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Blumenthal fights for American workers’ rights after he says Eversource abused visa programs

HARTFORD–Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for legislation to protect American jobs. The senator recently wrote a letter to the CEO of Eversource Energy ...
Richard Blumenthal

HARTFORD–Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for legislation to protect American jobs.

The senator recently wrote a letter to the CEO of Eversource Energy about his layoffs of hundreds of American IT workers at the company. He says the company was abusing visa programs like the H-1B, and hiring immigrants to work the jobs through non-immigrant worker visa programs.

According to Eversource, the company employs 8,000 people in three states, and only three are being sponsored by Eversource under the US non-immigrant visa program; one is in IT, the other two are specialized engineers.

He is a co-sponsor for a bipartisan bill to reform the H-1B and L-1 visas, which would prohibit employers from replacing American workers with visa holders, and require employers to make a good-faith effort to hire Americans first.

“Abuse of visa programs–allowing reckless and rampant job outsourcing–must be stopped. Non-immigrant worker visa programs are intended to help American companies secure foreign workers with specific skills–not to fire American employees,” said Blumenthal.

Meanwhile, Eversource denies the allegations. In a statement to FOX 61, spokesperson Al Lara said:

This is an issue Senator Blumenthal has raised many times before. Eversource has followed all laws regarding the U.S. nonimmigrant visa program. These were state reviewed organizational changes made two and a half years ago to streamline the operations of our merged company and better serve our customers.

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