Washington, Aug 28 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has said that the Tennessee Valley Authority dropped its plans to lay off hundreds of American workers and replace them with lower-paid foreign employees after he intervened and removed the chairman of the board.

In his acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention which re-nominated him as the Republican Party's presidential candidate, Trump made a reference to the now scrapped plans of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) under which several hundreds of its employees were to be fired and replaced by foreign H-1B visa workers, most of whom were from India.

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Trump, in his speech, did not mention either India or H-1B visas.

“When I learned that the Tennessee Valley Authority laid off hundreds of American workers and forced them to train their lower-paid foreign replacements, I promptly removed the chairman of the board.

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“Now, those talented American workers have been re-hired and are back providing power to Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. They have their old jobs back and some are here with us this evening,” Trump said as he asked them from the audience to stand.

Early this month, Trump fired TVA board chairman James Thompson and board member Richard Howarth after the TVA announced that it would outsource 20 per cent of its jobs to foreign workers, most of whom were from India.

Days later, Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Jeff Lyash said it has abandoned its plan to replace the US technology workers with H-1B visa workers.

The H-1B, which is most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year.

“Let this serve as a warning to any federally-appointed board. If you betray American workers, then you will hear two simple words: ‘You're fired',” Trump said at the White House early this month.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)