generation.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFRpa5j_wtSN6r8wmvL1gaK4fjG3ysYMA5zz64mWtZjCtQwWUHXgRvaJnsBGAaRk_g_jNfBeRpGPieJAOizAc1AOwm5R0T3Fkp4yKiCEr5t5Fvr8cXEhgXbt7BcD5NaBwvmah2RCnvpjM/s1600/Multigenerational+Households.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="421" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEFRpa5j_wtSN6r8wmvL1gaK4fjG3ysYMA5zz64mWtZjCtQwWUHXgRvaJnsBGAaRk_g_jNfBeRpGPieJAOizAc1AOwm5R0T3Fkp4yKiCEr5t5Fvr8cXEhgXbt7BcD5NaBwvmah2RCnvpjM/s400/Multigenerational+Households.png" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click on image to expand detail)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Millennials currently form about 35% of the U.S. workforce and many of them are already heavily burdened by student debt. Expecting millennials to pay the tax money required to support the needs of a significantly growing older population is not only an unfair concept, but it also works against the common sense of enabling older workers to continue earning money to cover their needs on their own, all while paying taxes on their earned income.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Age discrimination in employment is therefore a corrosive practice that affects not only older workers; it affects younger workers and their economic future prospects, just as much.</b><br />
<br />
It is time to break the glass and push the alarm button now, before a major crisis is hitting us in the face. Call your U.S. representatives and tell them that the time has come to install fairness and common sense into the U.S. labor policies and protect our civil rights.<br />
<br />
--Dr. Flywheel<br />
<br />
Additional References:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://insights.dice.com/2019/01/23/ageism-tech-pros-36-startup-founders/">Ageism Kicks Off After Tech Pros Hit 36: Startup Founders</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/08/1-in-5-millennials-with-debt-expect-to-die-without-ever-paying-it-off.html">1 in 5 millennials with debt expect to die without ever paying it off</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.axios.com/millennials-personal-debt-baby-boomers-b4060d8e-ed47-4f5d-85ab-b212d7de995a.html">20% of millennials in debt expect to die without paying it off</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/25/7-demographic-trends-shaping-the-u-s-and-the-world-in-2018/">7 demographic trends shaping the U.S. and the world in 2018</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/09/ibm_age_iayoffs/">IBM insists it's not deliberately axing older staff. Internal secret docs state otherwise...</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.pdx-tie.org/2018/05/the-federal-government-is-investigating.html">The Federal Government is Investigating Intel Corp. for Age Discrimination Violations</a></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-60068201815574202162018-10-23T14:43:00.002-07:002019-01-30T10:50:06.045-08:00Intel Corp.The “Headless Chicken” Syndrome<style type="text/css">
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
We have a good
reason to believe that Brian Krzanich (BK) resignation from Intel
Corp. was a “Roger Stone” style diversionary PR stunt, chosen by the Intel Board of
Directors to protect the stock price from negative effect of vacating
the top executive position. While supposedly, BK resigned his
position as CEO due to ethical violation of company rules, in
reality, BK was responsible for significant blunders that kept
sinking the company position as a leader of the semiconductor
manufacturing business.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The fact that Intel
has not filled the CEO position since June 2018, indicates one or
more of these points:</div>
<ol>
<li><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
No reasonable
candidate is willing stick their head in the mess that is left
behind BK’s legacy.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Board of
Directors is complicit in letting BK run the company unchecked for
such a long time and any well qualified candidate who interviewed
with the board, figured out that they will be working against the
tide and without backup.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Board of
Directors is aware that CEO replacement will not solve the problems
that Intel Corp. is facing, because the problems are much more
profound and involve general lack of trust within the organization.
Consequently, they are only focusing on damage control and can live
with an interim CEO who is “absolved” of long-term
responsibilities.</div>
</li>
<li>The U.S.
economy is currently running in full swing. The Board of Directors
is focusing on “making hay while the Sun is shining”. A new CEO,
particularly one who comes from the “outside” may come up with
demands for radical changes to the internal organizations and
consequently put the current stock price at risk. It is likely that the Board prefers to maintain the status quo over any "revolutionary" actions.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<br />
<ol>
</ol>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYR-_LauYp9qixz27WDu-7vAf9HzY8ZeV9Rlx0wIpjb4lcjEKhw6jE6DaqRWb4DFr3TvNiGdzTl1vFz0QxD1lcsaQrJiunYz4mAjS_8_EWfvMxElQXXv4GbB11DPs3sESV7bYAyAe4RHAD/s1600/Headless-Chickens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="350" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYR-_LauYp9qixz27WDu-7vAf9HzY8ZeV9Rlx0wIpjb4lcjEKhw6jE6DaqRWb4DFr3TvNiGdzTl1vFz0QxD1lcsaQrJiunYz4mAjS_8_EWfvMxElQXXv4GbB11DPs3sESV7bYAyAe4RHAD/s400/Headless-Chickens.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Brian Krazanich
replaced the late Paul Otellini as Intel Corp. CEO in May 2013.
Although presenting himself as an “engineer” in practice, BK had a very short
engineering experience and very quickly, after being hired as a
“process engineer” (a manufacturing position) at the New Mexico
Fab, he shifted to a management track, where the rest of his career at
Intel Corp. was spent. Most of BK career growth took place as a manager at the
Technology and Manufacturing Group (TMG), which operates the silicon manufacturing lines (known as the "Fabs"). BK had no background in circuit design, electrical engineering, systems
engineering, or software engineering which together, create the actual IP value of today's computer systems products.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
For many decades
since its foundation, Intel Corp. held itself to high standards of
transparency by keeping low overhead and sharing information with all
of its employees. As part of this exercise of transparency, the
company annually conducted an employee feedback study known as the
Organization Health Survey (OHS). The OHS presented employees with a
large number of questions, asking them to grade the company
performance over a wide range of issues. The OHS goal was to give
managers a realistic assessment of the efficacy of management
practices. The results of the OHS were published and distributed to
employees, as a matter of course, followed by a public discussion of the issues exposed by
the annual OHS. As the late Paul Otellini used to say "OHS goal is to keep Intel Corp. management in tune with company employees".</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 2013 (the first
year in which BK was the CEO), Intel Corp. "C-Suite" issued a message to employees that the pending, annual
OHS will not be conducted for that year. This was supposedly, because BK was in his position
for less than a full year. This was the first time that the OHS was
not run, since inception of the practice at Intel Corp.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 2014, though the
OHS questioner was distributed to employees on time, executive management
refused to publish the OHS results for the first time in the history
of the company. The only points that were exposed, came out of the
personal blog that Richard Taylor (head of Intel HR at at the time) published on
<i>Planet Blue</i>, the internal employee social network. The
major issues mentioned on that blog included the fact that the OHS revealed
significant trust issues among corporate entities, as well as lack of
trust between managers and technical leaders, serving within the same business units.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Since Richard
Taylor’s blog was open to all employees, his comments about
the OHS received a flood of comments and questions. Like other company employees, I contributed a
few of these comments at the time. My comments specifically addressed the growing lack of knowledge and many times complete ignorance of significant technical issues on the part of company managers at all levels. I also mentioned the systemic diminishing of the authority bestowed upon technical
leaders and the overt effort to cut their numbers in company ranks, while staffing a growing number of manager positions. At the time, we did not
know that BK and his cronies were planning to lay off a large number
of employees in 2015; however, in retrospective, it becomes clear
that the ground work was already set for this action to happen.<br />
<br />
Interestingly, the 2015 mass layoffs were heavily skewed to exclude managers, compared to employees in individual contributor positions. This fact is clearly demonstrated by the OWBPA report filed by Intel Corp. in June of 2015.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6rwb-Q_CNrPEbvtee4Tvg_bQ6i6KCJ3bMoC2vXYyYN__EEdUmktKRtUoXgpw49okUJPSdgbPkP7uZ5t2OuQrhV1GZEM4rmezcJADfw0HFLdel91lI0sj_VYP2r1XwbDw_YlzAEZjtBs_/s1600/2015+layoffs+managers+vs.+non-managers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="797" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6rwb-Q_CNrPEbvtee4Tvg_bQ6i6KCJ3bMoC2vXYyYN__EEdUmktKRtUoXgpw49okUJPSdgbPkP7uZ5t2OuQrhV1GZEM4rmezcJADfw0HFLdel91lI0sj_VYP2r1XwbDw_YlzAEZjtBs_/s400/2015+layoffs+managers+vs.+non-managers.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click on image to expand detail)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
2014 was the year in
which during the course of my work as the systems architect of the
Electrical Validation department, I had first row view of the 14nm
process yield failures. Upon closer look and a thorough investigation
I came to the conclusion that the systems used for engineering audit
of the wafers coming out of the Fabs were ineffective for
determining a cause-effect correlation. Establishing such correlation is a fundamental requirement for effective failure analysis and subsequent correction of mass manufacturing production flaws. While 20<sup>th</sup> Century
methodologies were sufficient to monitor silicon defects and
determine corrective actions for fixing silicon production flaws for many
generations of Intel silicon products, it became apparent that these methods have
reach their limit at the time that the last 22nm fabrication process
(Haswell family of CPUs) was used at the Fabs.<br />
<br />
Looking at the vast amounts of data coming out of the production monitoring systems, I was astonished to
find out that no-one on the engineering side of the company, knew how to effectively use the collected data
for proper analysis as well as how to apply the analysis towards fixing outstanding
yield problems. Further, it was shocking to find out that most of the petabytes (millions of gigabytes) of data was
never seriously examined or utilized. In fact, most of the collected data was unfit and useless for engineering analysis. After years of inertia this revelation was the first indication of a systemic failure. A <i>Laissez-faire</i>
approach to running a critical part of the business suddenly falling into obsolescence, mostly due to lack of scrutiny and common sense among managers.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In an effort to
correct the situation I began working on an initiative to revise the
procedures and the methodologies used for identification of
root-causes in silicon wafer failures for the 14nm and the upcoming
10nm fabrication processes. In concerted cooperation with other engineering leaders I devised 21<sup>st</sup> Century methodology, specifically
using “big data” and artificial intelligence techniques for
collection, organization, and analysis of silicon wafer failure
handling. The foundation for this framework became internally known as the
<i><b>INTELligence Initiative</b></i>.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While it took a
significant amount of time to educate and convince people that the
methodology change is critical for success, a significant number of technical leaders
within the engineering organizations at Intel Corp. became convinced
that the new direction that I proposed is the right way to go. Further prototyping and application of the methodology were applied to real-life data demonstrating significant success. The only objections,
came from high level managers, who had no technical background and were risk
averse. The message that I received at the time was “go ahead and implement
your solution, if you are successful, we will support you...”.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The<span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">INTELligence Initiativ</span></i><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">e
</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
all the process improvements that I was leading at the time, went on the chopping
block after the 2015 mass layoffs. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">C-Suite
executives enjoyed their bonuses at the end of 2015 and the orchestra continued to play
while the boat was sinking.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Though my immersion in the analysis of the 14nm production problems allowed me to understand the depth of trouble that hat the company was in, I was still convinced that commonsense would prevail and the new methodology would be adopted to help the recovery process. Now, four years later, I see that the common sense never floated to the top, because the Intel Corp. organization became increasingly dysfunctional, year after year.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is now the end of
2018, BK is no longer the CEO, many thousands of experienced Intel
Corp. employees had been permanently laid off in 2015 and 2016 and most of them do not wish to ever return to employment with Intel Crop.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Let
us do a reality check as of end of October 2018:</div>
<ul>
<li><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
BK received the
dubious credential of being the “First Intel Corp. CEO to Break
Moore’s Law”, an attribute that he certainly worked hard to earn...</div>
</li>
<li>BK appointed more Vice Presidents during his tenure as CEO, than any one of his predecessors. The question remains open: "What does the company have to show for this generosity?"</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Intel Corp. has
trouble finding competent people who are willing to work for the
company, due to its diminished reputation as a fair employer.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The employee
trust issues that were revealed in the 2014 OHS have never been
attended to and the employee scare tactics, subsequently employed by BK for more than four years, further eroded chances of repair.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Intel Corp.
sustained tremendous production yield problems with its 14nm silicon
production processes while other semiconductor manufacturers,
including Global Foundries, TSMC and Samsung proceed to offer reliable 14nm, 12nm
10nm and 7nm products.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Intel lost
its place as the number one semiconductor manufacturer in the world, more than likely, forever.</div>
</li>
<li><div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
AMD business success due to its reliance on external Fabs is capitalizing on Intel Corp. failure to lead in manufacturing technologies and product intellectual property development.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While still
fighting yield problems with the so called “mature” 14nm process current industry news give the impression that the 10nm silicon manufacturing process will never see the light of day, due to both
technical and economical factors.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Apparently
the pressure on the limping 14nm production process is so bad that
Intel Corp. is moving the system integration “Chip-set” parts
back into the older 22nm production line.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Intel Corp.
began selling assets, to offset losses. The latest such action is
apparently, the sell off of the memory business, back to Micron
Technology, for $1.5 billion</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
My analysis is that
Intel Corp. is facing a plethora of technical problems that are real.
However, the <b>overwhelming problem for the company is the presence of
incompetent management at all levels</b>, in addition to lack of trust
and cooperation inside business units and <b>absence of leadership
direction</b>. The current production yield problems are only a symptom
of the underlying organizational weakness and lack of leadership resolve. I
define this phenomenon as the “<b>headless chicken syndrome</b>”.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
--Dr. Flywheel</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-27069688440691888672018-06-22T14:06:00.001-07:002018-07-10T19:49:17.295-07:00 MF Intel CEO Resignation Raises More QuestionsRecent news regarding about Intel Corp. CEO Brian Krzanich informed the public that BK resigned from his position, voluntarily. In view of of the company's record while under the tenure of BK, we believe that this "surprise" resignation was due to <b>multiple factors</b> and was a lot more predictable than not. The "fraternization" charges seem to be a PR solution that was devised to cover up for much more material misdeeds on the part of the beleaguered CEO.<b>The swift way in which the event was announced and executed, indicates that Intel Corp. is doing its best to put maximum distance between BK and the company, more than likely because more serious revelation are about to see the light of day, very soon.</b><br />
<ul>
<li>So far we know that multiple law suits have been filed against Intel Corp. as consequence of the multiple security flaws, found inside Intel's advanced microprocessor architecture that have been discovered by outside security experts. These law suits will have potentially detrimental effect on the company's revenue stream.</li>
<li>We know that the Federal Government is actively investigating Intel Corp. for <b>illegal workforce manipulation and age discrimination charges.</b> According to our sources, this investigation has been significantly expanded in recent months. The results of this investigation, which is already more than two and a half years along the way, are bound to be significant, both in terms of company image and monetary cost.</li>
<li>BK himself is facing investigation regarding his sale of millions worth of his stock options, while having first class access to propriety information, regrading the severity of security flaws in Intel Corp. microprocessor architecture and while being able to fully assess the corresponding risks to the company stock valuation.</li>
<li>The company's announcement that its 10nm manufacturing will not bear fruit until later in 2019, serves as a clear indication that something is awfully wrong with with the way that the company operates. Industry veterans, including myself, assess that the execution problems are not purely technical in nature, but rather have lot to do with chaos within the ranks, due to absence of leadership and expertise. Intel Corp. lost many highly experienced employees due to laying off about 1200 employees in 2015 and 12,000 in 2016, besides forcing thousands of veteran employees to retire. Apparently, the payroll savings in prior years are now costing a fortune in reduced productivity and chaos within the company ranks. <b>To be fair, Intel Corp. annual reports, published over the last few years, stated the risks that such layoffs might bring about; however, management under the leadership of BK decided to take the risk, nevertheless!</b></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3AMhDrLtFqP6FRGYnwSpENk10qSpsWQPmi0dV0YIGbyu6CKfuOGg8eQppo9yVBcBQUIyviHgkKPTZ8WybAR_suE-xa41B-4KVO25YnMPgmc2DWr4ynfBbTZOWMQVEjMpb4ssvJRGOAA-7/s1600/Danielle+Brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="578" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3AMhDrLtFqP6FRGYnwSpENk10qSpsWQPmi0dV0YIGbyu6CKfuOGg8eQppo9yVBcBQUIyviHgkKPTZ8WybAR_suE-xa41B-4KVO25YnMPgmc2DWr4ynfBbTZOWMQVEjMpb4ssvJRGOAA-7/s320/Danielle+Brown.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
It seems like the issue of fraternization, could have been handled with finesse, should BK's functional value in the eyes of the Board of Directors, was in order. The Intel Corp. PR machine could have come with subtle declarations and very little fanfare (like announcing a transition period for the CEO). Such was the case in the past when company executives were involved in quandary of various sorts. Typically, they were put to pasture (or sent to Siberia...) for a few months before quitting their job. Switching titles between President, President Emeritus, and CEO, was also common tactic to contain such moves. However, BK, more than any other Intel CEO before him, positioned himself at the center of a large number of PR campaigns and public personal appearances, in a self-promoting campaign that could only be described as a <i><b>Trumpian Parade</b></i>. Apparently, seeking the lime light came home to roost, when the Board finally decided to cut their losses with BK. Undoubtedly, the resignation came as a result of the mounting public scrutiny regarding company performance and dismal growth predictions, relative to the position of Intel's industry competitors. For the Board this is a matter of facts speaking for themselves and not of a sudden puritan morality campaign.<br />
<br />
In spite of admitting to the shortsightedness and the missed opportunities in the smart phone ("mobile") market, switching to other sources of revenue to replace the PC market derived income, the company execution remained very slow. Instead of demonstrating true leadership by example, BK elected to run the company as a dictator, eject many of his coworkers whom he viewed as competitors and laid off tens of thousands of experienced employees from the company. Through the course of this process BK demolished the internal, productivity culture that was known until then as "Intel Culture".<br />
<br />
Generally, Intel Corp. under the leadership of BK traveled through a process of organizational collapse ever since BK became CEO in 2013. The latest revelations about production line failures and inability to deliver 10nm high volume products, is a symptom of such organizational collapse. Intel Corp. rapidly lost it position as the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer to <i>Samsung</i> and its fledgling merchant Fab business never took off in a substantial way.<br />
<br />
BK demonstrated significant lack of trust in in the company's human capital, particularly veteran company employees, a fact that is proven by the following points:<br />
<ul>
<li>In his first year as CEO, BK blocked the publishing of the annual Organizational Health Survey (OHS), a survey in which employees provided their feedback about declared organizational goals and related management actions. This blocking of material information from employees, raised a lot of discontent among the rank and file within the company, since such a move has never happened before and clearly demonstrates a lack of transparency. BK never provided employees with an acceptable answer for his move.</li>
<li>BK drove the company to layoff tens of thousands of veteran employees and forced additional thousands of experienced employees to retire. No attempt was done to invest in employee retraining or reassignment. At the same time that Intel Corp. laid off a massive number of employees, the company also recruited an equal number of inexperienced new employees with foreign citizenship, many of them through H1B visa sponsorship and F1 to OPT conversions. This resulted in vacuum within the ranks, due to shortage of experienced leadership and a complete decimation of the "Intel Culture", a culture of taking responsibility, effective problem solving and operating with open communication and mutual trust. Newcomers, many of them recently arriving from countries that are not compatible with "Intel Culture", had no means to learn and follow by example, because the ranks were void of the older and experienced employees.</li>
<li>Due to his perceived notion about difficulties in managing the lower ranks, BK elected to invest tens of billions of dollars, into purchasing two outside companies, <i>Altera</i> and <i>MobilEye</i> for ridiculously overpriced valuations. The jury is yet to decide if these purchases were justified in any way; however, through this approach, BK's disdain to take charge and lead his own employees became apparent.</li>
<li>In 2015, BK declared the 1200 employees who were laid off by the company as "Lowest Performers". He did this in an open forum of employees, which created an enormous uproar inside the company. No attempt was made to correct the statement or apologize to the employees. Instead, Intel Corp. banned these employees from being rehired for their lifetime.</li>
<li>While trying his best to inflate his PR image, BK painted himself as a champion of female participation in the workforce. In January 2015 he announced that the company will <b>spend $300 million </b>on a new “diversity in technology” initiative. He also appointed his alleged girlfriend <i>Danielle Brown</i>, who was once his "technical Assistant" as the company "Chief Diversity Officer", a position that did not exist until then. Suspicious graft? You decide. Interestingly enough, the 1200 employees who were laid off in July 2015, received along with their "pink slip" a message from CEO BK, declaring that their layoff was called for due to the need to <b>save $300 million</b>, supposedly due to forecast of flat revenue. So it seems like BK was determined to promote his PR agenda by arbitrarily laying off veteran employees, and replace them with "diversity candidates". This would have been perhaps acceptable, besides that many of the women hired were foreign citizen spouses of H1B visa holder workers who stayed in the U.S. under H4 visas. <b>So much to serving equality in diversification</b>. According to the <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/working-abroad/theres-still-some-hope-for-h4-visa-holders-in-us-heres-why/articleshow/63954039.cms">Economic Time of India</a>: <i>More than 90% of such spouses are Indians. According to a recent report of the Migration Policy Institute, the US has issued EADs to more than 71,000 spouses of H1B visa holders, as of early 2017.</i></li>
</ul>
Workforce manipulation shenanigans and publicity stunts for hiding self serving nefarious agenda will remain the characteristics of Brian Krzanich career at Intel Corp., as well as his unique legacy of being the <b>first Intel CEO to break Moor's Law</b>. Though BK PR blurbs attempt to present the person as an "engineer" who runs a large technology company, people that knew BK at the beginning of his Intel career, told me that Brian had a very short stint in chemical engineering at the Albuquerque Fab, after which he immediately became a manager. Most of his time at Intel, BK spent at promoting his career, managing people and organizations and NOT doing actual "engineering" work. This could explain, at least in part, why real engineering and organizational problems are plaguing Intel Corp. as of late, since the CEO was probably not being able to understand what was broken in the system and what was necessary to fix it, while his personality prevented him from seeking good advice from either inside or outside the company.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
--Dr. Flywheel<br />
<br />
References:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/intel-faces-age-discrimination-claims-1527264300">Intel Faces Age-Discrimination Claims</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2018/05/the-federal-government-is-investigating.html">The Federal Government is Investigating Intel Corp. for Age Discrimination Violations</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.technewsworld.com/story/85078.html">The One Man Who Could Save Intel</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-intel-lawsuit/intel-hit-with-32-lawsuits-over-security-flaws-idUSKCN1G01KX">Intel hit with 32 lawsuits over security flaws</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/intel-ceo-brian-krzanich-investigated-by-block--leviton-llp-for-securities-fraud--ceo-sold-39-million-in-intel-stock-before-telling-the-public-about-major-flaws-in-intel-processors-300579131.html">Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Investigated By Block & Leviton LLP For Securities Fraud - CEO Sold $39 Million In Intel Stock Before Telling The Public About Major Flaws In Intel Processors</a></li>
</ul>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-45858519379816107042018-06-05T11:06:00.003-07:002018-06-05T22:39:42.474-07:00Student Loan Debt Reached All Time High of$1,521,019,350,000in Q1 of 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQSTJT9X0bxJADLUoVuiptU0O5VDsjOSvAH4kBhc60w1I54FGTacz0dHGFfOfM76I3SNbL8U_RaW9qX8f7OUCc5lrUaEIECewSSV49FJRhSUw11emsUYOo8XSmt8XyxRamPedr5mJQgQU4/s1600/FRB+Governors+Emblem.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQSTJT9X0bxJADLUoVuiptU0O5VDsjOSvAH4kBhc60w1I54FGTacz0dHGFfOfM76I3SNbL8U_RaW9qX8f7OUCc5lrUaEIECewSSV49FJRhSUw11emsUYOo8XSmt8XyxRamPedr5mJQgQU4/s1600/FRB+Governors+Emblem.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Student Loan Debt Reached All Time High of $<span style="background-color: yellow;">1,521,019,350,000</span> (more than 1.5 Trillion dollars) in Q1 of 2018. Consequently, outstanding student debt currently exceeds auto loan debt ($1.1 trillion) and credit card debt ($977 billion). Considering that 42% of people who've gone to college took out debt, this number has high significance on the future of our economy and the future welfare of young families. According to the <i>College Board</i>, "<span style="background-color: #f7f7f8; color: #333333; font-family: "callunasans" , "arial" , sans-serif;">In 2015-16, the 60% of bachelor’s degree recipients from public and private nonprofit institutions who borrowed graduated with an average of $28,400 in debt"</span><br />
<br />
A recent FRB Board of Governors (FRB-BOG) report on the Economic Well-Being
of U.S. Households in 2017, published in May 2018 informs us about the student debt situation:<br />
<br />
<i>Over half of college attendees under age 30 took on
some debt to pay for their education. Most borrowers
are current on their payments or have successfully paid
off their loans, although those who failed to complete a
degree and <span style="background-color: yellow;">those who attended for-profit institutions
are more likely to have fallen behind on their payments.</span>
• Among those making payments on their student
loans, the typical monthly payment is between
$200 and $300 per month.
• Nearly one-fourth of borrowers who went to forprofit
schools are behind on their loan payments,
versus less than one-tenth of borrowers who went
to public or private not-for-profit institutions.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFpUDAFWAfckn_e_MyG2-fC2_hdbo983SWJg-YGLy8ElZyY1GiruZxV481lZf46qwxdOU53KwDdOtjqlCIE6RQ0H7W_BOJSRdkLZGHNgMCZyHxG0gSRQgZ32Tm8bgcNUbRD9ewk_Vb2db/s1600/Student+loan+debt+updated+2018-05-07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="956" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFpUDAFWAfckn_e_MyG2-fC2_hdbo983SWJg-YGLy8ElZyY1GiruZxV481lZf46qwxdOU53KwDdOtjqlCIE6RQ0H7W_BOJSRdkLZGHNgMCZyHxG0gSRQgZ32Tm8bgcNUbRD9ewk_Vb2db/s400/Student+loan+debt+updated+2018-05-07.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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As the table below shows, many families have taken debt to finance education of their children and/or grandchildren. This creates a "spillover effect" on debt ownership that continues to burden older adults, even after their offspring have become independent adults.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWYSc8buGwK8YCeKQzcf1jNr0BuO-wbluNlskZ-dR3NfMUxch6Os9uOgc6NzFS8EfWLsF3c4wXdOQagxS52XVnuQzXwr11eYXYkhaqFuMwOmhk2nJ38ZHOSc8HAl35GkbqHWsshM3AbLV/s1600/Type+of+education+debt.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="184" data-original-width="377" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWYSc8buGwK8YCeKQzcf1jNr0BuO-wbluNlskZ-dR3NfMUxch6Os9uOgc6NzFS8EfWLsF3c4wXdOQagxS52XVnuQzXwr11eYXYkhaqFuMwOmhk2nJ38ZHOSc8HAl35GkbqHWsshM3AbLV/s400/Type+of+education+debt.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Here are some interesting anecdotes quoted from the same FRB-BOG report:</div>
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<ul>
<li><i>Nearly 25 percent of young adults under age 30,
and 10 percent of all adults, receive some form of
financial support from someone living outside
their home.</i></li>
<li><i>Four in 10 adults, if faced with an unexpected
expense of $400, would either not be able to cover
it or would cover it by selling something or borrowing
money. This is an improvement from half
of adults in 2013 being ill-prepared for such an
expense</i></li>
<li><i>Over one-fifth of adults are not able to pay all of
their current month’s bills in full.</i></li>
<li><i>Over one-fourth of adults skipped necessary medical
care in 2017 due to being unable to afford the cost</i></li>
<li><i>Nearly half of adults age 22 and older currently
live within 10 miles of where they lived in high
school, but those who have moved farther from
home are more likely to be satisfied with the overall
quality of their neighborhood.</i></li>
<li><i>Out-of-pocket spending for health care is a common
unexpected expense that can be a substantial hardship
for those without a financial cushion. As with
the small financial setbacks discussed above, many
adults are not financially prepared for health-related
costs. During 2017, over one-fifth of adults had
major, unexpected medical bills to pay, with a
median expense of $1,200. Among those with medical
expenses, 37 percent have unpaid debt from those
bills. In addition to the financial strain of additional
debt, over one-quarter of adults went without some
form of medical care due to an inability to pay.</i></li>
<li><i>Those with less income are more likely than others to
forgo medical care due to cost. Among those with
family income less than $40,000, 39 percent went
without some medical treatment in 2017. This share
falls to 25 percent of those with incomes between
$40,000 and $100,000 and 9 percent of those making
over $100,000.</i></li>
<li><i>Over the past several decades, the rate at which
Americans move—both short distances within states
and longer distances across the country—has
steadily fallen. This reduction in geographic mobility
also fits within a pattern of less job switching, more
generally, or reduced labor market fluidity.</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
I highly recommend reading the full FRB-BOG report for those of you who are concerned about the future of our economy and the welfare of our general population.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
All the best,<br />
<br />
--Dr.Flywheel<br />
<br />
References:<br />
<br />
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201805.pdf">Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017, May 2018 30 / 66</a></li>
<li><a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/cumulative-debt-bachelor-degree-recipients-four-year-institutions-over-time">College Board - Trends in Higher Education</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-49289496183334233812018-05-26T13:30:00.002-07:002019-12-17T10:11:20.954-08:00The Federal Government is Investigating Intel Corp. for Age Discrimination Violations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Recently published articles in the Wall Street Journal and the Oregonian web site, report that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is conducting an expanded class-level investigation regarding age discrimination complaints that have been filed with the EEOC against Intel Corp.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_miMCQzcvqbGp2yT3Ud4PqpN2vQC7nOJtCFGldZpGK97f-tbHEIGfxWpPqOsXwKYDEdU4G6q4ARTHu0cqHsj4TFaVVAH5Q_qYZLz5iOFcS-OdIMKMylIXoMTy4SS4An_9VfV5rKeCYAs0/s1600/investigation+-+magnifying+glass.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_miMCQzcvqbGp2yT3Ud4PqpN2vQC7nOJtCFGldZpGK97f-tbHEIGfxWpPqOsXwKYDEdU4G6q4ARTHu0cqHsj4TFaVVAH5Q_qYZLz5iOFcS-OdIMKMylIXoMTy4SS4An_9VfV5rKeCYAs0/s400/investigation+-+magnifying+glass.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was the first news organization to report about the ongoing investigation in an article written by Georgia Wells, entitled: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/intel-faces-age-discrimination-claims-1527264300">Intel Faces Age-Discrimination Claims</a>. The WSJ article mentions that multiple complaints have been filed with the EEOC in conjunction with several rounds of massive employee layoffs over the last three years. The fact that the EEOC would continue an investigation almost three years after a reported violation indicates that the reported allegations are substantial, in spite of Intel Corp. denial of the charges.<br />
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The Oregonian news organization expands the coverage on the subject matter in an article written by Mike Rogoway entitled: <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2018/05/federal_commission_investigati.html">Intel under investigation for alleged age discrimination</a>. Rogoway, who covered the Intel Corp. massive employee layoffs back in 2015 and 2016 also provided statistical charts showing a clear correlation between an employee age and their odds of being selected for layoff. In this recent article, Rogoway provides a copy of a previously published chart from 2016, demonstrating the very clear age discrimination factor in the 2016 layoffs. Similar charts are available for the 2015 layoffs.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrGhtfbFb53DhDjikKNLBRZnhGC0KLjJ3nfDQP-RLmTGTTA56kDznlnGrvF1RRw_4o9x9725v4EZ4z7bQt0hffUSNaMAgMQIvEOtrtj_W_BjBBh9-SSVWV0HwmpTwurjCYiVDeypbx4nR/s1600/Oregonian+Chart+-+2015+layoffs+by+age+group.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="755" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrGhtfbFb53DhDjikKNLBRZnhGC0KLjJ3nfDQP-RLmTGTTA56kDznlnGrvF1RRw_4o9x9725v4EZ4z7bQt0hffUSNaMAgMQIvEOtrtj_W_BjBBh9-SSVWV0HwmpTwurjCYiVDeypbx4nR/s400/Oregonian+Chart+-+2015+layoffs+by+age+group.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Intel Corp. 2015 Layoffs (click on image to enlarge)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkqQlJ1_w0xxnOws5UeXHTp5Wa7OgzQcH2p0wYoBjRpeO_kmEdIac-xVv73KCugSCEO9VPK3qT6mIt1gnbI2_SvMLl4qcEd_OwvggagczDuIFrMwgWZvGtmS5CS7lRREWpf3OatfXm25k/s1600/Oregonian+Graph+-+Intel+Layoffs+by+Age+Group.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="638" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkqQlJ1_w0xxnOws5UeXHTp5Wa7OgzQcH2p0wYoBjRpeO_kmEdIac-xVv73KCugSCEO9VPK3qT6mIt1gnbI2_SvMLl4qcEd_OwvggagczDuIFrMwgWZvGtmS5CS7lRREWpf3OatfXm25k/s400/Oregonian+Graph+-+Intel+Layoffs+by+Age+Group.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Intel 2016 Layoffs (click on image to enlarge)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Publicly available information also demonstrates that while Intel Corp. was laying off thousands of its current employees, the company was actually acquiring new employees by the thousands. Many of these employees came in via Intel corp. sponsorship of H1B visas, H4 spousal work visas, "Green Card" sponsorship and F1 to OPT work permits. All of these additions to the workforce involve importation of foreign workers who are at the mercy of Intel Corp. for continued stay and employment in the U.S. In other words, <b>Intel Corp. was actively replacing older workers with imported slave labor.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_D03sSd8t_epiWhz5f1DNLeA0jcWReQXj1MsEOWl0c7IFYb9AJNCSg6AOPZYroV5F5_maxZnqwDFwX2f_DhEX2ZdiDxHy0cfSwVxjg_0VMucK2U-zI8fwMQcHdgTzcbh8ChiFcWkYZuB/s1600/Intel+Number+of+Employees+from+Annual+Report.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_D03sSd8t_epiWhz5f1DNLeA0jcWReQXj1MsEOWl0c7IFYb9AJNCSg6AOPZYroV5F5_maxZnqwDFwX2f_DhEX2ZdiDxHy0cfSwVxjg_0VMucK2U-zI8fwMQcHdgTzcbh8ChiFcWkYZuB/s400/Intel+Number+of+Employees+from+Annual+Report.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Intel Corp. Number of employees from Annual Report</div>
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(click on image to enlarge detail)</div>
<b><br /></b>
As can be seen from the above information, taken from the Intel Corp. 2016 Annual Report, The number of employees reported at the end of 2015 was 107,300, or about 600 more employees then reported in the previous year. However, since about 1200 employees were laid off mid-year, in July 2015, the the end-of-year number shown in the Annual Report actually represents a <b>gain of 1800 employees relative to the previous year</b>. This gain of 1800 new employees acquired before 2015 year end, contradicts Intel CEO's announcement to employees that the July 2015 were necessary to save on expenses "due to forecast of flat revenue"! Throwing experienced (and older) employees off the bus in order to replace them with cheaper newcomers, is the more likely explanation.<br />
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Similarly, in 2016, Intel Corp. laid off about 12,000 employees, yet the difference between the numbers reported for the end of 2016 are 106,00, thereby reflecting an <b>effective gain of 10,700 employees </b> <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(106,000 - (107,300 - 12,000)) = <b>10,700.</b></span><br />
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<div>
Where did Intel Corp. acquire the replacement employees? According to a recently published <a href="http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/10110621/Pew-Research-Center_Foreign-Student-Graduate-Workers-on-OPT_2018.05.10.pdf">Pew Research Center report</a>: "By the end of the 2004-2016 period, there were a total of 1,474,000 OPT approvals and 1,473,000 initial H-1B visa approvals".<br />
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Layoffs of older U.S. citizen employees not only manifests employment costs savings due their higher salaries, but also cuts on the cost of medical insurance expenses for a self insured company like Intel Corp. It is taken for granted that medical insurance costs tend to rise with the age of older employees and their dependents. <b>If induction into employment of almost 3 million imported slave laborers in the high tech sector is not a significant economic factor in this lucrative sector of the U.S. labor market, what is? </b><br />
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Intel Corp. attitude towards lowering the cost of labor led company management to commit law violations by conspiring, along with Apple, Adobe and Google to halt competition for employee recruitment in the Bay area and by doing so curbing potential employee pay escalation. The company was engaged in this practice for over a decade since 2001. Court records show that Intel Corp. was forced to settle its ill behavior with its employees, following a court ruling in 2013 (see United States District Court of Southern California - San Jose, Case No. 11-CV-02509-LHK).<br />
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Taking the significant risk of engaging in an anti-competitive illegal activity is a clear indication of the high priority that company executives and the board of directors gave to curbing payroll costs. Clearly, Intel Corp. never refrained from its quest to curb employee compensation and was looking for every avenue to achieve its goals. The evidence points to systemic changes in the company's HR practices, enacted by company executives to get rid of older workers and replace them with cheaper workers. The 2015 layoffs, in which about 1200 employees lost their jobs, seem to be a small scale "experiment" that was meant to serve as a learning tool for company executives before executing the "magnum opus", the massive layoffs of 2016.<br />
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While Intel Corp. is not the only company to utilize the F1 to OPT loophole to circumvent the H1B visa quotas, utilization of such loophole is certainly one of the tools that the company utilizes to recruit cheap, captive workers. Public records show that Intel Corp. was the number one company to sponsor F1 to OPT foreign worker visas, with twice as many records registered as Microsoft corp. (see chart below).</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyqp3iIPGS1_EuKhFUfEfe5vGCG04FGQCkFg3nts8LwlkaZdxfsAQjQ6Rz2BzyH2zpV9xr_GB2eZOtvDMLE9xZShOJcAWkqEB5UoEO91o9e-Ln3et7o5xuwZc3OmOngvZuHu1j6Nz0BXAB/s1600/All+OPT+Extension+requests+for+F-1+students+with+a+STEM+Primary+Major.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="1052" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyqp3iIPGS1_EuKhFUfEfe5vGCG04FGQCkFg3nts8LwlkaZdxfsAQjQ6Rz2BzyH2zpV9xr_GB2eZOtvDMLE9xZShOJcAWkqEB5UoEO91o9e-Ln3et7o5xuwZc3OmOngvZuHu1j6Nz0BXAB/s400/All+OPT+Extension+requests+for+F-1+students+with+a+STEM+Primary+Major.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click on image to enlarge detail</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Both the <i>WSJ</i> and the <i>Oregonian</i> articles provide new exposure to issues that we have been covering in this web site for the last two years. We encourage our readers to refer to several of our previously published articles, including:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/08/useful-diagrams-for-explaining-intel.html">Useful diagrams for explaining Intel Corp selection of employees for termination in 2015 and 2016</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2018/05/seeking-cheap-labor-opt-is-name-of-game.html">The Cheap Labor Loophole - OPT is the Name of the Game</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2018/03/open-letter-to-rep-susan-bonamici.html">Open Letter to Rep. Susan Bonamici</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/11/investigation-reveals-silicon-valleys.html">Investigation Reveals Silicon Valley’s Abuse of Immigrant Tech Workers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2017/03/intel-corp-sponsored-10168-h1b-visas-in.html">Intel Corp. Sponsored 10,168 H1B Visas In 2017</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2017/02/coal-miners-h1b-visa-george-orwell-and.html">Coal Miners, H1B Visa, George Orwell and Alternative Facts</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/11/40-year-old-retirees-age-discrimination.html">40 Year-old Retirees - Age Discrimination in the News</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
Further recent information regarding the ill practices that high tech employers are using to substitute older workers with cheaper workforce are covered by Peter Gosselin in these ProPublica articles:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li> <a href="https://features.propublica.org/ibm/ibm-age-discrimination-american-workers/">CUTTING ‘OLD HEADS’ AT IBM</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-watchdog-launches-investigation-of-age-bias-at-ibm">Federal Watchdog Launches Investigation of Age Bias at IBM</a></li>
</ul>
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All the best.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
--Dr.Flywheel</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-7263110597935186002018-05-23T10:36:00.002-07:002018-05-23T10:36:52.955-07:00Quote of the Day<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-5mWbIM1L-U0m70gB-93h1NXlKp1NZc_qLr0AlDxRBfNQuSXfqzA0plEBE4O-WiSaRE0sajc3ASL3vd1_uD9IMZK2X80Jk78QJQxE586dyfDUjGV-q-3-12TsqEiLcgPEvurtyexEIE7/s1600/SJ+-+Hiring+Smart+People.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-5mWbIM1L-U0m70gB-93h1NXlKp1NZc_qLr0AlDxRBfNQuSXfqzA0plEBE4O-WiSaRE0sajc3ASL3vd1_uD9IMZK2X80Jk78QJQxE586dyfDUjGV-q-3-12TsqEiLcgPEvurtyexEIE7/s400/SJ+-+Hiring+Smart+People.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click on image to enlarge detail</td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-58689589079958627452018-05-13T00:28:00.001-07:002018-05-23T13:50:27.315-07:00 The Cheap Labor LoopholeOPT is the Name of the Game<div style="color: #222222;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Over the last three years I have been looking at the systemic abuses of F1 visa to OPT conversions. OPT, which euphemistically stands for "Optional Practical Training" is one of the major loopholes that large tech employers are using to circumvent the H1B visa caps while recruiting cheap and captive foreign workers residing within the United States. This loophole facilitates major layoffs of older (and more expensive) domestic employees and subsequently, replacement of these employees with cheap (entry level) foreign employees, using the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optional_Practical_Training">OPT program</a> for stay/work visa extensions.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Recently, the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/">Pew Research Center</a> published a comprehensive report on the subject of F1 to OPT visa conversion program. This program, driven mostly through the lobbying efforts of large High-tech employers continues to increase in size, completely unchecked. <i>The Mercury News</i> outlet published a summary of this report in the latter part of this week. As you can see from the article referenced below and the </span><a href="http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/10110621/Pew-Research-Center_Foreign-Student-Graduate-Workers-on-OPT_2018.05.10.pdf" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">PEW Research Center report</a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, taking advantage of the OPT loophole, has become a standard operating procedure for many high-tech companies. The number of F1 (student visa) holders converted to OPT has grown 400% between 2008 and 2016, as shown in the chart below.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Note that foreign workers who remain in the U.S. under the OPT program, are effectively, "</span><span style="background-color: yellow;">indebted workers</span><span style="background-color: white;">". They are being paid low wages and they are totally dependent on the graces of their employer, to maintain their residence and work permit. This makes them "ideal" target for exploitation. <b>Employers would simply be "stupid" to not take advantage of this loophole to reduce the cost of labor. In the meantime, older domestic workers continue to be laid-off in droves.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As can be seen from the chart above, <b>Intel Corp.</b> is one of the top companies taking extensive advantage of the F1 visa to OPT conversion loophole. Actually, as the chart above shows, Intel Corp. is No. 1 on the chart, leading all the employers listed above, including Microsoft Corp.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Without a doubt there is a price to pay when a company only focuses on cutting expenses and gets rid of its more experienced (however, more expensive) workers. In the case of Intel Corp. there is no reason to guess where this executive management policy fails. The writing is on the wall for Intel Corp. has been there since the 2015 mass layoff. Recent news about the 10 nm production line failures (see references below) serve as indicators of much more substantial problems to come. The company's ability to execute has diminished significantly, following the 2015 and 2016 massive employee layoffs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Mercury News</i> outlet covered the OPT stay/work visa conversions loophole in a recent article, which is mostly based of the Pew Research Center report.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a quote from the Mercury News article referenced below:</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; color: black; font-family: "pt serif" , "times" , sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">OPT has caught the attention of critics pushing for reduced immigration. John Miano, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, called the 2008 STEM extension a “scheme” by Microsoft to “circumvent the H-1B quotas.” </span><span style="background-color: yellow; color: black; font-family: "pt serif" , "times" , sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">The program started out giving work-experience opportunities to foreign students but has since been “transformed into a full-blown guestworker program whose stated purpose is to provide labor to American business,</span><span style="background-color: #fbfbfb; color: black; font-family: "pt serif" , "times" , sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">” Miano wrote in a September blog post for the center</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Clearly, the numbers shown on the map above speak for themselves. It is difficult to come to any other conclusion other than that the OPT program is pandering to the interests of high tech employers, by supplying access to cheap foreign labor, at the expense of domestic workers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <i>Pro Publica</i> article: <a href="https://features.propublica.org/ibm/ibm-age-discrimination-american-workers/"><i>CUTTING ‘OLD HEADS’ AT IBM</i></a>, covers the multitude of ways in which older employees in the high-tech sector are loosing their jobs to foreign workers, through a variety of legal loopholes and shenanigans committed by Corporate America. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When we examine the growing trends in the high tech industrial sector, of laying off older employees and replacing them with cheap and indebted guest workers, it seems that the OPT program lost its original purpose and <i>de facto</i>, under the intense lobbying of big business, was transformed into a <b>U.S. Government sponsored, older worker mass displacement program!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "pt" serif , "times" , sans-serif;"><b>References</b>:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "pt" serif , "times" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/10110621/Pew-Research-Center_Foreign-Student-Graduate-Workers-on-OPT_2018.05.10.pdf" target="_blank">The full Pew Research Center report</a> (PDF)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "pt" serif , "times" , sans-serif;"><i>The Mercury News</i> article: <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/10/h-1b-visa-alternative-opt-grew-400-percent-in-8-years-report/" target="_blank">H-1B visa alternative ‘OPT’ grew 400 percent in eight years: report</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://public.tableau.com/profile/theodp#!/vizhome/OPT_EXT_STEM_MAJOR/Employers" target="_blank">Tableau public information graphics</a></li>
<li style="text-align: left;"><i>Pro Publica</i> article: <a href="https://features.propublica.org/ibm/ibm-age-discrimination-american-workers/">CUTTING ‘OLD HEADS’ AT IBM</a></li>
<li><i>Slashdot</i> posting: <a href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/10/11/21/2243234/how-the-tech-worker-visa-is-remaking-it-in-america">How the "Tech Worker Visa" is Remaking IT in America</a></li>
<li><i>Tom's Hardware</i>: <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-cpu-10nm-earnings-amd,36967.html">Intel's 10nm Is Broken, Delayed Until 2019</a></li>
<li><i>AnandTech</i> Blog: <a href="https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/david-schor-intel-10nm-in-big-problems.2544009/">David Schor: Intel 10nm in big problems</a></li>
<li><i>The Motley Fool</i>: <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/26/the-price-of-intel-corporations-10-nanometer-failu.aspx">The Price of Intel Corporation’s 10-Nanometer Failure</a></li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-28382351836249842622018-04-26T14:47:00.002-07:002018-04-26T15:58:20.114-07:00Quickie UpdateHousehold Income not Keeping up with Debt<div>
<span style="background-color: #f3f5f8; color: #001f33; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;">Household Debt Jumps as 2017 Marks the Fifth Consecutive Year of Annual Growth</span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">The <i>Center for Microeconomics Data</i> latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit reveals that total household debt reached a new peak in the fourth quarter of 2017, rising $193 billion to reach $13.15 trillion. Balances climbed 1.6 percent on mortgages, 0.7 percent on auto loans, 3.2 percent on credit cards, and 1.5 percent on student loans this past quarter.</span></span><br />
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In conjunction with the content of my previous article (See: <a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2017/02/heading-towards-next-financial-crisis.html">Are We Heading Towards the Next Financial Crisis?</a>), this update is, to say the least, <b>very disturbing</b>.</div>
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This trend shown in the chart above is alarming due to its consistency since about 2013. Note that the non-housing component is rising at a much higher rate than the component mostly attributed to mortgages. Stagnation of salaries alongside increase in the accrual rates of personal credit card debt as well as of student debt are major factors in this picture.</div>
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Considering today's very tight job market, this is an opportunity for workers to demand higher pay rate. The lower corporate income tax on corporations should facilitate accommodation of worker's demand for raises. The question remains open, whether an equalization of household income will actually take place, as a result of the tax changes in fiscal year 2018. Will Corporate America share their bounty with American workers and contribute to true growth of our economy.</div>
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All the signs are pointing to a different directions though namely, driving personal debt to much higher limits by easing off bank regulations, all while simultaneously, raising interest rates.</div>
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A certain businessman who declared bankruptcy six times in a row, yet rose to high economic and political prominence, is proving that everything is possible in America. However, for most of us, experiencing bankruptcy, even once is far too much. </div>
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See also:</div>
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<li><a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/research/2018/rp180213">Household Debt Jumps as 2017 Marks the Fifth Consecutive Year Of Positive Annual Growth Since Post-Recession Deleveraging</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-26/fed-at-odds-with-itself-as-it-eases-bank-rules-and-raises-rates">Fed at Odds With Itself as It Eases Bank Rules and Raises Rates</a></li>
<li><a href="http://graphics.wsj.com/how-the-world-has-changed-since-2008-financial-crisis/">10 YEARS AFTER THE CRISIS</a></li>
<li><a href="https://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/">Income Inequality in the United States</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/feds-powell-sets-new-tone-less-focused-on-social-issues-in-testimony-2018-2">The Federal Reserve is already looking very different under Jerome Powell than it did under Janet Yellen</a></li>
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--Dr. Flywheel </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-56610303006267874002018-04-26T12:09:00.001-07:002018-04-26T15:20:34.895-07:00While the Orchestra is Playing is Intel Corp. on a collision Course with the Iceberg<div>
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Intel Corp. (INTC) stock enjoyed a significant rise over the last year+. Today it stands at around $52.35/share, in spite of significant recent corrections in the equities market.<br />
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From the PR campaign that Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and his executive staff are running, investors could get the impression that it is smooth sailing, or even better, it is time to take a cruise to an exotic destination and enjoy the sunshine. If you are a short-term investor, perhaps it is time to consider selling your INTC shares and use the proceeds to finance the cruise of your life with your profits. However, if you are more concerned about long-term prospects of retirement, perhaps it would be wise to look at Intel Corp. odds of riding the waves of success, before committing to keep your stock for the long haul.<br />
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Note that the latest (2017) Intel Corp. Annual Report (10K) is listing quite a few potential perils on the way to paradise. These (verbatim from the 10K report) include, among other things the following items:</div>
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<li>Demand for our products is variable and hard to predict.</li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Due to the complexity of our manufacturing operations, we may be unable to timely respond to fluctuations in demand and we may incur significant charges and costs.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: orange;">We face significant competition</span><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></li>
<li>Changes in the mix of products sold may impact our financial results.</li>
<li><span style="background-color: yellow;">We are subject to risks associated with the development and implementation of new manufacturing process technology.</span></li>
<li>We face supply chain risks.</li>
<li><span style="background-color: yellow;">We are subject to the risks of product defects, errata, or other product issues. </span></li>
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Intel Corp. is a major player in the global semiconductor business, though it is no longer the leading player (see: <a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2018/03/does-intel-corp-pr-hype-truly.html">Does Intel Corp. PR Hype Truly Compensate For These Facts?</a>). As such the company's exposure to all of the above risk points is very similar to other players in this field. However, for Intel Corp. the main risk factors, into both the near and mid-term future are the ones highlighted above.</div>
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Back in 2015, when I had close exposure to Intel Corp. the company already began the experimental R&D manufacturing of 10 nm processes. At the time, the Technology and Manufacturing Group (TMG) had a rosy expectation of driving 10 nm products into high-volume manufacturing, within two years. Note that at the time, Intel Corp was able to ship 14 nm products into the market place; however, with significant yield issues (note <i>Broadwell</i>). While Intel Corp. was able to overcome many of the 14 nm manufacturing yield problems over time, finding solutions to these problems came at a significant cost. Though this cost was really a manufacturing cost, it was actually covered in the books as R&D cost. This explains the rising R&D expenses, reflected in the 2015-2016 annual reports (21.9% and 21.5%, respectively).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZL93Yp6XMTSlUzvFHBY_BVe5v5C0LsdMsHq3JnXvwaN3c0oLSXSi-IqgarSkdMb2-9CNfvEqkBktBHmbrEkFkrhb7746jRv2l8SgGd7mB09D0vG_Nm5pTL0szu8xYcEaZXUjdJGpKh9N0/s1600/intel+8th+core+chips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="580" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZL93Yp6XMTSlUzvFHBY_BVe5v5C0LsdMsHq3JnXvwaN3c0oLSXSi-IqgarSkdMb2-9CNfvEqkBktBHmbrEkFkrhb7746jRv2l8SgGd7mB09D0vG_Nm5pTL0szu8xYcEaZXUjdJGpKh9N0/s320/intel+8th+core+chips.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While merchant semiconductor Fabs around the world continue to make progress with their smaller geometry high-volume manufacturing, Intel Corp. is essentially standing still. Why did the company stop at 14 nm processes, and continued to use the euphemism of "14+" and "14++" to indicate progress?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My guess is that Intel Corp. has no advantage in pushing its 10 nm process into high-volume manufacturing, due to massive failure of its advanced Fabs to produce the quality level required to show profit from its products, using this manufacturing process. Among other things, over expectations and over reliance on advancements related to EUV lithography, resulted in major disappointments on the executive level. This disappointment led to considerable slow-down of the migration to smaller geometry processes and cautionary fiscal investment in rigging the advanced Fabs.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The mere fact that Intel Corp. 10 nm products are absent from the market, three years after they were "promised", is a clear indication of things going wrong in the navigation path of the Intel Corp. cruise ship. Considering potential loss of Apple business as well as, item number 3 on the list ("competition") above, does Intel Corp. current sailing plan leading, sooner or later to a collision with the iceberg? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Apparently I am not in a minority opinion on this subject.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
See:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/04/26/this-sounds-like-disastrous-news-for-intel-corp.aspx">This Sounds Like Disastrous News for Intel Corp.</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/04/20/3-reasons-i-might-sell-intel-stock.aspx">3 Reasons I Might Sell Intel Stock</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/intel-apple-rumor-bears-mull-existential-risk-1522794237">Intel-Apple Rumor: Bears Mull Existential Risk</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
All the best.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
--Dr. Flywheel</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-44714514776403515802018-04-18T14:37:00.001-07:002018-06-23T18:12:22.136-07:00ADD Magic Cure - How the Economic Machine Works<br />
My wife always blamed "Sesame Street" for our son's ADD problems. She kept claiming that Sesame Street wired the brains of young kids who were watching the show, to expect stimulus and instant gratification in a series of five minute episodes. These expectations remained ingrained the brains of the show audience throughout their growing years and clashed with the monotonous, slow and disciplined, traditional school environment. So she claimed.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuh_1uRdWZ4LHfP4i1jpgDSQ_LDDYxgi5XM9zPelkPLz7m-shObe7MtEiHg8UodfbsaOr0iDGSXV_J3eYPzv19A9tNfDk-IovAiMq8btSKakgkHLqC4XokP5exKF5l_D-q53QW655a085e/s1600/Rich+vs.+Poor+-+Social+Tensions+and+Revolution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuh_1uRdWZ4LHfP4i1jpgDSQ_LDDYxgi5XM9zPelkPLz7m-shObe7MtEiHg8UodfbsaOr0iDGSXV_J3eYPzv19A9tNfDk-IovAiMq8btSKakgkHLqC4XokP5exKF5l_D-q53QW655a085e/s400/Rich+vs.+Poor+-+Social+Tensions+and+Revolution.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich vs. Poor - Social Tensions and Revolution</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
My kids are all grown up by now and able to support themselves very gracefully. However, I am always surprised by the fact that they are not at all interested in learning how our economy works. I am always frustrated with their lackadaisical attention when I try to explain to them how economic processes are working and how significant events are a result of pure economic cycles and do not, suddenly land out of the moon.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi0U-7iiIZ7fc0wSkzPyID-SYBLHM6CNHnMShk0tBSUAIJV85L1WIf_ddL5hhD6GYaEHPxcsr8edK9SpbnbbWJ3nxZXAH37tbdWVDLwB_QPXk1Z6bq5ItNvlRplVtzGtrzZeoWTbRhvsW5/s1600/Four+Ways+to+Reduce+Debt+Burden.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi0U-7iiIZ7fc0wSkzPyID-SYBLHM6CNHnMShk0tBSUAIJV85L1WIf_ddL5hhD6GYaEHPxcsr8edK9SpbnbbWJ3nxZXAH37tbdWVDLwB_QPXk1Z6bq5ItNvlRplVtzGtrzZeoWTbRhvsW5/s400/Four+Ways+to+Reduce+Debt+Burden.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Four Ways to Reduce Debt Burden</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Following the best tradition of American culture, I was constantly seeking to find the magic pill, that would alleviate my frustrations about communicating my messages about our economy to my kids. I believe that I finally found it. I am so excited about my revelations that I decided to share my finding with you.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKQ2N4Da-Yt6TEj2PL-yd9zx4FAijdnFV1NiTS4O-ojxsUYvHjdszIQ6TqMI7ZgAbGzVlN-bdywV9unU9rU0D_RsUvfk-3ZU_F4rZySA55SUob6m5miwQTkOqlFfKzHZqd-TfFPgPWQHrO/s1600/United+States+Debt+Burden+Graph.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKQ2N4Da-Yt6TEj2PL-yd9zx4FAijdnFV1NiTS4O-ojxsUYvHjdszIQ6TqMI7ZgAbGzVlN-bdywV9unU9rU0D_RsUvfk-3ZU_F4rZySA55SUob6m5miwQTkOqlFfKzHZqd-TfFPgPWQHrO/s400/United+States+Debt+Burden+Graph.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">United States Debt Burden Graph</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
The "magic pill" that I found is a wonderfully narrated and beautifully illustrated video presentation by investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dalio">Ray Dalio</a>. In this presentation Ray is able to explain all the basic principles that are driving the economies of the free world, in a simplified, yet not too simple way. As Albert Einstein was quoted to say:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I </span><span style="background-color: white;">highly</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> recommend watching Ray Dalio's video presentation to all of you. Maybe you will be able to avoid the pain and the frustration of explaining essential information to your kids, by letting them watch.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The presentation can be found here:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0&inf_contact_key=32c979d8665879f6696f1c5f6c2547d5914395c53ab23eb0dd067df4d34127fb">How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio</a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;">All the best.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;">--Dr. Flywheel</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-24784213543592569052018-03-27T20:05:00.000-07:002018-04-03T19:37:45.401-07:00Open Letter to Rep. Susan Bonamici<style type="text/css">
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<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Honorable
Congresswoman Bonamici,</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With an estimated
70-80 million “baby boomers” entering retirement over the next 15
years, the U.S. economy will be forced to shift the tax paying burden
and dig into the pockets of people who still work, to support the
growing elderly population.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The subject that I
am raising here is the common practice of age discrimination in
employment. There is mounting evidence that employers are laying off
employees who are older, under a variety of covers, while
circumventing the Civil Rights laws of this country. Note that the
definition of older in this case, is workers, who are <b>40 year old
and older</b>. This definition comes from our legal system, as
represented by the <b>Age Discrimination in Employment Act</b> (ADEA)
of 1967.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This issue of
marking employees for potential layoff, once they reach the age of
40, is very serious. As a principal member of <a href="http://pdx-tie.org/">PDX-TIE.ORG</a>,
an organization that was originally created for the purpose of
mutually supporting employees who were laid off from Intel Corp.
since 2015. I know from my own personal experience, as well as from
the testimonies of many of our members, that Intel Corp.
discriminated against hundreds or perhaps thousands of older
employees by either laying them off, or forcing them to retire. In
fact I filed an official complaint with both the Oregon Bureau of
Labor and Industry (BOLI) and the Federal agency in charge of
enforcing fair employment practices, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC). My charges are currently being investigated.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A recent article
published in <i><b>Pro Publica</b></i>, a highly esteemed
investigative journalism web site exposed many of the practices that
IBM Corp. used to get rid of its older employees and either replace
them with less costly younger workers, or shift their jobs overseas.
The relevant Pro Publica article is entitled <b>CUTTING ‘OLD HEADS’
AT IBM</b> and the article content can be found at:
<a href="https://features.propublica.org/ibm/ibm-age-discrimination-american-workers/">https://features.propublica.org/ibm/ibm-age-discrimination-american-workers/</a></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many members of our
mutual support organization, PDX-TIE.ORG, once they read the Pro
Publica article, immediately found corollaries and parallels between
the way in which they were treated by Intel Corp. and the various
nefarious methods that Intel Corp. dealt with older employees.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since I have
dedicated the last 2-1/2 years of my life to researching the growing
phenomenon of age discrimination in employment, I found that affected
employees, have very little support to plead their case and seek
justice, because the current system is rigged up in favor of
employers. Among other things, employment attorneys refuse to take
representation of age discrimination cases under a contingency fee
arrangement. Consequently, there are very few such cases, brought
into court. After all, older employees who lost their main source of
income, following their employment termination, are in a very bad
position to spend large amounts of money on attorney’s fees. My own
personal experience and the testimony of many of my colleagues,
support this fact.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are many more
issues regarding age discrimination in employment that I would be
happy to share with you and your staff.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Note that while
discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and
national origin is covered Under Title VII <i>Protected Classes of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964</i> (Pub. L. 88-352) Vol 42(2000e), age
discrimination in the work place is specifically covered under the
separate scope of the ADEA.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "liberation" serif , serif;">Federal
(and many state laws) provide protection (at least on the books) to
certain recognized <b>Protected Classes</b>, defined by the law as:
<b>Race, Color, Religion or creed, National origin or ancestry,
Gender (sex), and Age</b>.Yet, we find very few cases of age discrimination brought into justice due to weaknesses in application of the law, as compared with other types of discrimination in employment.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lately,
issue of equal pay and sexual harassment came to light in the news and
began to wake up the public to the fact that these practices are in
fact much wider spread than the public were led to believe. I contend
that age discrimination in employment is much wider than many people
recognize. I noticed that non of your news letters, sent to your
constituency ever mentioned age discrimination in employment as an
action item to be corrected via both public education and legislative action. I hope that your office will attend to this issue at the high priority that it deserves.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let
us not forget that aging is unavoidable, whether a person is black or
white, male or female, gay or straight. Regardless of gender based
pay equality issues, once a person find themselves out of a job, pay
equality becomes moot.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank
you for listening.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">--Ron
Tsur</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-36284532087084620382018-03-10T13:05:00.000-08:002018-03-10T13:05:44.051-08:00Does Intel Corp. PR Hype Truly Compensate For These Facts?Under the leadersheep (...!) of Intel Corp. CEO Brian Krzanich, the number of PR conferences and press releases tripled or even quadrupled, compared to the number of same events under all of his predecessors. Although INTC stock has crossed the $50 mark in recent days, the question still remains, whether this stock price is truly based on fact, or perhaps the price inflation is just an artifact of the disproportionately overblown stock market bubble.<br />
<br />
The jury is still out; however an interesting article in EE Times entitled:<br />
<h1 class="blue header biggest" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #005689; font-family: arial, geneva, helvetica; font-size: 24px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<center>
Intel Needs New Strategies, ASAP</center>
</h1>
<div>
provides very significant facts, adding into the picture necessary to understand the reality of Intel Corp. business growth potential and its long term standing as a player in the highly competitive semiconductor market.</div>
<div>
<br />
Read the full EE Times article, written by Sang-Yun Lee at this link:<br />
<a href="https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333043&print=yes">https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333043&print=yes</a><br />
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<br />All the best!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
--Dr.Flywheel<br /><br /><br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-41685430475540309552018-01-25T20:33:00.001-08:002018-02-17T21:21:52.887-08:00Rumors of My DogRunning for POTUS in 2020Have Been Grossly Exaggerated<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIUGuXipYQPPbg0LJiJulbUdwTY-Ym9VRFlTWDzSz76KjCQ4RQldQzVvXnEoxTK8fUPS0fQDfGyrMUkZVRvjB_s4FGl8vjq2SaEaUtFh-YCanm3XN8WCio3aXRTgt6DG3wbQ-kiSJMTOkq/s1600/Fido+POTUS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="469" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIUGuXipYQPPbg0LJiJulbUdwTY-Ym9VRFlTWDzSz76KjCQ4RQldQzVvXnEoxTK8fUPS0fQDfGyrMUkZVRvjB_s4FGl8vjq2SaEaUtFh-YCanm3XN8WCio3aXRTgt6DG3wbQ-kiSJMTOkq/s320/Fido+POTUS.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rumors of my dog running for POTUS in 2020 have been grossly exaggerated</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> (Source: <i>Phantom of the Oprah</i>) </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-83975691873871725382018-01-16T14:18:00.000-08:002018-01-16T14:21:47.663-08:00Contacting the FederalEqual Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC)EEOC presence in the U.S. is distributed into 15 districts, as the map below shows. Each district has a central office and larger districts typically will have multiple field offices that cover a portion of a district's geographical area.<br />
<br />
Click on the links, below to reveal contact information and more detail for each specific office.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9gK48iEtM6TduvnQ2OOMcYLzBAyxOeIN5_aEtvivVAkIGCWQr7qG8T60fYwDOWHq_QOTptlXvFiLr3he3fFL-3yqqXAsd9offanhKczc2qv45tUzQZuspgLpVy7tMj61pbMAaTLVM9VyM/s1600/EEOC+Districts+and+Field+Office+map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="712" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9gK48iEtM6TduvnQ2OOMcYLzBAyxOeIN5_aEtvivVAkIGCWQr7qG8T60fYwDOWHq_QOTptlXvFiLr3he3fFL-3yqqXAsd9offanhKczc2qv45tUzQZuspgLpVy7tMj61pbMAaTLVM9VyM/s400/EEOC+Districts+and+Field+Office+map.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Click on image to enlarge detail)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; width: 219.891px;">
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/atlanta/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Atlanta District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/savannah/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Savannah Local Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/birmingham/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Birmingham District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/jackson/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Jackson Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/mobile/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Mobile Local Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/charlotte/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Charlotte District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/raleigh/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Raleigh Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/greensboro/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Greensboro Local Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/greenville/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Greenville Local Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/norfolk/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Norfolk Local Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/richmond/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Richmond Local Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/chicago/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Chicago District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/milwaukee/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Milwaukee Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/minneapolis/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Minneapolis Area Office</a></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; width: 219.891px;">
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/dallas/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Dallas District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/sanantonio/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">San Antonio Field Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/elpaso/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">El Paso Area Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/houston/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Houston District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/neworleans/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">New Orleans Field Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/indianapolis/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Indianapolis District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/detroit/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Detroit Field Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/cincinnati/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Cincinnati Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/louisville/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Louisville Area Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/losangeles/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Los Angeles District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/fresno/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Fresno Local Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/honolulu/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Honolulu Local Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/lasvegas/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Las Vegas Local Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/sandiego/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">San Diego Local Office</a></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; width: 219.891px;">
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/memphis/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Memphis District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/littlerock/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Little Rock Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/nashville/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Nashville Area Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/miami/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Miami District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/tampa/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Tampa Field Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/sanjuan/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">San Juan Local Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/newyork/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">New York District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/boston/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Boston Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/newark/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Newark Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/buffalo/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Buffalo Local Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/philadelphia/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Philadelphia District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/baltimore/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Baltimore Field Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/cleveland/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Cleveland Field Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/pittsburgh/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Pittsburgh Area Office</a></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; width: 219.891px;">
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/phoenix/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Phoenix District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/denver/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Denver Field Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/albuquerque/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Albuquerque Area Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/sanfrancisco/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">San Francisco District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/seattle/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Seattle Field Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/oakland/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Oakland Local Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/sanjose/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">San Jose Local Office</a></div>
<h3 style="color: #000064; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 400; margin: 0.8em 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/stlouis/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">St. Louis District Office</a></h3>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/kansascity/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Kansas City Area Office</a><br />
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/oklahoma/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;">Oklahoma City Area Office</a></div>
<div class="indent" style="margin-bottom: 0.8em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.4em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/washington/index.cfm" style="color: #336699; word-wrap: break-word;"><br /></a></div>
</div>
<a href="https://www1.eeoc.gov/field/washington/index.cfm" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.16px; word-wrap: break-word;">Washington Field Office</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1224225491631908716.post-69314248637969982642017-12-16T13:39:00.000-08:002017-12-16T13:51:15.343-08:00The Next Chapter in the Idiot Government Saga<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgm0_7DuzJ_lt2oSXpWTPPB_POQ-zLMWTFL8ndlKE-lan2MSptPlDOmUaSsUIIn3h8HSsNet4Ume_38k-SJtbxqA5SMY47AINDo0p2q6H_q9r62h3rHQ8mrN3K-x4oEbc7rgZNO4AR8k-/s1600/traffic-light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="429" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgm0_7DuzJ_lt2oSXpWTPPB_POQ-zLMWTFL8ndlKE-lan2MSptPlDOmUaSsUIIn3h8HSsNet4Ume_38k-SJtbxqA5SMY47AINDo0p2q6H_q9r62h3rHQ8mrN3K-x4oEbc7rgZNO4AR8k-/s320/traffic-light.jpg" width="228" /></a>CHRISTOPHER D. ALDRIDGE<br />
WILLIAM
J. BOYD<br />
DAREN L. CONE<br />
SHELLY MC
DUQUETTE<br />
JASON J. KENT<br />
LOGAN T.
MILES<br />
RON SINGH<br />
DAVE M. VAN
DYKE<br />
SEAN W. ST. CLAIR<br />
AMIN
WAHAB<br />
OSCAR J. ZUNIGA JR.<br />
<br />
These are the names of members of the
Oregon State Board of Examiners for
Engineering and Land Surveying who have been named as defendants in a recent law suit filed by MATS JÄRLSTRÖM.<br />
<br />
As we previously reported, a guild of individuals, protecting their turf with the anachronistic cover of Oregon State government, has been caught in a ridiculous overreach of authority (see previous articles: <a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2017/04/idiot-government-oregon-state-idea-of.html">Idiot Government Oregon State Idea of Engineering Is Not Keeping Up With The Times</a> and <a href="http://www.pdx-tie.org/2017/06/idiot-government-revisited.html">Idiot Government - Revisited</a>).<br />
<br />
Mr. Jarlstrom who had the best interests of serving the public by communicating his technical feedback to Oregon State government, regarding deficiencies in traffic light operations, was fined $500 by the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying by referring to himself using the word "engineer" in his letter.<br />
<br />
Mr. Jarlstrom did not take this ridiculous government action lying down and filed a law suit in Federal Court, for violation of his civil rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Jarlstrom's attorneys SCHWABE, WILLIAMSON & WYATT P.C. filed the law suit on December 4th 2017 with legal backing from the INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE. In spite of Oregon State petition to dismiss the case, judge STACIE F. BECKERMAN instructed the case to be admitted on December 12th 2017.<br />
<br />
Apparently, Oregon State government is more concerned about choice of words in what could be a private letter from a concerned citizen, than correcting any material suggestion from the public.<br />
<br />
Oregon State government, backing up the narrow interests of a guild that by definition, was established to limit competition and secure the financial interests of its members, went well beyond serving the public interest. The latest overreach by the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying, exposes the ridiculous anachronism that governs how the state is trying to curb engineering-related occupations. Many new engineering-related occupations became prevalent during the last two centuries, including electronics and software engineering that the board has no place to regulate or intervene with. <b>The board should either be disbanded or stick to old engineering-occupations that it was able to corral in the 19th century</b>.<br />
<br />
The outcome of this upcoming court proceedings and the resulting judgement will either send the State of Oregon back to the days of the fur trappers economy or pave the way to a technology-based future.<br />
<br />
--Dr. Flywheel<br />
<br />
References:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TYeGuhBFag-aAWmakegk--0EfJj33Y_9">Jarlstrom - Porposed Order</a></li>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CUtQe6_XG8gYFqrOY7xX6hRyIJOE_HcI">Jarlstrom - Opinion and Order</a> </li>
</ul>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0