Caterpillar chief technology officer Gwenne Henricks testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, urging congress to pass reform legislation that would allow companies to recruit more “top talent” from overseas in the “STEM fields”- science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Her call echoes chief executive officer Douglas Oberhelman’s speech at the kick-off of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition in Chicago last month. Oberhelman said the equipment manufacturing giant had trouble filling both high and lower-skill jobs, and immigration reform could help.
The company’s calls for more foreign workers coincide with it making excessive job cuts across the country.
Caterpillar this week announced more cuts at its Decatur, Illinois facility, bringing the total layoffs at the plant to 760. Before the reductions, it employed about 4000 workers.
The plant makes engine liners and blocks as well as other mining equipment and the cuts will come from production and support/management positions.
The OEM also said April 29 it would close its facility in Summerville, South Carolina, next year.
The shuttering of the remanufacturing plant for transmission and component rebuilds for the aftermarket circle will put 280 people out of work.
Caterpillar is citing a slump in mining equipment demand for the cuts.
“At Caterpillar, we know our people are our greatest asset. We employ more than 10,000 engineers, technologists and scientists worldwide who are dedicated to developing technologies that reshape the process of using, managing and owning heavy equipment,” Henricks said.
“Our education system in the United States is currently not producing a robust pipeline of graduates in STEM-related fields to meet our workforce needs,” Henricks added.
Henricks said that STEM job growth is expected to be higher than any other occupation over the next 10 years and Caterpillar is “actively working” to foster STEM talent in the United States and around the world.
Henricks called for the H-1B visa cap, currently set at 65,000 visas awarded nationally each year, to be increased.
“[The cap] was filled on April 1, 2013—the first day that companies such as Caterpillar could file new H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2014. Based on current law, Caterpillar and other companies will be unable to recruit and hire new H-1B employees again until October 1, 2014,” the company said in a statement.
Caterpillar also said that it advocates for lifting the per-country limit on green cards and granting green cards to foreign students who receive degrees in STEM fields from American universities, and making these green cards exempt from the annual cap.
“Last year, we filed for nearly 1,100 patents and spent approximately $2.4 billion on research and development. We need a solution that will address these issues and help us grow a sustainable pipeline of highly skilled workers to meet our growing needs while preserving the environment for future generations through innovation and collaboration,” Henricks added.
