About Us

Southern Tech Workers is an organization dedicated to fighting on behalf of American tech workers across the South who have been displaced by employment visa programs, offshoring, and economic globalization. Our activists walk the halls of Congress to advocate for legislation and policy that put American tech workers first.

The Southern United States has a rich history of technological innovation. The world took flight on December 17, 1903, when Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first powered flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. After World War II, engineers in Huntsville, Alabama, developed the rockets that powered the U.S. space program, including the Saturn V, which carried astronauts to the Moon. Texas Instruments, founded in Dallas, helped commercialize the transistor, and it was there that Jack Kilby built the first integrated circuit in 1958, a breakthrough that made modern computers and electronics possible. We believe the next generation of American workers across the South will carry on that legacy.

Over the past few years, many American tech companies have relocated their operations from places like California and New York to states across the South, most notably Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia. Yet despite the abundance of homegrown talent in these states, many companies have chosen to hire predominantly foreign nationals through programs such as H-1B and STEM OPT.

Our founder, Samuel Kellum, started Southern Tech Workers after observing troubling employment trends while working as a software engineer in North Carolina. By the end of his time there, roughly 70–80% of his business unit was made up of foreign nationals, even as the job market deteriorated for Americans.

We believe that by coming together as American tech workers at every experience level, we can work together and build a system that puts American workers first.

Want to get involved? Get in touch today.