Tech firms battle US job protection laws while importing workers(Microsoft, IBM, AT&T and others)

Then, on Tuesday of this week, Microsoft's name showed up on a list of companies signing a letter sent to Senate leaders opposing the "Buy American" provision in the Senate version of the emerging economic stimulus plan. The Buy American plank would require manufactured goods used for projects funded by the economic stimulus bill to be produced in the US.

But "enacting expansive new Buy American restrictions would invite our international partners to exclude American gods and services from hundreds of billions of opportunities in their stimulus packages and perhaps to adopt Buy Local rules or raise other barriers to American goods more broadly across their economies," argued the companies in opposition.

"The Buy American provisions of S. 336 are as unnecessary as they are harmful," according to the letter signed by Microsoft and eight other organizations, including IBM, AT&T, Oracle, Cisco, Lockheed Martin, the Technology Association of America, the Aerospace Industries Association, and the Coalition for Government Procurement.

At the same time, IBM has come under attack from its own employee union for the Project Match program, which is encouraging laid off IBM workers in the US to apply for jobs with IBM overseas. "Project Match will help former employees to locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where your skills are in demand," an internal IBM e-mail reportedly said.