Pipewrench Blog

Coca Cola's Attack on the Middle Class Worker.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 3 Jul 2013 11:12:00 -0600

The Dilema for Coca-Cola's Workers

“The issues circle around precarious work. They’re adamant there will be no full-time employment. We have a mechanism in the agreement to transition temporary workers to full-time.

It’s so restrictive and they want to further restrict it so workers won’t have the ability to get full-time job. They want elevated and increased levels of outsourcing for the highway transport group that takes Coca-Cola products to other Coca-Cola workplaces in the province, as well as their holding centres where they stockpile their products.They want elevated in-sourcing for skilled trades as well as our outsourcing for one of our skilled trades departments.

With the increased access to outsourcing, they also want to restrict any layoff transfer rights that we’ve historically had in the Coke system for years, in so far as workers having a right to move with their work. Those are the major sticking points.

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/distribution-and-transportation/news/strike-dc-closure-at-coca-cola-109085

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/coca-cola-canada-goes-to-court-to-end-striking-workers-illegal-blockade-1.1350440

Silcon Valley's Indentured Servitude Program

What is happening is that the people who run this industry are getting everything they want, and the workers are being completely ignored," said Kim Berry, a coder for the California Department of Public Health and a spokesman for the Programmer’s Guild. "American workers are being passed over in favor of foreign workers who make far less money, and politicians seem oblivious to our plight."

The controversy centers on the push by FWD.us and major tech firms for legislation that would expand the number of H-1B visas available. Created in 1990, the H-1B program allows US companies to hire people from other countries to work in America temporarily, particularly if the workers are "highly skilled" in subjects like science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The program also allows workers to pursue a green card for permanent residence.

The current immigration reform bill, which has passed the Senate and moved to the House, would expand the annual cap on H-1B visas from 85,000 all the way up to 180,000.

Along with paying these foreign workers less, says Berry, tech companies believe they can get more out of them. "If a company is holding the reins to the process of getting a green card, and they ask them to come in on the weekends, what do you think they’re going to say? These tech companies want people who will work 80 hours a week without complaining. It’s basically a form of indentured servitude."

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/3/4486910/is-silicon-valleys-immigration-agenda-gutting-the-tech-industrys

New policy benefits temporary immigrant trade workers

The changes, said Lena Bengtsson owner of Form Pro, gives more workers the option to apply for permanent residency.

“It’s a great program,” she said.

Bengtsson explained that workers can change companies or find another job, if they require more hours for example, and are still able to apply to the program for permanent status, as the program is no longer employer driven.

Holtz currently employs one immigrant worker from Germany. The man, he said, is a great asset to his work team and this new policy will help him and other employers keep their skilled workers, regardless of where they are from.

“If you have more than one (immigrant worker), you probably want to keep them all,” he said.
Holtz said he relies on immigrant workers because there aren’t enough people entering the trades, especially in the last few years. With the market taking off, he said it puts a real vacuum on the industry, as far as what is required for manpower.

The new changes, he said, is an excellent first step to keep workers his and other companies rely on in the area, as his employee is seeking permanent residency.

http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/2013/07/01/new-policy-benefits-temporary-immigrant-trade-workers

The Visa Abuse goes on at Tata Consulting

An Australian television station has broadcast allegations that one of the world's largest outsourcing companies, Tata Consulting Services (TCS), routinely abused Australia's temporary work visa system by employing Indian workers in roles where there was no shortage of native Australian workers.

The allegations concern Australia's Temporary Work (Skilled) – Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457) visa, better known as the '457 visa'.

Two former TCS workers claimed that the company routinely abused the system. One anonymous former worker said 'I was never asked to advertise for any Australians when developers were required. We just contacted the local area manager and he would send a developer on the next plane from Mumbai'.Another former TCS employee, Hassan Mahboob, made similar allegations saying that the company imported workers of all sorts on 457 visas when there was no need to do so. He said 'Project managers, program managers, account managers or relationship managers - I do not see those roles should be imported under 457 visa conditions

http://www.workpermit.com/news/2013-07-01/tata-consulting-accused-of-abuse-of-australian-immigrations-457-visa

Temporary Foreign Workers can now Self Nominate into Permanance

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 07:00:00 -0600

Temporary Workers can Self - Nominate to Stay in Alberta

From Sawatzky’s Spruceland Millworks Inc. sawmill near Acheson on Thursday, June 20, deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk announced temporary foreign workers who have worked in Alberta for at least two years can now self-nominate to stay and work in Alberta permanently.

“We’ve been working with the government on this file for a couple of years now and we’re very pleased with the announcement today,” said Sawatzky, thanking his foreign workers for the sacrifices they’ve made to come to Canada.

“This announcement brings you one step closer to gaining permanent residency in this great country as it did for me 40 years ago. The new skills you’re acquiring are needed here, giving more of you a chance to one day call this great province your home.”

http://www.stalbertleader.com/2013/06/27/province-eases-up-on-residency-restrictions/

Addicted to Temporary Foreign Workers and in Denial

Some of the hardest working and lowest paid people in Canada... aren't Canadians. A program that allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers helps fill the positions Canadians often don't want. And often those can be very vulnerable positions for the workers.

(audio): The Current

Juma Rangam's Case
Canadians may think of their country as a land of immigrants. But since 2011, Canada opened the doors to more temporary foreign workers than immigrants.

According to Statistics Canada figures released this week, there are more than 330,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada today. That number has nearly tripled in the past decade. And it's also 50,000 more than the number of immigrants allowed in.

Critics say these "temporary" foreign workers are becoming a permanent part of the workforce. And one study suggests they're vulnerable to abuse by employers, because Canada's laws offer so little protection.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2013/06/27/jumas-journey-the-plight-of-temporary-foreign-workers-in-canada/

Is Canada becoming Dependent Upon Temporary Foreign Workers

Dave Kaiser owns and operates McDonald’s restaurants in Cranbrook, B.C., and Fernie, near the Alberta border — two towns less than an hour’s drive from each other, but with workforce challenges that stand a world apart.

In Cranbrook, Kaiser has no trouble finding local staff. But in Fernie, home to about 5,000 people and five coal mines, Kaiser said he’s so desperate for workers he would “hire virtually anybody who comes in my door, if they’ve got a pulse.”

“Here we have a ski resort town that sits next to an enormous employer that has a coal mine,” Kaiser said. “There are a lot of restaurants … and there are a lot of hotels, and we’re all looking for the same people. There’s just not enough people to do those jobs.”

It’s a surprising dilemma for a country that has 1.4 million jobless people out of a total eligible workforce of 18 million, according to figures released Wednesday by Statistics Canada as part of the latest release of data from the National Household Survey, formerly the long-form census.
The permanent solution? Temporary foreign workers.

Currently, more than 330,000 workers live and work in Canada as part of the federal temporary foreign worker program — a number that has nearly tripled over the last 10 years, with the bulk of those job-seekers going west in search of work.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/06/26/temporary-foreign-workers-canada-statscan.html

Protests are Building in Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 07:03:00 -0600

More Than one Million Join Brazil Protests

Hundreds of thousands of people have rallied across Brazil as part of a protest movement over the quality of public services and the high cost of staging the World Cup.

The mounting pressure on the government of President Dilma Rousseff in the face of the biggest street protests the South American country has seen in 20 years has prompted her to cancel a trip to Japan planned for next week.

Local media reported that 1.2 million people took part in rallies across the country of 194 million people - an intensification of the movement which started two weeks following public anger about an increase in public transport fares.

Police fired tear gas in Rio de Janeiro, scene of the biggest protest where 300,000 people demonstrated near City Hall, to disperse a small group of stone-throwing protesters.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/06/201362022328194879.html

related: image gallery
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/in-pictures-brazil-protests-continue-to-rage-across-the-country-8668259.html?action=gallery

related: (Google translate / chrome)

http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2013/06/20/actualidad/1371755779_779878.html

Canadian Business : Training People is no Longer Worth It

The costs associated with training and retaining in-house expertise for niche talent are no longer worth it, say 52 per cent of Canadian executives polled in a recent survey commissioned by financial consultancy Richter. Consequently, many are turning to third parties to provide specialized functions, from business consulting, to IT and financial services.

“We’re seeing a maturing of [the outsourcing] industry,” says Walid Hejazi, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “In the past, it was relatively difficult to get a consulting firm to have the proper skill set. They are now able to develop an expertise that may supply more than one company.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/business-education/the-new-face-of-outsourcing/article12688482/

Banks in a 'Race to the Bottom' as They Push Jobs Offshore

Of almost 4000 jobs to go from Australia's profitable big banks since the start of 2012, half have gone offshore, according to new research by the Financial Services Union.

The figures do not include ANZ's proposed plan - details of which leaked this week - to shut the bank's Mulgrave call centre by 2014, affecting 340 positions, and 250 more jobs to go from its Dorcas Street office by 2015. The bank has not confirmed the plan, with a spokesman saying no decisions had been made.

The union argues there is a quickening trend to relocate finance jobs overseas, which national secretary Leon Carter says is ''a race to the bottom

http://www.smh.com.au/business/banks-in-race-to-bottom-on-jobs-offshore-20130620-2olsk.html

Off shoring to Keep Profits Up

ANOTHER day, another how many hundred jobs to go?

IBM is reportedly letting go 1500 or so people from its Australian operation, shifting jobs to cheaper offshore locations.

Rio Tinto is shedding hundreds of jobs from its Western Australian iron ore mines. The ANZ bank says about 600 jobs are going offshore to help it keep its profits up. We already knew that General Motors was cutting more than 1000 jobs, and now it's started leaning on its remaining staff to take a pay cut and on the government to pay more protection money.

Seems every second big company around the place is sacking or offshoring, while even middle-sized businesses are taking advantage of the government's special visa deals to import cheap workers from low-wage countries for just about any job you can name.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1587362/greg-ray-seems-we-are-no-good/?cs=391

Darthmouth Business Faces Immigration Fraud

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:15:00 -0600

Border Services: Dartmouth Business Exploited Foreign Workers

A Dartmouth businessman who once had cleaning contracts with Halifax Regional Municipality faces dozens of counts of immigration fraud after an investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency.

Hector Mantolino, owner and operator of Mantolino Property Services Ltd., paid some Filipino cleaners as little as $3.13 hour and told them to lie about their wages if they wanted to stay in this country, the agency alleges.

The agency believes 28 Filipinos were the victims of the fraud.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1136068-border-services-dartmouth-business-exploited-foreign-workers

Rubio Aide: There are American Workers who Can’t cut It

The two biggest sticking points were wages for foreign workers (the unions wanted them to be higher) and the objections of the Building and Construction Trades union, which argues that plenty of Americans are looking for this kind of work.

Rubio sided with the Chamber against the construction workers.

‘There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it,’ a Rubio aide told me. ‘There shouldn’t be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you can’t obviously discuss that publicly.’

In the end, the wage issue was settled to the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s satisfaction, and the Building and Construction Trades union won a cap on the number of visas for foreign construction workers.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/351198/rubio-aide-there-are-american-workers-who-lack-

better-term-cant-cut-it-rich-lowry

New Zealand Calling: Thousands of Australian Jobs Offshored to Slash Costs

If your business or part of it could be transported somewhere where it could get the same output for at least 30 per cent lower cost, would you think seriously about moving?

It is quietly happening with New Zealand as thousands of jobs are off shored and shipped across the Tasman.

Companies from airlines, to media and banks are being welcomed with open arms.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-13/new-zealand-calling-thousands-of-australian-jobs/4752974?section=business

No Warrant Needed If You Hire Temporary Foreign Workers.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 07:32:00 -0600

The TFWP : Searching Without A Warrant

Federal officials will have the right to walk into Canadian workplaces without a warrant as part of a tightening of the controversial foreign temporary workers program.

Changes to immigration and refugee protection regulations, published just days ago, give Human Resources and Skills Development Canada officials or Citizenship and Immigration Canada officers the right to walk in on businesses as part of a random audit or because they suspect fraud.

Upon entering a property, officials will have wide powers of investigation. They will be able to “examine anything on the premises,” question employers and staff, request documents, use photocopiers to copy records, and take photographs or make video and audio recordings.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/crackdown-on-temporary-foreign-workers-lets-officials-search-without-warrants/article12467415/

What are the True Costs of Offshoring?

Michele Nash-Hoff, author of the book “Can American Manufacturing be Saved?” told IMT the theme of this year’s Del Mar Design and Electronics Show (DMEDS) in San Diego, Calif., was “The Re-Birth of American Manufacturing.” The show conference featured a full-day track on the topic of reshoring.

“The buzz at the show was that manufacturing is returning to America, and every contract manufacturer I spoke to at the show had experienced a ‘reshoring’ event,” said Nash-Hoff.

Time magazine’s April 22 cover article also noted the reshoring trend. The article “Made in USA: Manufacturing is Back — But Where are the Jobs?” is replete with photos of consumer products that have returned to American-based manufacturing from offshore.

http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/2013/06/04/what-are-the-true-costs-of-offshoring/

Steelworkers Rally Against Harper's low Wage, Anti-Worker Agenda

The campaign aims to raise awareness and mobilize the public around the abuses of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and its role in the Harper government's low-wage economic model for Canada, the need for better job training programs and more public debate on the future of resource development in this country.

“Workers are being brought in (to Canada) and being held hostage to many employers,” said Ken Neumann, national director USW.
“And that’s not the kind of Canada that we want.”

The USW insists if temporary foreign workers are needed in Canada, they receive the same rights and freedoms as Canadian citizens.

In addition to educating the public about the dangerous, low-wage model of economic development promoted by the Harper government, Give Everyone A Chance For Canada’s Future wants to pressure the Conservatives to establish effective job training programs to deal with “the unacceptably high levels of youth unemployment, unemployment in Aboriginal communities and unemployment among the general public.”

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/johnbon/2013/06/steelworkers-rally-against-harpers-low-wage-anti-worker-agenda

Fishing for the Underclass

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 5 Jun 2013 07:03:00 -0600

Creating a Non-Temporary Underclass of Workers

P.E.I. is one of the rare provinces that has a program stream that some workers — live-in caregivers only — can apply to, says Josie Baker, a co-ordinator with the Cooper Institute, a Charlottetown non-profit community development agency.

However, it rarely works out for them.

“A lot of the time, it simply comes down to the fact they can’t save enough money to really be eligible while also paying their own expenses and … supporting their families back home,” Baker says. “The (temporary foreign worker) program is, for the most part, really set up to create a non-temporary underclass of workers. The only thing temporary about it is the individuals who are in it.”

Fish plants aren’t great places to work. They are smelly and workers have to put in long, hard hours. They don’t pay much. It is no surprise plant owners have trouble finding local workers.

Instead of offering higher wages to entice Islanders, plants rely on foreigners who will work for lower wages. And under the federal government’s new rules, those workers could be looking at up to a 15 per cent cut in pay (although they can’t be paid less than minimum wage).

http://thechronicleherald.ca/heraldmagazine/1133607-charlton-let-them-call-pei-home

Foreign Nannies, Caregivers Shouldn’t Necessarily get Permanent Residency

Who does not benefit? The answer to this is Canadians in general. While the program is popular with a limited number of households — in many cases upscale working couples with young children, who can afford to bring in help from overseas — it is quite likely to be costly to Canadian taxpayers in general since the latter have to pay for the social services and other benefits accruing to caregivers and their families after they get permanent status.

And since they did not have to meet the requirements of economic immigrants, there is a good chance their earnings will be low enough that the benefits they receive from the public purse will be greater than what they pay in taxes. As one government document wryly noted, the economic benefits [for Canada] are “marginal.”

In the circumstances, the program has been increasingly popular, with a seven-fold increase in the number of caregivers, who along with their family members, have in recent years been able to use it to obtain permanent status in Canada. They increased from just under 2,000 in 2002 to nearly 14,000 in 2010, with another 29,000 awaiting processing of their applications in that year.

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2013/06/03/martin-collacott-foreign-nannies-caregivers-shouldnt-necessarily-get-permanent-resisdency-in-canada/

Chamber of Commerce Clarifies its View on the Temporary Worker Legislation

We’re not saying we don’t need policies and programs in place to monitor and ensure proper practice,” says Kowalchuk, “but when you put barriers that are extremely burdensome to business… There’s already practices in place, and policies in place, that require businesses to advertise for businesses to hire Canadians first. We’re not in favour of abuse of programs, but to have additional fees and to have extra burdens, for the businesses who truly need those programs to operate, is unfair.”

Asked if the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce should have an oversight role to ensure all its members are following the TFW rules, Kowalchuk said no.

“There’s a component of education on Temporary Foreign Workers we do with our members. And we hope that our members are following proper protocol and practice. Our role as a chamber is to work with government, not promoting abuse, but to create good public policy for everyone. We do want an (oversight) process in place which monitors, but does not create barriers for business.”

http://medicinehatnews.com/2013/06/news/local-news/chambers-of-commerce-clarify-views-on-temporary-foreign-worker-legislation/

Labor Unveils 457 Visa Crackdown

Employers will be legally required to search locally to fill low-skilled job vacancies before taking on temporary foreign workers on 457 visas, in a crackdown Labor strategists had hoped would ease voter concerns about the government’s handling of immigration issues.

The immigration minister, Brendan O’Connor, briefed the Labor caucus on Tuesday on the controversial crackdown, revealing the laws would require “market testing” for “nominated non-graduate occupations” and would prevent businesses from hiring 457 workers at arm’s length through labour hire firms.

But desperate Labor backbenchers are demanding Julia Gillard address the asylum issue head-on instead of trying to divert the debate to the use of 457 visas.

They insist the prime minister must explain to voters why Labor has been unable to stop asylum seekers’ boats from coming to Australia and put Labor’s view that a Coalition government would also be unable to do so.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/04/labor-unveils-457-visa-crackdown

Global Youth Unemployment Experiences Push Back

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 4 Jun 2013 05:07:00 -0600

Youth Unemployment is a Global Crisis not to be Ignored

From the suburbs of Stockholm to the streets of Athens, however, the battle is being lost one riot at a time. The unrest that recently rocked Sweden reflects a youth unemployment rate of almost 25 per cent, with young immigrants hit hardest. The jobless rate among those under 25 stands at 60 per cent in Greece. It’s 56 per cent in Spain and above 40 per cent in Portugal and Italy.

And that’s only half the story, since unemployment rates take into account only those young people who are seeking work. Millions more have simply stopped looking, while two-thirds of those with jobs have been reduced to part-time work or temporary contracts.

While Europe is the epicentre of youth unemployment, the crisis is a global one. In Canada, more than 411,000 young people under 25 were out of work in April, pushing the youth unemployment rate up to 14.5 per cent. Among Canadians between the ages of 25 and 54, the jobless rate stood at 5.8 per cent.

An even grimmer figure is the 904,000 Canadians under 30 found by Statistics Canada not to be in employment, education or training in 2011. Last week, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development pegged the number of these so-called NEETs at 22 million in the developed world. It called for member countries to do something fast – otherwise, these discouraged young people could become permanently unemployable.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/youth-unemployment-is-a-global-crisis/article12294236/

Eurozone Jobless rate hits Record High as Blockupy hold Anti-Austerity Protests

Today could be dominated by protests and economic data, as demonstrators gather in Frankfurt to a rally against the handling of Europe's debt crisis.

Members of the Blockupy movement – a European version of Occupy – hope to cut off access to the European Central Bank and other financial institutions in Frankfurt today.

They are protesting against the economic policies which are being implemented in Southern Europe.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/31/eurozone-crisis-unemployment-youth-inflation-markets

Fake Shops hide Northern Ireland's Struggling Economy Ahead of G8 Summit

City councils are attempting to hide the level of economic decay suffered in some Northern Ireland towns by painting fake storefronts on closed-down businesses in anticipation of the G8 economic summit this month.

Around 300,000 pounds of government funds have been invested on sprucing up more than 100 properties in the Northern Ireland county of Fermanagh, which will host the international G8 economic summit June 17-18, The Irish Times reports.

Closed storefronts have been painted to resemble working stores, complete with doors that appear open but don't function and two-dimensional goods hanging from the windows, all in an effort to hide the dereliction caused by the economic struggles of the past few years, according to the Irish Times.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/01/fake-shops-g8-northern-ireland_n_3372270.html

In Japan, Overseas job Outsourcing Heralds Low-wage Competition

As part of its drive to become "a country strong in science," the Chinese government is aiming to make the country a global software supply hub.

To that end, China is educating an army of systems engineers. In Dalian alone, there are 31 universities. They churn out nearly 30,000 graduates a year with IT majors, more than all the IT graduates in Japan over the same period.

Wages have risen at an annual rate of around 10 percent in China in recent years. It won't be long before salary levels are on par with Japan, according to some experts.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/business/AJ201306040010

Marion County: Teachers Laid off can Come Back as Substitutes

I'm kind of upset about it," said parent Brian McNichols. "That's the way we make it in America is the education system, so it's unfortunate that's where the cuts are."

As for the 160 teachers being let go, they would be first in line to fill their own vacancies -- as those certified substitutes.

“We realize that we are asking them to do the same job for significantly less amount of money, but that’s the time that we live in right now,” said Marion County Schools spokesman Kevin Christian.

Marion County’s Education Association opposes the practice, and had already filed an unfair labor practice complaint when the district started doing it this year. They expect a decision back in the next 45 days.

http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2013/6/3/marion_county_teache.html

Jason Kenney's Attack on Canadian Labour

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 3 Jun 2013 05:14:00 -0600

Firing Jason Kenney and Freezing Immigration

Yet Kenney is also bringing hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers, of whom we have at least 500,000. Perversely, the program kept growing while the economy slowed down. Faced with public fury, he recently made a show of reforming it but, tellingly, did not kill it or even cap it.

This is Stephen Harper’s Republican economic theology at work — supply businesses with cheap and pliant labour, even as our corporations remain among the lowest spenders in the industrialized world on recruitment, retention, training and skills development.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/06/02/fire_jason_kenney_and_freeze_immigration_siddiqui.html

St. Louis: Miners Protest Union Busting Tactics

More than 2,500 protested here May 21 against Patriot Coal Corp.’s attempt to use its bankruptcy filing to go after the miners’ union, tearing up contracts for some 2,000 working miners and eliminating pensions and health benefits for retired miners and their spouses.

The rally and march was the ninth protest action since September organ-ized by the United Mine Workers of America against Patriot’s union-busting moves.

Participants included working and retired coal miners and their families from Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and other states, along with members of the Steelworkers, Communications Workers, and Laborers union, and other supporters.

In 2007, Peabody Energy spun off many of its mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky into Patriot. This included all its union mines east of the Mississippi. A year later Patriot bought Magnum Coal, a company created in 2005 by Arch Coal as a spinoff that included all its union mines.

http://www.themilitant.com/2013/7721/772101.html

Wisconsin Dells Resort Operators say Immigration Bill Would hit Them Hard

An anti-human trafficking provision in the immigration bill would prevent foreign labor contractors from charging fees to the workers they bring in, and another provision would institute a new $500 fee per worker to help pay for stepped-up security on the Mexican border, says Michael McCarry, executive director of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange in Washington, D.C.

That would mean sponsoring organizations — both businesses and non-profit organizations — would no longer be able to charge students fees for recruitment, visa application assistance and other services.

Those charges are estimated to average $1,500 per young person, and would have an additional $500 fee to cover as well. The sponsors, which net less than $500 per student now, would not be able to absorb the costs, he said.

“If the bill passes as it exists now, it will destroy the Summer Work Travel Program,” McCarry told me in an interview Friday.

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/wisconsin-dells-resort-operators-say-immigration-bill-would-hit-them/article_1d541878-ca45-11e2-9647-001a4bcf887a.html

Column: ‘I’m living as an undocumented migrant in Ireland’

An estimated 30,000 undocumented people including families and children live and work in Ireland.

The Migrants Rights Centre Ireland says these people are part of our communities now – they are our co-workers, our friends and our neighbors, which is why they are calling for an introduction a regularization scheme in Ireland, which they state will show leadership and vision and demonstrate the Irish Government’s commitment to solving the situation of the undocumented in Ireland and the US.

Here Mary tells us about her life in Ireland and why she feels this is now her home.

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-im-living-as-an-undocumented-migrant-in-ireland-831653-May2013/

Garment Workers Fight for $100 Amid Killings and Building Collapses

“We wanted to be flexible with our position,” said Chuom Momthol, president of the Cambodia Confederation of Trade Union, after the two-hour negotiations on Wednesday.

Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, pointed out that GMAC’s proposal of $72 was really only an increase of $6, as the other $5 is actually a new government-mandated health benefit.

“This [$100] is our final figure. If we cannot get this amount, it will be hard,” Mr. Thorn said. “If this doesn’t work, we will meet up and perhaps hold a demonstration.”

Nang Sothy, vice chairman of the Labor Advisory Council, said that with more than 750,000 workers in Cambodia’s garment and shoe factories, even a $1 increase would cost manufacturers $750,000 a month, making it impossible for the factories to make a profit.

“Just a dollar increase is around $750,000 increased in a month, and in one year, we will increase around $4 million,” he said, adding that this amount does not yet factor in overtime.

http://rawlinsview.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/cambodias-garment-workers-fight-for-100-monthly-wage-amid-killings-and-collapses/

The Concerted Effort to Destroy Social Security

Video 9:35

related

Social Security: The Cruelest Cut of All

Social Security prevents huge numbers from living in utter poverty. It is one of the greatest accomplishments, perhaps the greatest accomplishment, of the New Deal. It must not be undermined, and that is why it is important that liberal Democrats do their best to preserve it as it is rather than accept Obama’s proposal.

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/social-security-the-cruelest-cut-of-all

The HD Mining Dispute Fosters a Heated Reaction

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 31 May 2013 10:28:00 -0600

BC's Chinese Miner Dispute Prompts Angry Letters

One resident of an unnamed British Columbia community claimed to personally know 40 unemployed miners who would be more than happy to work at a proposed coal mine in the province's northeast that was instead slated to employ temporary Chinese workers.

Another lamented the mine's hiring plan as just the latest example of Canadian resources leaving this country.

And yet another bluntly asked: "Are you trying to lose the next election?"

As a public debate swirled about Chinese-owned HD Mining's plan to use temporary foreign workers at its proposed underground coal mine — prompting multiple government investigations and a lawsuit by a pair of unions — the province was flooded with angry letters from the public.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/31/bc-chinese-miners.html

Intra-Company Transfers vs. TFWP

Not so for the intra‑company transfer, because it is exempt from the requirement for a LMO. In other words, a company using the intra‑company transfer doesn't have to prove it even went through the motions of attempting to hire a Canadian.

The normal "temporary foreign worker program," complete with LMO requirements, applies to categories like seasonal agricultural workers and live‑in caregivers but also allows other low‑skill and high‑skill occupation applicants where there is a labour market opinion.

The recent changes to the "temporary foreign worker program" announced in April actually make changes to the LMO process and wages under the core program and so are unlikely to result in any changes with respect to employees brought in under the Intra‑company transfer exemptions.
Understanding how the current program was designed to work, how it actually works and what the different categories are is important to the discussion of what reforms should be considered and what changes might be able to solve the apparent problems.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/05/understanding-foreign-worker-issues-intra-company-transfers-vs-temporary-foreign-

IT Immigration Dominates in The UK

The latest figures for the period 06 April 2011 and 28 February 2012 show that IT immigrants dominate.

The top 10 occupations accounted for 15,055 immigrants out of a total 23,952 immigrant workers in the UK.

Four IT categories featured in the top ten occupations.

These were: programmers and software development professionals; Information technology and telecommunications professionals; IT business analysts, architects and systems designers; and IT specialist managers.

These four accounted for 8,024 ICTs out of a total 11,684 in the top ten occupations. The largest group by far with 4,342 was programmers and software development professionals.

To put this into perspective there were only 757 medical practitioners, 905 charted and certified accountants and 904 sales accounts and business development managers permitted entry.

http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/inside-outsourcing/2012/07/it-intra-company-transfers-icts-still-dominate-immigrant-workforce-in-uk.html

Migrant Worker Speaks of Poor B.C. Living Conditions

Before “buying local” at the grocery store, a coalition of temporary foreign agricultural workers wants B.C. residents to know farmhands are increasingly made up of migrant employees working in undesirable conditions.

Speaking at the Canadian Council for Refugees conference in Burnaby Thursday, Agriculture Workers Alliance spokesman Gil Aguilar said the number of foreign work-permit employees at B.C. farms has grown to nearly 5,000 in the last decade.

“All temporary workers come under a federal program, where the contract establishes that they live where the employer tells them,"

“It’s not like anybody else in B.C. who pays rent and can say it’s their house … in many cases it’s not even a house the worker is paying for. It’s just a shack with no running water, with no hot water or heating.”

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2013/05/30/migrant-worker-speaks-of-poor-bc-conditions

Canadian Companies are Hanging up Their Thread

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 30 May 2013 06:10:00 -0600

How has Globalization hit the Canadian Apparel Industry

The unusual mission statement for the fledging Canadian-Made Apparel company is written on a board overlooking sewing machines and computerized fabric cutters. It’s nothing more than a date and time — Feb. 21, 2013, 1 p.m.

It’s the reminder of an event not to be repeated.

At precisely that moment, in this very same factory, the owners of John Forsyth Shirt Co. Ltd. told 110 employees that a century of shirt-making would come to an end.

The company, established in 1903, was closing its factory — the latest victim of a Canadian-made garment industry decimated by globalization and, in Forsyth’s case, government decisions.

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2013/05/27/made_in_canada_how_globalization_has_hit_the_canadian_apparel_industry.html

Why is Offshoring Such a Dirty Word

UPDATE: The Australian Council of Trade Unions has slammed a controversial conference that includes talks on how to offshore staff.

The recruitment and HR conference Agile Talent Management: Optimise, In-source, Outsource, Offshore, Redeploy in Sydney today and tomorrow features a range of speakers talking about managing staff and headcount "cost effectively".

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said: "It's disgraceful that at a time when workers are worried about their job security employers are getting together to plan how to send more jobs offshore."

In a blog post on the conference website, speaker Tara Knobel asked: "If 99.6 per cent of the world is outside of Australia, why is offshoring such a dirty word?

http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/why-is-offshoring-such-a-dirty-word/story-e6frfm9r-1226652755492

U.K. Banks cut 189,000 with Employment at Nine-Year Low

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY) and Barclays Plc (BARC) will employ about 606,000 people worldwide by the end of 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s 24 percent below the peak of 795,000 in 2008 and the least since 2004, when they employed 594,000 globally.

Britain’s four biggest banks will have eliminated about 189,000 jobs by the end of this year from their peak staffing levels, bringing employment to a nine-year low amid a dearth of revenue.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-27/u-k-banks-cut-189-000-with-employment-at-nine-year-low.html

Documentary. The Dark Side of Chocolate

Documentary Video: 48 minutes

Before you bite into a chocolate bar or take a sip of hot cocoa, consider, where did it come from?
It may be that the treat is the product of someone else's hard labor. The person who may have sold it or who may have made it may not even be an adult.

The International Labour Organization estimates between 56 and 72 million African children work in agriculture, many in their own family farms. The seven largest cocoa-producing countries are Indonesia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Brazil, Ecuador, the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Those last two together account for nearly 60 percent of global cocoa production.

http://thedarksideofchocolate.org/

RBC Makes the bed While the Pope Talks About the Sea.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 May 2013 05:27:00 -0600

Canadian's Have no Problem Making the Bed

We all know Canada isn’t perfect. Far from it. But it’s telling that when scandals hit, leaders at RBC, Loblaw and, to a lesser extent SNC-Lavalin, stepped up in a way that few leaders at foreign firms have done.

This kind of leadership and character was severely lacking during the massive credit crisis south of the border in 2009. The moves by these Canadian corporate titans are probably frowned upon on Wall Street, and perhaps to a certain extent on Bay Street.

These firms will get no credit in the eyes of many. They made their own beds, after all. But plenty of organizations have made their beds with questionable behavior — it seems to be a uniquely Canadian concept to actually lay in them.

http://www.hrreporter.com/blog/Editor/archive/2013/05/28/corporate-world-needs-more-canada

Windsor Shines Light on Human Trafficking

Legal Assistance of Windsor has launched a city- and county-wide advertising campaign to educate the public and reach out to victims of the modern day form of slavery known as human trafficking.
Shelley Gilbert, co-chairwoman of the office’s Windsor Essex Anti-Human Trafficking Action Group, said that the campaign will involve the use of roadside billboards, posters and pamphlets.

The 18 stark, black, red and white billboards now popping up in the city and county baldly assert: “Human Trafficking. It’s in our neighborhood” and provide phone numbers and website addresses for those seeking more information.

The posters and leaflets, in English, French, Spanish and Thai, contain information to help people identify potential victims of human trafficking.

The campaign is paid for through a $15,000 grant from the Ministry of the Attorney General.

http://www.uwindsor.ca/law/news/human-trafficking-campaign-in-windsor-essex-seeks-to-bring-message-home

Power Point Presentation

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEYQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uwindsor.ca%2Flaw%2Flegalassistance%2Fsystem%2Ffiles%2Fforeign-worker.ppt&ei=Hp6kUcXyIqOEiALst4CwDg&usg=AFQjCNGc2he3cLbAaMYzj-McHITKni3X5A&sig2=-wybQJg_IvqhWmJu1_LJSA&bvm=bv.47008514,d.cGE

A Look Back at the Trouble in Tumbler Ridge

(Video) Published on Apr 17, 2013

Temporary workers brought to Tumbler Ridge B.C. at a time of record unemployment.

Documentary : Phoning from the Philippines

(Video) Documentary 25:15

Move over India – Manila is the new call center capital of the world. With its English-speaking workforce, geopolitical stability and embracement of Western culture, the Philippines is fast becoming the world’s hottest destination for call centers.
Established in just a decade, the outsourcing industry now employs 420,000 workers and accounts for five percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), or roughly $11bn in revenue.
The country is also an attractive backroom for small to medium-sized companies in Western countries because it is a comfortable timezone to work in and there is cost savings of up to 70 percent.
An estimated 80 percent of all call centers are in Manila, but outsourcing hubs are also opening in the provinces, bringing roads, airports and jobs to poor areas.

The Pope has Something to say About the Slavery at Sea

Giacomo Martino, consultor to the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Workers, highlighted industrial fishing vessels as a particular area of concern. "Crew on fishing vessels permanently positioned on the high seas are unlikely to report abuse, injury or death or otherwise seek help for their own protection," he said.

"Fishers often have to surrender identity documentation to their Master so mobility in port is restricted, their isolation is further compounded by the difficulty or lack of communication with family whilst at sea due to the lack of access to mobile or satellite phones."

Martino, a former port chaplain and former Italian national director of global seafarers' charity Apostleship of the Sea, said a further factor contributing to the vulnerability of these people is the irregularity of their salary, together with a lack of transparency, and the fact that often the workers are paid literally with a share of the catch, which encourages them to work excessive hours.

http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/world/10496-church-concern-about-slavery-at-sea.html

HSBC Quietly Sends Jobs to India

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 May 2013 04:50:00 -0600

Author: thegoldenpipewrench+

HSBC Bank Outsourcing Finance Jobs to India

Sources close to HSBC Bank Canada told The Huffington Post Canada that the country's seventh-largest bank is preparing to send as many as 23 finance jobs to India as part of an "operational efficiency" program.

Internal documents obtained by The Huffington Post Canada confirm that at least two employees from the bank's Global Resource Centre (GRC) in Gurgaon, India are currently in Vancouver learning their jobs from the people they're replacing, one of them a 20-year veteran, but a source said as many as 23 jobs could be transitioned abroad.

The jobs in question largely involve entering data when clients transfer money between different HSBC branches in Vancouver. Those responsibilities used to be handled in the city but will now be transitioned to the GRC in India.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/27/hsbc-bank-canada-outsourcing-finance-india_n_3339983.html

They did not learn from past mistakes

After HSBC, StanChart's India Outsourcing Under US Scanner

Outsourcing of key oversight jobs by global banks to India has come under the scanner for the second time in less than a month for exposing the US financial system to terrorists and money laundering risks.
On the heels of a probe by the US Senate's Permanent Committee on Investigations pointing out major lapses in the work of HSBC's India staff, another UK-based banking giant Standard Chartered's outsourcing of key banking jobs to Indian shores have come under the scanner in the US.

http://www.deccanherald.com/pages.php?id=269868

Why Canada’s Immigration Policy is Unfair to Temporary Foreign Workers

Temporary foreign workers are tied to one job, one Employer, and one location. This restrictive work Permit shifts the bargaining power in the employer-employee relationship clearly toward the employer with the result that these migrants may lack the basic employment protections that Canadians have come to expect as a right.

http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca/sites/default/files/public/research/eng/documents/DNakache_WorldIdeas.pdf

Why Canada Needs its Temporary Foreign-Worker Program

Employers will need to do their part too. In the case of skilled work, many companies have decided it’s more cost-effective to hire skilled workers on a temporary basis rather than face the prospect of having to retrain them or pay for skills upgrades down the road.

A recent study by the Conference Board of Canada found that investment in employee training has fallen nearly 40 per cent in Canada since the early 1990s—a trend that obviously needs to change. Meanwhile, fast-food restaurants and retail stores may need to consider offering better wages and benefits if they’re ever going to attract Canadian employees in the numbers they require to staff their businesses, McQuillan argues.

That won’t be easy in a country where a price hike of a few cents at the local gas station or coffee shop is a recipe for angry customers. “It’s easy to say that,” said one manager of a busy oil and lube chain in Alberta that sources half of its employees through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (he asked his name not be published lest it generate an RBC-like backlash for his business). “But if everything you purchased in a day suddenly went up 20 per cent, what do you think people would do?”

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/05/24/with-a-little-help-from-afar/

In Conversation: Australia's Invisible Migrant Workers

In a recent post for The Conversation which appeared on the SBS World News Australia website, Dr Shanthi Robertson highlighted the long-term but temporary, 'invisible' group of workers made up of backpackers and international students.

She groups them together as Australia's 'other migrant workers', and is calling for more political and public recognition of this considerable group of newcomers to Australia.

(audio)http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1769966/In-Conversation-Australias-invisible-migrant-worke

Alarm Over Skills Shortage in Europe

European industrialists are sounding the alarm over a growing skills shortage on the continent that threatens their competitiveness and leaves manufacturing companies scrambling to find enough engineers.

Chief executives of some of Europe's biggest manufacturers said that problems around youth unemployment, demographics and the education system all mean that engineers could be increasingly difficult to find in the future.

This would force their companies to move more research and development facilities to countries with a greater supply of engineers, such as China or India.

"By 2025, we might need 500,000 engineers," said Olof Persson, chief executive, of Volvo Group, the world's second-biggest truck maker.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100767145

Manitoba's Seasonal Farm Workers get More Health Care

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which advocates for migrant worker rights, commended the Manitoba government for its efforts.

“Seasonal agricultural workers work hard to grow the food that Manitoba families enjoy and as taxpaying residents of Manitoba, they deserve the same public health care that other taxpayers already receive,” said Jeff Traeger, president of UFCW Local 832.

For several years, the union has been pushing provinces across the country to extend healthcare coverage to migrant farm workers.

http://www.ohscanada.com/news/manitobas-seasonal-farm-workers-get-more-health-care/1002348007/

RBC's new Code of Conduct might Warrant a Documentary

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 May 2013 07:35:00 -0600

RBC Code of Conduct a Welcome step: Steelworkers

The United Steelworkers, Canada's largest union, congratulated the Royal Bank of Canada for promising not to hire foreign workers to replace Canadians and not to outsource jobs.

RBC announced a Supplier Code of Conduct Friday, saying that "this principles-based Code sets out RBC's expectations of suppliers to ensure their behaviour aligns with RBC standards."

According a statement from the bank, its suppliers must "adhere to human rights, labour and employment standards legislation" and "not hire foreign workers from outside of Canada when performing services on behalf of RBC where a worker eligible to work in Canada is available and able to perform the service."

http://www.camrosecanadian.com/2013/05/25/rbc-code-of-conduct-a-welcome-step-steelworkers

ICBA Celebrates Pushing Canadians Over the Ridge

It is disappointing in the extreme to see the Independent Contractors and Business Association celebrate a court decision that denies Canadians the first opportunity to work at the proposed Murray River project near Tumbler Ridge.

With an unemployment rate of over seven per cent, one would have hoped that even the anti-union ICBA would have stood up for Canadian workers before temporary foreign workers but, alas, they have clearly displayed their true intention - keep Canadian workers' wages as low as possible, even if it means importing less-expensive foreign workers.

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Canadians+need+jobs/8436683/story.html

Slavery Unfortunately is Still With us in Modern Form

This brings us to Canada's temporary foreign worker's permit program. Up to 33,000 companies in Canada have applied to use temporary foreign workers, and there were 338,189 of these workers on our shores on Dec. 1, 2012.

This isn't just a minor riff on free trade's promise of a mobile labour force; it's shaping up to be the plutocrats' Trojan Horse for bypassing contractually bargained wages with domestic workers.

When corporations parachute in lower-paid foreign workers to fatten their profit margin, they are not delivering any new goods and services in exchange.

Political scientists refer to this as "rent-seeking." Temporary foreign workers don't always get a raw deal, but some find themselves in the position of debt slaves or contract slaves. Debt slaves work for loans in which the time period and work conditions are often unstated. Contract slaves sign off on agreements that are often not honoured by the company.

http://www.vancourier.com/Slavery+still+with+modern+form/8429514/story.html

Migrant Job Squeeze Sets off Alarm Bells for UK Fruit Farmers

The rise of Ukip is having unexpected consequences for Britain's countryside. Farmers fear that the political upstart's success has the government running scared on immigration, with the result that foreign workers could soon be absent from Britain's fields.

"We can see there's a toxic mix brewing," says Alastair Brooks, who employs 200 temporary foreign workers to pick strawberries and raspberries at Langdon Manor Farm in Faversham, Kent.

"People have understandable concerns about immigration, but temporary migrant workers have got tied up in the debate," he said.

Brooks has 130 acres of his farm devoted to fruit. Without foreign workers, he says, he will have to cut production. Many other farmers are in a similar position, says the National Farmers Union, because they fear that without foreign workers they will not have the staff to do the job.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/25/migrant-jobs-fruit-farms-kent

wall paper painting (816px by 545px)

http://www.frazerfineart.com/Art_Images/Medium/c1392.JPG

A Sobering Documentary, 'America The Gutted'

(Documentary trailer for America The Gutted)

For millions, the American Dream is fading. The middle class – the core of the world’s largest economy – is being gutted as incomes fall and once-reliable jobs disappear. But that's not the entire story. GlobalPost traveled from the shuttered factory towns of the United States to the emerging boomtowns of the developing world, where something very different is at work.

(website) http://www.globalpost.com/america-the-gutted-globalpost

This Full length documentary and subsequent Video discussion can be found on our Video page.

http://goldenpipewrench.blogspot.ca/p/videos.html

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program is a Broken Pane

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 May 2013 00:32:00 -0600

Throwing Stones at the TFWP

Nothing will be changed on behalf of the workers in the Live-in-Caregiver Program or the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. This is, perhaps, because Canadians have not yet put enough pressure on Conservative MPs about the mistreatment of these workers on the job, or about their lack of options for applying for permanent residency. It seems that, while they are considered good enough to harvest our food and tend to our loved ones 24/7, they are not considered good enough to stay.

Not wanting to limit the opportunity for yet more reforms that might exist, Kenney said a cross-Canada consultation would also take place soon. But don't get too excited. The last consultation was by invitation only, and the invitation was sent on a Friday at 5:24 p.m., with a 72-hour time-limited RSVP window to participate in 1.5-hour consultation (lunch included), after which no minutes were made available.

Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The window still remains broken, and the stones on the ground tell the real story.

http://ourtimes.ca/Between_Times/printer_274.php

RBC Pledges to not Send Work Offshore, Just to cut Costs

The Royal Bank says it will only offshore work to suppliers when their scale, technology or knowledge provides capabilities the bank cannot duplicate.

The bank also released a supplier code of conduct.

The code says the banks suppliers adhere to human rights, labour and employment standards legislation.
It also says suppliers must not hire foreign workers from outside of Canada, when performing services on behalf of RBC, when a worker eligible to work in Canada is available.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/after-backlash-rbc-pledges-to-not-send-work-offshore-just-to-cut-costs-1.1295268

Foreign Workers Local Neighbors

Foreign Workers, Local Neighbours (FWLN) is a multimedia campaign to inform the public about the challenges of temporary foreign workers in Vancouver. The project is borne out of the efforts of different community representatives, policy makers, advocates and residents who aim to build awareness of temporary foreign workers' experiences in the city. This interactive project is important because Vancouver recruits thousands of migrant workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program every year. Although TFWs make substantial economic contributions to Canada, their personal stories are often unheard and their rights unquestioned.

http://www.tfwvancouver.ca/

Institutionalized Pattern of Discrimination Against American College Graduates

A former Infosys manager from India who spent six years working in the United States on an H-1B visa has described an institutionalized pattern of discrimination against American college graduates recruited by the company. According to the former manager, the recruitment effort was put in place by Infosys's top management as a means of promoting a more culturally diverse work force, but has been systematically stymied by middle managers who want no part of any such inclusiveness.

The former manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity, worked at Infosys from 2000 to 2010. In 2008, he served on a panel that interviewed graduating college students in the United States as part of an ongoing recruitment drive initiated by "visionaries" among Infosys's top brass, including Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Narayana Murthy, to create a more inclusive work force.

The former manager said he interviewed students from some of the most prestigious universities in the country, including the University of Chicago, the University of Texas, Boston University, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Syracuse and Purdue University.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/tennant/former-infosys-manager-from-india-cites-discrimination-against-americans/?cs=50333

Transitioning Temporary Foreign Workers to Permanent Residents

A temporary foreign workers eligibility for permanent residence crucially depends on the kinds of jobs they have held in Canada, rather than their actual skills and qualifications. Thus, their access to permanent residence is entirely contingent upon employers recruiting TFWs into jobs commensurate with their skills and education.

This paper discusses this issue and recommends that appropriate data on theActual skills and qualifications of TFWs be gathered to ensure that TFWs with similar skills andQualifications are employed appropriately and have similar opportunities to reside permanently in Canada.

http://www.ceris.metropolis.net/wp-content/uploads/pdf/research_publication/working_papers/wp91.pdf

Companies are not Searching for American Workers

“The public is led to believe that companies can’t find Americans to fill high-tech jobs when, in fact, they are not searching for Americans — as these ads show,” said Donna Conroy, a founder of Bright Future Jobs and author of “No Americans Need Apply.”

Her report details an analysis of 100 IT ads, posted on tech job board Dice.com, which all include language referencing various visa programs, and which, Conroy said in an interview, are phrased as “code for foreign workers only.”.

The Bright Future Jobs analysis of the ads found 37 percent of them made no mention of IT job terms or skills in the ad title. Instead, they contained only references to visa types, says Conroy’s report. “These 37 ads also repeated these USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) terms in the skills section,” says the report.

The balance of the ads all included visa terms, with many restricting applicants to those with H1-B visas (work visas) or with work permits granted to foreign students attending U.S. colleges and universities.

http://www.ere.net/2012/07/09/it-watchdog-group-says-staffing-firms-discriminate-against-americans/

Sir James Goldsmith Interview

In The Trap, one of the most successful businessmen of the era brings his challenging perspective to such key issues as the true effects of
global economic integration, the environmental and economic dangers of modern industrial agriculture, and our destabilized society, and offers answers and solutions that will help determine the shape of our world in the 21st century.

http://goldenpipewrench.blogspot.ca/p/videos.html

Stormy Youth Unemployment Leads to an Earful of Criticism

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 May 2013 05:27:00 -0600

A Stormy Ride Awaits our Youth

The figure below, from this report on the labor market prospects of the Class of 2013, gives unemployment and underemployment rates for college graduates under age 25 who are not enrolled in further schooling.

The unemployment rate of this group over the last year averaged 8.8 percent, but the .

In other words, in addition to the substantial share who are officially unemployed, a large swath of these young workers either have a job but cannot attain the hours they need, or want a job but have given up looking for work.

(interactive chart) http://www.epi.org/blog/high-underemployment-young-college-grads/

related

Austrians Present a Model to Handle Youth Employment

"Youth unemployment should be tackled through training", said Erich Foglar. Austria has a long tradition of apprenticeships which are undertaken by some 40% of school leavers. For those who finish school without the necessary skills to take up an apprenticeship, Austria also has a Youth Guarantee scheme providing support for those having difficulty to find suitable placements. In practice, 80% of an Austrian apprenticeship involves working in an enterprise, while 20% is spent in school.

Austria's apprenticeship model directly involves the social partners, with one of the success factors lying in the influence that enterprises and workers, both represented by the social partner organizations, have on the content of the apprenticeship system.

http://www.neurope.eu/article/austrians-present-model-youth-employment

Doc Zone : Generation Jobless

There was a time when a University degree assured you a of good job, good pay and a comfortable life. Not any more.

Today, the unemployment rate for young people in this country is close to 15% – double that of the general population. But the real crisis is the increasing number of university and college grads who are underemployed – scraping by on low-paid, part-time jobs that don’t require a degree.

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episode/generation-jobless.html

Canada Needs a National Debate on Immigration

Here’s another aspect of it that’s undermining Canadians jobs and driving down wages.

It’s happening under International Experience Canada — bilateral agreements with nearly three dozen countries, mostly European, that let young people (18-35) get international exposure for a year, extendable to two.

But with Europe and Japan in economic crises, the traffic has been mostly one-way — to Canada. Fewer Canadians are going overseas but more and more foreigners are coming here.

As of December 2011, the latest figures available from Ottawa, there were 60,871 such temporary residents.

“They come here on open work permits and can apply for any job,” says Michael Schelew, a leading Toronto immigration lawyer. “Many work at much lower wages than the going rate” as engineers, lawyers, architects, etc. — jobs that would otherwise go to young Canadians.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/05/23/canada_needs_a_national_debate_on_immigration_siddiqui.html

Brent Rathgeber Gets an Earful on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Some employers in St. Albert are not happy about recent changes to the federal government’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program, and they let Brent Rathgeber know all about it on Friday.

The Edmonton-St. Albert Conservative MP met with about 20 local employers Friday at the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce office on St. Albert Trail to hear their concerns over changes to the TFW program that were made in late April.

Chamber president and CEO Lynda Moffat said it’s a crucial issue for local businesses, most of whom feel the process for bringing in workers should be made easier, not tougher.
“They’re mad. They’re not just concerned, they’re really angry, because this is having a big impact on their ability to keep their doors open,” she said.

But overall, both Moffat and Rathgeber agreed that the roundtable was productive, with a lot of good discussion and many industries represented, including retail, hospitality, health care and construction.

http://www.stalbertleader.com/2013/05/23/mp-gets-earful-on-tfws/

Fort McMurray Postal Workers Stage Wildcat Strike over Outsourcing

About 50 postal workers in Fort McMurray walked off the job Wednesday in protest of Canada Post’s intention to bring outside contractors on in October to take over parcel delivery.

Dana Gabriel, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 736, said that workers are worried that without parcels they will be stuck delivering mail alone putting as many as nine jobs in peril. He wants the agency to rescind the letter it sent out.

“How can they contract out work and not lose jobs? They’re taking away all our parcels, contracting out all our parcel delivery. We’re going to strictly deliver mail,”

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Fort+McMurray+postal+workers+stage+wildcat+strike+over/8421713/story.html

Made in the USA Back in Style for Small Businesses

But this year, his company, Reverie, began making some of its beds entirely in a factory in New York. Shipping costs from Taiwan have soared between 50 percent and 60 percent since the company was founded.

"Shipping costs are tremendous," he says. "I could put that money into the manufacturing side in the U.S.," he says.

Reverie is one of a growing number of small businesses that are chipping away at the decades-old trend of manufacturing overseas.

They're doing what's known as re shoring, moving production back to U.S. factories as labor costs grow in countries like China and India and shipping also becomes more expensive. Over the last 20 years, the price of a barrel of oil has risen to about $95 from $20.

http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Made-in-the-USA-back-in-style-for-small-businesses-4539497.php

The Re-Shoring Initiative

The Re-shoring Initiative, founded by Harry Moser in 2010, is an industry-led effort to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. The initiative works with U.S. manufacturers to help them recognize their profit potential as well as the critical role they play in strengthening the economy by utilizing local sourcing and production.

American companies often don't consider all of the costs involved in sending their manufacturing offshore, such as inventory carrying costs, traveling costs to check on suppliers, intellectual property risks and opportunity costs from product pipelines being too long.

http://www.reshorenow.org/

From the Shadow at the Doorstep to Picking Fights with Google.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:04:00 -0600

Temporary Mean's Temporary Loyalties

In other places, rules that allow people to enter temporarily without chance of prolonging their stay or converting to permanent status have resulted in “underground” populations and “shadow” economies. Our tradition of permanent immigration has largely shielded us from this insidious cost, but we must consider where our tendencies toward the temporary might take us.

Certainly, some temporary residents do not hope or intend to stay in Canada permanently. Some want nothing more than a short-term work or study-abroad experience. Similarly, inviting some temporary residents for short-term stays can meet Canada’s needs. But surely it doesn’t serve our nation to continue to reshape our entire immigration system based on these limited situations.

By looking for quick fixes and failing to consider what we give up, we’re reshaping our immigration system and, by extension, our nation’s future. We must re-establish our traditional commitment to permanent immigration; it’s in Canada’s best interest.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/temporary-immigrants-mean-temporary-loyalties/article11999562/

Federal Workers Unable to Verify if Employers Tried to Hire Canadians

He applied for three IT positions with a multinational company from India, called TCS. It has several jobs posted in Canada’s job bank, for IT work with its large Canadian clients.
Despite his qualifications, Hamel got no response. "It doesn’t make sense. They advertise all these jobs."

In the meantime, a former TCS manager told Go Public the company rarely hires skilled, experienced Canadians.

"I wanted to hire Canadians, but I was told no," said the former manager, who agreed to speak only anonymously. "I had to hire Indian people [as temporary foreign workers], and they didn’t have the skills."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/17/bc-foreignworkers.html?cmp=rss

When Employers Duck Responsibility for Training, Canada Loses

The uproar over the federal government’s temporary foreign worker program exposed a disturbing workplace undercurrent.

Too many employers would rather import workers than train their own.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce economist Benjamin Tal says he often talks to chief executive officers about the skills dilemma. And what he hears are sentiments such as: “I’m not in the business of training. I’m in the business of making a profit.”

Mr. Tal doesn’t blame employers, particularly smaller ones.

“The job market of today is much more mobile,” he argued. “You spend $20,000 training them, and the minute you do, they leave.”

That perspective is more than an outlier. The era when organizations scooped up waves of recent university graduates and ran them through formal training programs is vanishing. And it’s not just because the world is mired in a slow-growth, post-recessionary funk.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/when-employers-duck-responsibility-for-training-canada-loses/article12022931/

Dubai Workers Hold Rare Strike for More Wages

Thousands of workers employed by Dubai's largest construction company have gone on strike for a second day to back wage demands in a rare labour protest in the Gulf emirate, where trade unions are banned.

Blue-collared labourers employed by Arabtec, the company behind projects including the world's tallest building Burj Khalifa, did not show up for work on Sunday, said a spokesman for the company, UAE's labour ministry and workers.

Employees said the strike began on Saturday and that the workers were determined not to end it without a pay rise.

"They are upset at the low wages and also about not being paid for overtime work," one employee told the Reuters news agency. He said workers at his site were paid between $160 and $190 a month.
"The protest started in Abu Dhabi on Saturday ... workers in Dubai have also joined," the employee said.

Most blue collar workers in the Gulf Arab states are migrant labourers hired on a contract basis from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, and strikes are rare.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/20135205143955857.html

AFL-CIO Picks a Fight With Facebook and Google Over Immigration Bill

The nation's largest labor federation on Monday rallied opposition to changes in the Gang of Eight's immigration bill that are being pushed by the tech industry.

In an email alert to immigration activists, the AFL-CIO panned a series of tech industry-backed amendments from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), arguing they would "undercut protections for both aspiring citizens and U.S. workers."

The labor federation warned that Facebook, Google and other powerful tech companies are joining forces to see that the changes make it into the final bill. They urged activists to contact Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to voice their opposition.

"Hatch’s amendments would change the bill so high-tech companies can hire new immigrant employees without first making the jobs available to American workers," wrote Ana Avendaño, assistant to the president for immigration at the AFL-CIO, in the email. "Hatch’s amendments would mean American corporations could fire American workers in order to bring in new immigrant workers at lower wages."

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/300723-afl-cio-rallies-opposition-to-hatchs-h-1b-visa-amendments

Striking out at the Beginning Paints a Portrait of Defiance.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 May 2013 05:54:00 -0600

USW Strikes out in TFWP Court Challenge

In the latest legal development impacting the temporary foreign workers program, the Federal Court struck out an attempt by the United Steelworkers Union to challenge Labour Market Opinions issued for the hiring of temporary foreign workers in United Steel, Paper and Forest Street, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (United Steelworkers Union)v The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, and others.

This is the second case in recent months in which unions, holding no rights as the bargaining agent for the affected employees, have attempted legal challenges to Labour Market Opinions granted to employers.

In this Application for Leave and Judicial Review filed by the United Steelworkers Union, it was alleged that the Minister of Human Resources and Development Canada had issued an unknown number of positive Labour Market Opinions to iGate and/or Royal Bank of Canada for the hiring of temporary foreign workers to work in RBC's Toronto operations.

http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=f0eec4d2-bc04-4b01-874b-5b7dada74f19

Migrant Workers in Canada: Working and Living Conditions

Part Two of a four-part video testimonial series on the hardships, challenges, discrimination and dangers faced by migrant workers in Canada. For more information on migrant workers in Canada,

see www.ufcw.ca.

(video)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ0ciYPGO04

How ‘De-Skilling’ Shortchanges Migrant Workers

Siar said that while many traditional immigration countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have strong preference for migrant workers with higher education, skills, and professional training, it is still not unusual for migrants to be relegated to lower status or to have lower paying jobs.

“Certain professions like medicine, nursing, law, and teaching also require overseas-educated migrants to undergo a ‘bridging’ course or a supervised training and even work as an intern (in the case of doctors), and pass a licensing examination.

These requirements may take a few months or some years to complete,” PIDS said.

The study also noted the effects of race, gender, and ethnicity in the deskilling of migrant workers. “In Canada, for example, there is less chance for migrants to hold a managerial position. Migrant engineers who migrated after the age of 27 and those who were born in the Philippines or in Eastern Europe have the lowest probability of holding engineering or managerial positions,” the study said.

http://www.cfo.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1980:how-deskilling-shortchanges-migrant-workers&catid=109:overseas-filipino-new&Itemid=840

Official: New Wave of EU Migrants Taking our Jobs

Statistics reveal the number of immigrants from the two countries employed in the UK has surged by 15 per cent in the past year.

The figures provoked alarm last night among politicians and campaign groups. They fear that tens of thousands more jobs will be snaffled by Romanians and Bulgarians when restrictions on workers from the two European Union countries are lifted at the end of this year.

Sir Andrew Green, of campaign group MigrationWatch, said: “The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in Britain has grown by about 14,000 a year since they joined the EU – despite the fact that they are supposed to be restricted to self employment. “This is consistent with our central estimate that net migration from these two countries will be 50,000 a year for each of the next five years.” Ukip leader Nigel Farage said it was “madness” that so many Romanians and Bulgarians could get jobs in the UK while unemployment and youth unemployment is so high.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/399973/Official-New-wave-of-EU-migrants-taking-our-jobs

Australia to Double fee for '457' Temporary Work Visa in July

In February both Mr O'Connor and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard claimed that there had been widespread abuse (or 'rorting') of the 457 visa system.

They said that the 457 visa was being abused by unscrupulous employers to employ low-wage foreign workers at the expense of Australian workers who remained unemployed.

Mrs Gillard promised to 'put Aussie workers first'.

Mr O'Connor claimed on Australian TV in March that about 10% of all 457 visas were obtained by rorting though he later had to admit that this claim had been 'a forecast' and was not supported by any evidence. Mr O'Connor said that 107,000 457 visas were issued in 2012.

http://www.workpermit.com/news/2013-05-20/australia-to-double-fee-for-457-temporary-work-visa-in-july

China's Government Claims Outsourcing has Risen 50 Percent

China’s offshore services industry earned $8.1 billion in revenue in the first three months 2013, reports China Daily quoting an unnamed government official as saying.

The Chinese paper also stated that the domestic outsourcing service providers had received $11.7 billion in contracts during the same period, an increase of 43.6 percent when compared to the same period last year.

The official who spoke to the paper is with the Commerce Ministry and was attending a forum held in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province.

http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/chinas-outsourcing-market-rise/

Children Reveal the Horror of Working in the Mines

The brutal reality of children working in mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the focus of a new report by World Vision, released today.

Child Miners Speak offers insight into the dirty, dangerous and degrading lives of more than 50 children working at an artisanal copper and cobalt mine in the country’s Katanga province.

Today, the development agency also released the supporting resource Five Things You Need to Know About Children and Mining.

“We wanted to hear first-hand from children and their parents about why they work in the mines and what it’s doing to them—physically, mentally, emotionally,” says Bob Kisulya, National Director, World Vision DRC. “This research is helping us to understand how the DRC governments and the international community can support these families and find solutions to child labour in mining.”

https://www.worldvision.ca/ABOUTUS/Media%20Centre/Pages/Child-miners-speak.aspx

Robert Koebler's Painting: The Strike

Every work of art has a story behind it. In 1886 the German American artist Robert Koehler painted a dramatic wide-angle depiction of an imagined confrontation between factory workers and their employer.

He called this oil painting The Strike. It has had a long and tumultuous international history as a symbol of class struggle and the cause of workers’ rights. First exhibited just days before the tragic Chicago Haymarket riot, The Strike became an inspiration for the labor movement.

In the midst of the campaign for an eight-hour workday, it gained international attention at expositions in Paris, Munich, and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Though the painting fell into obscurity for decades in the early twentieth century, The Strike lived on in wood-engraved reproductions in labor publications.

Its purchase, restoration, and exhibition by New Left activist Lee Baxandall in the early 1970s launched it to international fame once more, and collectors and galleries around the world scrambled to acquire it. It is now housed in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Robert Koehler's The Strike: The Improbable Story of an Iconic 1886 Painting of Labor Protest (Studies in American Thought and Culture) [Paperback]

http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Koehlers-Strike-Improbable-Painting/dp/0299251349

Wallpaper 1920x1200

http://www.wallcoo.net/paint/vista_art_walpapers_1024x768/wallpapers/1920x1200/%5Bwallcoo%5D_Koehler_Robert_The_Strike.jpg

Canada Learns how to Understate the Disappointment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:16:00 -0600

HD Mining's IUOE Local 115, 'Disappointed'

Brian Cochrane, a spokesman for IUOE Local 115, said he was disappointed in the decision but felt the action was worth it. “We’ve had a chance now to get the public awareness up, the problems and the flaws of the temporary foreign workers program,” he said. “I would say that, up until six months ago, most Canadians were probably not aware of the fact we’ve got over 300,000 temporary foreign workers in the country.”

HD Mining called the decision a “complete vindication”, but said it came “at a great cost and raised significant questions in the international investment community.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/temporary-foreign-worker-case-dismissed-but-union-feels-vindicated/article12044464/

related

http://iuoe115.com/

Farm Workers Target Wendy’s in Fair Food Campaign to Improve Wages

Hundreds of farm workers and their supporters are in New York City ahead of Wendy’s shareholder meeting to demand improved working conditions for those who pick its tomatoes.

The fast-food giant — which has nearly 6,600 restaurants in the U.S. and around the world, ranking second only to McDonald’s — is the latest target in the Fair Food Campaign organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. So far,

McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King and Taco Bell have all joined the White House-recognized social responsibility program, agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound of tomatoes to raise wages and only buy from fields where workers’ rights are respected.

(Video)We speak with CIW farm worker and organizer, Gerardo Reyes-Chávez.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/20/coalition_of_immokalee_workers_targets_wendys

Marching in Chicago: Resisting Neoliberal Savagery

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s current attempt to close down 54 public schools largely inhabited by poor minorities is one more example of a savage, racist neoliberal system at work that uses the politics of austerity and consolidation to further disenfranchise the unskilled young of the inner city.

The hidden curriculum in this instance is not so invisible. Closing schools will result in massive layoffs, weakening the teachers unions.

It will free up land that can be gentrified to attract middle-class voters, and it will once again prove that poor minority students, regardless of the hardships, if not danger, they will face as a result of such closings, are viewed as disposable - human waste to be relegated to the zones of terminal exclusion.

Not only are many teachers and parents concerned about displacing thousands of students to schools that do not offer any hope of educational improvement, but they are also concerned about the safety of the displaced children, many of whom "will have to walk through violent neighborhoods and go to school with other students who are considered enemies."

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16478-marching-in-chicago-resisting-rahm-emanuels-neoliberal-savagery

iGate Sacks Chief Executive Murthy After Sexual Harassment Claim

The board of iGate Corp, an information technology outsourcing services provider, has sacked Chief Executive Officer Phaneesh Murthy following an investigation into a claim of sexual harassment, the company said in a statement.

The U.S.-listed company, which has bulk of its employees in India, has appointed Gerhard Watzinger as interim chief executive with immediate effect, the iGate statement said.

"The board's decision was made as a result of an investigation by outside legal counsel, engaged by the board, of the facts and circumstances surrounding a relationship Mr. Murthy had with a subordinate employee and a claim of sexual harassment," the statement said.

Murthy was a rising star at Infosys Ltd as California-based global head of sales before leaving in 2002 after a sexual harassment lawsuit against him and the company, which made headlines at the time and was settled out of court.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/21/us-igate-ceo-idUSBRE94K04Y20130521?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

More Senior and Complex Roles go Offshore

Construction and engineering firm Transfield Services is the latest company to offshore back office roles, including transactional finance and HR jobs, to Asia, with 80 roles being moved as part of a $26.1 million in extra cost savings announced on Tuesday.
The jobs are expected to go to India, with the full transition to be completed by September. It is understood the two outsourcing companies shortlisted in the tender are Infosys and Wipro.
The moves are part of the latest round of cost cuts announced by Transfield on Tuesday in which it revised its forecast for net profits down to between $62 million and $65 million from previous guidance of $85-90 million. A total of 113 extra jobs are to be cut.

The cuts are on top of earlier cuts of $23 million announced for the 2013 financial year.
Transfield’s announcement, which has be en planned for at least six months, mirrors the actions of numerous other companies such as Worley Parsons, News Ltd, QBE, Visy and several major banks.

http://www.afr.com/f/free/markets/capital/cfo/more_senior_and_complex_roles_go_a3g2IstGNIkHuWsaOWEeEO

Inequality and Economic Growth: Paul Krugman and Tony Atkinson

Video : 02:13 minutes | Start of Discussion : 43rd minute | 20 May 2013

http://videostreaming.gc.cuny.edu/videos/video/771/
Twitter

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GCInequality&src=hash

From the Oppression of Migrant Workers to Billboards in California

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:44:00 -0600

Tomorrow We're all Going to the Harvest

Over the past decade, the Canadian economy has become increasingly dependent upon exploited temporary foreign workers, in large part through the Canadian government’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), an arm of the government’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

A new book, Tomorrow We’re All Going to the Harvest: Temporary Foreign Worker Programs and Neoliberal Political Economy, explores with scholarly attention and detail many of the problems inherent in this program.

Written by Leigh Binford, professor of Sociology at the City University of New York, this timely book weaves together compelling evidence from the past ten years to show how the SAWP scheme has created an economy based on oppression — providing Canadian employers with a steady stream of cheap laborers who are themselves silenced by the constant possibility of capricious deportation.

(book review)

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/mainlander/2013/05/review-tomorrow-were-all-going-to-harvest-temporary-foreign-worker

BRIGHTON: Empty Schools Could Help Ease Labour-Market Ills

Nova Scotia employers were permitted to hire 3,300 temporary foreign workers in 2012, down slightly from previous years.

Demand for foreign workers was particularly strong among small businesses, with more than 40 per cent of government approvals being issued to businesses with fewer than 50 employees. In recent years, the federal government has also allowed temporary foreign workers to fill the jobs of secondary school teachers and registered nurses in Nova Scotia.

The system for marrying people with jobs and training is clearly breaking down. In rural areas, people who want to be trained in the trades can’t get local training. There are wild swings in the regional labour market at a time when the established regional development authorities have been dismantled and the plan to replace them with a new model of enterprise networks lies in disarray.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1130305-brighton-empty-schools-could-help-ease-labour-market-ills

Low Skilled Workers Could Just go Underground

Brisbois said Canada’s immigration system does not allow low-skilled foreign workers to become citizens as easily as skilled foreign workers. Once their permit expires, instead of leaving the country, they often remain in the country illegally, he said.

If Canada continues to rely on these workers to fill cheap labour positions, he said it not only opens itself to abuse by employers but also to distortions in the labour market.

“In the short term (hiring foreign workers) is not such a bad thing because it fills the jobs and having someone work in those jobs and keep those establishments going is good for the economy,” he said.

“But in the longer term you don’t want to become a country like Germany or the United States that make a policy of importing cheap labour which they cannot get rid of when you don’t need the labour anymore.”

http://www.stalbertgazette.com/article/20130518/SAG0801/305189976/-1/sag0801/local-businesses-suffer-from-lack-of-employees

Canada is Trying to Poach High-Tech From Silicon Valley

Canada has landed in Silicon Valley with a brazen message: Give us your smart, your restless, your huddled Googleplex workers yearning to breathe life into the high-tech economy up north.

As the U.S. Congress wrestles with a long-sought overhaul of America's immigration system, the Canadian government is trying to poach talented immigrants frustrated by U.S. visa policy. The campaign begins Friday with a four-day visit to the Bay Area by Jason Kenney, Canada's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism.

"I think everyone knows the American system is pretty dysfunctional," Kenney said Thursday in an interview from Vancouver, B.C. "I'm going to the Bay Area to spread the message that Canada is

A billboard advertising Canada appeared off Highway 101 in South San Francisco.

(Government of Canada)

open for business; we're open for newcomers.

If they qualify, we'll give them the Canadian equivalent of a green card as soon as they arrive."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_23261666/canada-comes-silicon-valley-poach-high-tech-workers?source=rss_viewed

Importing Domestic Slaves While you Outsource the Police

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:36:00 -0600

Ottawa Police "Outsourcing Jobs Possible"

“We need to figure out where’s the policing role and potentially where’s the role for other people, whether it be private people, whether it be partnerships with other organizations, to make sure that the police are doing the stuff that they should do.”

Bell said potentially outsourcing both civilian and sworn jobs is something the service has to at least consider, given the fiscal pressures not only at the city-level but the challenges facing police forces across the country.

“We’re at a point now where policing is a changing environment. There’s been national, provincial, local conversations about what the police do, how they do it and what’s the right fit for the police. In looking at what the police are and how we move ahead, none of these questions are off the table,” Bell said.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/review+Ottawa+Police+Service+organization+exclude/8379347/story.html

Saskatchewan Cries out That There is a Skilled Labour Shortage

Saskatchewan's skilled labour shortage - and recent changes to the federal Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) - were at the top of the agenda at a meeting between Maxime Bernier, minister of state for small business and tourism, and members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) here Monday.

"We know that there is a shortage of skills and people, specifically here in the province,'' Bernier said in an interview before his meeting with CFIB members. "That's a new challenge for politicians at the provincial level, and for us. That's a good challenge.''

http://www.leaderpost.com/travel/Bernier+CFIB+discuss+skilled+labour+shortage/8380259/story.html

Raids of This Kind are not Uncommon

CBC News has learned the Canadian Border Service Agency recently raided a farm in Kingsville, where agents apprehended six temporary foreign workers from Thailand.

Chris Ramsaroop is an organizer with Justicia/Justice for Migrant Workers, a Toronto-based non-profit that "strives to promote the rights of migrant farm workers."

He told CBC News raids of this kind are not uncommon in the region.

"It seems that this is — particularly in southwestern Ontario, particularly in Leamington, Kingsville, Essex County — that this is a weekly or every other week occurrence," he claimed.

"We're always hearing about people being picked up or CBSA, Canadian Border [Services] agents, going to different farms and greenhouses, trying to detain non-status residents."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2013/05/16/wdr-temporary-foreign-worker-bust-kingsville-cbsa.html

The Noise on Immigration is Drowning out the Real Problems

Britain is importing domestic slaves and ignoring what becomes of them so long as they vanish from the official figures.

Wealthy foreigners are encouraged to come to London to spend their money, and last year they brought with them 15,745 domestic servants on overseas domestic worker visas.

Rich families from India, Nigeria and the Middle East bring servants from the Philippines, Indonesia or elsewhere, usually not their own country.

A year ago the government changed the visa requirements, making these servants the absolute slaves of their employers, with no escape from frequently appalling abuse.

In 1998 Labour took action to give these servants – almost all women – freedom to escape employers who often physically and sexually abuse them. And although they were still pitifully vulnerable, their treatment improved once they had the essential freedom to change jobs. The visa still had strict conditions: they had to find similar domestic work, with no recourse to public funds, proving their employment for annual visa renewal. But a year ago the government turned these women into powerless chattels of their employers by binding their visa to work only for the family that brought them in. The inevitable result has been a dramatic worsening of their lives as bonded slaves.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/13/noise-immigration-drowning-out-real-problems

HSBC's 14,000 new Layoffs: When Will Gulliver Stop Cutting Jobs?

HSBC, Europe's largest bank by market capitalization, will lay off 14,000 employees around the world to save $2 billion to $3 billion by 2016, the company announced Wednesday.

The layoffs -- representing more than 5% of its 254,000 workers worldwide -- will come on top of some 42,000 job cuts in the past two years as the bank has sought to reorganize its operations to increase profits and efficiency in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

"HSBC in my view is terribly bloated," says Christine Houston, Managing Director of Executive Search Group International in Hong Kong. "If you compare them to Citi, UBS, a lot of the American banks who did their layoffs closer to 2008, HSBC is just an anomaly. The number of staff is just incredible."

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/16/business/hsbc-14000-new-layoffs/index.html

Sean Silcoff: Royal Bank of Canada's Outsourcing Controversy

Published on Apr 12, 2013

The Royal Bank of Canada is facing a major backlash for outsourcing jobs to foreign workers, putting the federal government's Temporary Foreign Worker program in the spotlight. In our Story of the Week, The Globe and Mail's business writer Sean Silcoff explains what this program means for Canadian workers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zytKAGLUcCM&feature=youtu.be

From the Poor Conditions of Migrant Workers to BMO's Leak.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:23:00 -0600

P.E.I. Report Card is Concerning

Prince Edward Island received some of the lowest marks in Canada in a new report card on the treatment of temporary foreign workers.

The report, prepared by the Canadian Council for Refugees, says migrant workers on P.E.I. have little access to information about their rights, are given no support services, and are isolated by geography and language. Only in access to health care services does the province score above a C.
The CCR report said housing conditions for farm and fish plant workers are also a major source of concern.

The number of temporary foreign workers in the province has more than doubled in the last few years, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, from 467 in 2008 to 1,119 in 2012.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2013/05/17/pei-foreign-worker-treatment-584.html

Honour Those Killed and who Continue to Labour

Lee is critical of the way that the media is framing the issue. She says that mainstream media is not talking enough about the fact that temporary foreign workers are legally paid fifteen percent less than Canadian workers for the same jobs.

Or talking about the fact that migrant workers take on jobs that others don’t want. These are jobs that involve the “three d’s” because they are either dirty, difficult, or dangerous.

Often, migrant labourers cannot speak up about workplace violations for fear of losing their jobs.

She worries that the concerns currently being raised by the media around laying off Canadian workers, which are valid, leave little room for discussing the human rights concerns the migrant justice movement has raised when it comes to the labour market.

http://rabble.ca/news/2013/05/mayworks-festival-milagros-migrants-installation-honours-migrant-workers

Roof Collapse at Cambodian Shoe Plant Kills Three

Three people were killed when the ceiling of a warehouse fell in at a shoe factory in Cambodia, a government minister said on Thursday, adding to concern about safety standards at Asian factories producing clothes cheaply for Western consumers.

Cambodia has seen a rush of investment in recent years, especially into the shoe and garment sector, with Western and Asian firms attracted by its low-cost labour.

The International Monetary Fund says garments account for about 80 percent of the Southeast Asian country's exports.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/least-six-dead-cambodian-factory-collapses-union-member-024417499.html

National Retail Federation Dismisses Global Safety Plan

Over the past week, 30 clothing companies from around the world signed onto a pact to improve working conditions in Bangladesh.

Only two of these companies are American: Abercrombie & Fitch, and the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger.

In fact, the National Retail Federation, the biggest industry trade group in the U.S., seemed to scoff at the idea entirely. Among the issues the federation raises? The pact would leave companies open to legal action.

That's correct, it does. And the National Retail Federation does not want clothing companies to be held liable if an unthinkable accident were to happen at the factory where the clothes are produced.

However, the National Retail Federation is offering up its own solutions, but isn't sharing many details.

Shakespeare himself couldn't have scripted a story more tragically ironic.

http://americanmanufacturing.org/blog/national-retail-federation-dismisses-global-safety-plan-garment-factories-while-cambodian-shoe-#

White-Collar Workers are Turning to Labour Unions

The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar.

It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists.

These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits.

"Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union. "People are feeling like they need an advocate."

Members of UAW Local 2320 in New York, nearly half of whom are lawyers, voted to strike Wednesday, after their employer, Legal Services NYC, pushed for cuts to benefits in a recent contract negotiation.

Many of them had never been involved with labor unions before, but they said decisions by management led them to take the drastic action of voting to strike.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-union-white-collar-20130516,0,4888842.story

Bank of Montreal: Outsourcing of Canadians Jobs Leaked

Internal Documents show that BMO is actively outsourcing Canadians jobs to India.

In the following two documents, you will find the selection process highlighted along with a definite role reduction component. Welcome to the new age where job security is a mirage and wage arbitrage is in full swing.

Full view
Released by our Friends over at Boycott RBC)
http://www.boycottrbc.com/memoleak/index.html

Justifying the TFWP While Re-evaluting the Intra Company Transfer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:04:00 -0600

Local MP Justifies Changes to the TFWP

With a call for reform and a hit to public opinion, making the importance of this program clear is the responsibility of business, not government, Benoit said.

Even before hearing reports of backlash from the Lloydminster community, Benoit said he knew the region would take issue with the proposed changes.

“This is a really serious problem and we have to find a way to deal with it that the public can accept” he said. “I’m going to continue to encourage business to sell the program to the general public because they simply have to do that or it’s not going to work.

“We are going to really try to make it work, and I’ve argued that, where it’s clear that the workers are needed, that the process should be less cumbersome and I would still argue that.”
Benoit added the program, however, is not meant to be used to fix long-term problems, but should rather function only as a temporary solution.

With approximately 1,000 job vacancies in Lloydminster, some local business are saying the proposed changes will exacerbate existing troubles in filling vacant positions. Benoit contended owners should take some responsibility for that.

Benoit argued the pay for jobs in the service sector should be increased to alleviate issues surrounding finding workers to fill vacant positions.

http://www.lloydminstersource.com/News/tabid/68/entryid/3176/Default.aspx

United Steelworkers Asks for Help in Exposing Abuses of Low-Wage Model

The United Steelworkers (USW) launches a new campaign today entitled "Give Everyone a Chance for Canada's Future."

A key element of the campaign involves asking people affected by the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to speak out about their first-hand experiences through the campaign's website.

Temporary workers exploited by employers or Canadian workers passed over or replaced by temporary workers can call a hotline at 1-888-899-4405.

The campaign illustrates how the Harper government in partnership with corporations is flooding Canada with low-wage and highly vulnerable temporary workers from abroad at a time of record unemployment, particularly among youth and Aboriginal communities.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1165177/media-advisory-united-steelworkers-campaign-asks-public-for-help-in-exposing-abuses-of-harper-s-low-wage-model
The campaign can be found at: www.everyoneschance.ca

Victor Wong Discusses 'Temporary Foreign Workers'

Published on May 14, 2013

Victor Wong, Executive Director of the Chinese Canadian National Council addresses delegates of the 2013 USW National Policy Conference in Vancouver, BC during panel on Temporary Foreign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgYC1lZivkE

The Kids are not Alright

The aggressive recruitment of foreign caregivers the majority being women of Filipino ancestry, the Philippines being the top source country for recent immigrants--is completely in line with Canada's desire to make a quick buck through privatizing essential social services and acquiring the cheapest, most flexible labour force on the auction block.

Not that recruiting foreign labour is anything new--lest we forget the over 600 recruited Chinese laborers who died constructing the CPR over a century ago--rather, it's a practice that's spiked since the recession.

According to Statistics Canada, two million temporary foreign workers hit a record high last year, a triple growth in foreign labour since 2008.

If you take into account the $150 each foreign worker pays for a valid work permit (this does not include other fees such as medical examinations and temporary resident permits), the LCP is a sure-fire way to beef up profit for the Canadian state at the expense of working families--who cannot afford live-in caregivers--foreign workers, and Canadian children, who're supposed to be our future and all that stuff.

So much for teaching children them and letting them lead the way.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/charlene-sayo/the-kids-are-not-alright_b_3269065.html

Canadian-Immigration to Re-evaluate Intra Company Transfer Program

While there are no statistics available as to how many workers are now working in Canada under any of these headings, it is alleged that it is the specialized knowledge category that has been abused.

Industry insiders allege that int'l outsourcing companies such as Cognizant, Tata Consulting, iGate are bringing in employees who have no 'specialized knowledge'.

They say that the CVs of employees have been doctored to overstate the level of their qualifications so that they could qualify for work permits.

A spokesman for Tata Consulting said that the claims of abuse of the system, in particular that employees misled Canadian immigration as to the level of their qualifications, were 'false and without any merit in fact'.

CBC program Go Public revealed Canadian government documents which show that the Canadian government has been aware of this last problem for some time. An internal CIC report said that in 2012-13 'verification of Indian education, employment, and financial documentation is labour intensive and often without conclusive outcomes'.

The Canadian opposition immigration spokeswoman Jinny Sims said 'This whole file needs to be fixed immediately'.

http://globalvisasupport.blogspot.ca/2013/05/canadian-immigration-to-re-evaluate.html

Little Change in Rules Governing the Temporary Foreign Workers Program

How do we ensure that the temporary foreign worker program is helping to fill skill gaps and not putting the Canadian workers at a disadvantage?

The government does have a very legitimate role in monitoring; making sure that there is fair play temporary foreign workers program, that it’s being applied correctly.

There is no conceivable way that we would want to eliminate the temporary foreign workers program; we need one in this global village.

What really needs to happen is that the government needs to be playing a role on a dynamic basis. They will be changing rules again. This won’t be the first or last time that we will be seeing rules changes.

http://peicanada.com/island_farmer/publication/agriculture_sees_little_change_rules_governing_foreign_workers

H1B Visa's Already Take Between a Third and Half of all new IT Jobs

H1B Visa's Already Take Between A Third And Half Of All New IT Jobs Mark Zuckerberg is pouring money into a new advocacy group,

Fwd.US, with a board consisting of big-name Valley luminaries, to push 'comprehensive immigration reform'.

In cynical move, Fwd.US has separate left and right-leaning subgroups to prod politicians to sign on to the bill that pad's the company bottom line.

Ostensibly, the increase in visas for high-skilled computer workers is a needed response to the critical shortage of such workers here—a notion that has been repeatedly dismissed, including in a recent report from the Obama-aligned Economic Policy Institute, which found that the country is producing 50 percent more IT professionals each year than are being employed in the field.

The real appeal of the H1B visas for “guest workers”—who already take between a third and half of all new IT jobs in the States —is that they are usually paid less than their pricy American counterparts, and are less likely to jump ship since they need to remain employed to stay in the country.

Facebook’s lobbyists, reports the Washington Post, have pressed lawmakers to remove a requirement from the bill that companies make a “good faith” effort to hire Americans first.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/14/america-s-new-oligarchs-fwd-us-and-silicon-valley-s-shady-1-percenters.html

Journalism Launches Attack On Seasonal Workers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 May 2013 05:37:00 -0600

Business Journalists Attack Seasonal Workers

Business journalism seldom acknowledges the importance of the human condition. In this era of neo-liberalism and its selfish values, journalism is much harsher than at any time in memory. Business writers glamourize the Canadian mining companies that destroy the environment and the lives of poor people around the world.

The business pages carry articles by people who support the development of the tar sands and question whether global warming is caused by human endeavor.

Because of this kind of journalism, the powerful men who run our economy are let off the hook and are never confronted with the consequences of their abuses. Personally, I’m in favour of abolishing so-called business journalism. We should hold all journalists to the same moral and ethical standards.

http://nickfillmore.blogspot.ca/2013/05/business-journalists-go-on-attack.html?showComment=1368542121203

100k Salaries in Oil and Gas Sector are not Drawing Canadian Youth

The Canadian oil and gas industry’s faltering reputation is hurting its ability to attract the country’s youth despite the promise of six-figure salaries.

Canadian oil and gas professionals typically receive the fifth-most generous pay packages in the world behind their counterparts in Norway,

Australia, Netherlands and New Zealand, according to a report published Tuesday by Hays Oil & Gas and Oil and Gas Job Search.

Average salaries in the Canadian oil and gas sector were about US$123,000 last year, significantly higher than the average Canadian salary of US$43,600. A third of the Canadian workforce can also expect bonuses, while 80% of employers expect to raise salaries by at least 5%, Hays data show.

That may sound like a sweet deal in an era of 7.2% unemployment in the country, but the oil and gas industry suffers from a perception problem as young people appear to be shunning the industry in favour of technology companies focused on social media and apps.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/05/14/young-workers-shun-oil-and-gas-sector/?__lsa=6d17-90a3

No Wage Ghetto: Unpaid Internships in Ontario's Retail Sector

The growth of unpaid internships in Ontario's labour market is alarming. Traditionally, the highest incidents of illegal unpaid internships have been found in the glamor industries (i.e. magazine publishing, public relations, media, and fashion), but increasingly we're seeing a creep of these positions into both low-wage (i.e. hospitality, retail) and high-wage sectors (i.e. law, health-care).

Today's blog post is focused on a recent example of unpaid internships in Ontario's retail sector.

Unpaid internships in the retail sector are on the rise and there has been little coverage of this disturbing trend.

The example I'm using comes to us courtesy of Untitled and Co., a Queen West clothing store specializing in sexist anti-women sweatshirts, which recently posted an advertisement asking for multiple unpaid interns. Untitled and Co. is looking for: a Sales Intern, a Design Intern, a Production Intern, and a Merchandising Intern.

http://www.youthandwork.ca/2013/05/no-wage-ghetto-unpaid-internships-in.html

Government was Moving to Replace the Permanent Public Service

A former senior public servant said labour hire staff and temporary workers were used by government departments to hide spending on wages and to disguise how many workers they used. Spending on labour hire could be reported in accounts as ''capital xpenditure'' rather than staff costs, he said. ''It is a tried and true method way of hiding the cost.''

He said some departments now had more than one-fifth of their staff employed from labour hire or as non-permanent workers.

Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Karen Batt said the government was moving to replace the permanent public service.

''The government is spending $300 million for the most recent round of redundancies while utilizing sham contracting through labour hire for just under $1 billion,'' she said.

Ms Batt said the government had ''perpetuated a political fraud'' over its redundancy program.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/states-1b-outsourcing-bill-20130423-2id15.html

Can the Disappearing Middle Class be Saved

The top 1% of Americans now has more wealth than all the people in the bottom 90%. They receive almost 25% of all U.S. annual income.

The after-tax income of the average American went up by only 21% over the last 25 years; the top 1% experienced a whopping 400% increase over the same period.

In his victory speech, Obama made a solemn pledge to “continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class.”

His plan to address this growing inequity:

First, rescue the middle class in the short term by redistributing income through tax reform.
Then repatriate quality jobs back into a revitalized U.S. manufacturing sector, and make massive investments in education and training.

So far, this agenda has taken a back seat to immigration reform and gun control. And considering the prevailing political stalemate in Washington, it’s difficult to know how much of Obama’s plan to rebuild the middle class will be realized.

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/05/10/can-the-disappearing-middle-class-be-saved

Aviva Loves Outsourcing Despite the Betrayal to the UK Workforce

Aviva has been accused of betraying its UK workforce after it emerged that 600 of the job cuts the insurer announced last month will be relocated to India.

The announcement of 2,000 redundancies at Britain's biggest insurer came as its bosses battle to save £400m in costs after a year of decline.

Staff in Norwich, York and Sheffield were told on Monday morning that their jobs would be moved to Prune, the cultural capital of Maharashtra.

The Unite union said the relocation of back-office staff was outrageous while the UK economy was still struggling and called on the company to rethink its plans.

Its national officer, Dominic Hook, said: "Aviva is betraying its UK workforce by exporting 600 jobs overseas. This is an appalling way to treat the loyal workforce who are the backbone of the company."

Aviva's chief executive, Mark Wilson, who took over in January from ousted predecessor Andrew Moss, pledged to cut 6% of Aviva's 31,200 workers worldwide. He also wants to reduce redundancy packages, capping payouts from 100 weeks to 78 weeks' salary and from four weeks to two weeks' salary for every year of service.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/13/aviva-outsourcing-betrays-uk-workforce

How Is the Garment Industry Working to Improve Conditions Abroad

The garment factory disaster in Bangladesh has raised concern about the conditions of factories abroad. Ray Suarez talks with Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times about consequences for the owner of the factory and Bangladesh's safety standards, as well as what's being done by Western retailers to improve working conditions.

Watch How Is the Garment Industry Working to Improve Conditions? on PBS.

Hiding the Exploitation of Migrant Workers While Bleeding Jobs.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 14 May 2013 03:41:00 -0600

Hidden Employers use Foreign Workers?

"If the labour shortage is genuine, why would employers not want the data made public, so the government can take on job training strategies? By keeping it quiet, they are not helping our workforce development."

The temporary worker program has grown increasingly popular since 2006, when the Conservative government decreed the program applicable to "every legally recognized occupation." Flecker said the CLC has been trying since then to get information about the employers participating in the program.

It's important that we know who is applying so we can identify if there is a genuine shortage," said Flecker, referring to the applications for a "labour market opinion" employers must submit to prove they need to bring in foreign staff.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/settling-in-canada/Critics-vocal-about-Canadian-employers-who-use-foreign-temps/articleshow/20028536.cms?

Temporary Ain't What it Used to Be

Canadian restaurant chains want to advertise uniform prices across the country. This is important for publicity campaigns. But Alberta fast-food franchises cannot keep counter-servers at the wages that can be paid under the national price structure, and so they have turned to the temporary foreign worker program.

The problem could be solved by regional variation in prices at the fast-food franchises or by launching different brands in regions of labour shortage.

The solution at the moment is to pretend that these are temporary scarcities filled by temporary workers, but that fiction will not stand up to close scrutiny and will probably have to be abandoned.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/temporary-aint-what-it-used-to-be-207157371.html

Migrant Workers Account for Most new Jobs

•In British Columbia, the influx of temporary foreign workers exceeded the net number of jobs created between 2008 and 2011. B.C. created 52,100 net new jobs in those years, and in 2011 there were nearly 70,000 temporary foreign workers in the province.

•In 2009, Alberta imported 28,547 temporary foreign workers as the provincial economy shed 28,500 net jobs.

•In Saskatchewan, on average between 2008 and 2011, 65 per cent of net new jobs created were held by temporary foreign workers.

•In Manitoba for 2011, about 70 per cent of the net new jobs created were held by temporary foreign workers.

•In Ontario, the economy shed more than 164,000 jobs in 2009, but 60,000 temporary foreign workers arrived in the province. In 2011, 56 per cent of net new jobs were held by temporary foreign workers.

•In Quebec, 90 per cent of the net new jobs created in 2011 were held by temporary foreign workers.

http://www.hrreporter.com/articleview/17955-migrant-workers-account-for-most-new-jobs-clc

Farmers Cannot Compete With $40.00 Dollars an Hour

Today much of the old “stoop labour” has been displaced by high-tech machinery.the exception is the greenhouse industry where considerable hand labour is still required.it’s in that industry that the TFWP has had considerable impact. Growers are sensitive to the issue of foreign workers in their operations, but in Alberta it boils down to two realities — wages and continuity.

With the most robust economy in the country and very low unemployment, finding workers is a nightmare for intensive ag operations. With wages averaging in the $40-per-hour range for many energy-related jobs, agriculture can’t compete

http://www.agcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/AFE130513.pdf

Canada Treats Migrant Workers Horribly

“Guys work 18-20 hour shifts because there are no minimum standards in agriculture. There are no regulations. There are no laws for housing migrant agricultural employees and there is no jurisdiction. They are living in cramped quarters, aren’t paid their proper wages and depending on the size of the farm, they don’t have access to health and safety committees…”

At a talk held at Ryerson University, hosted by Sustain Ontario, Chris described the conditions he encountered when he visited a “leading organic facility in Southern Ontario” where a worker had recently broken his back and was being sent home…

"So we get there. Workers are living there 7 to 8 months a year and I’m not lying to you, there’s no bathrooms. There’s port-a-potties. The men do not have stoves, they have hot plates. They have no heating for their trailers. I didn’t see their shower facilities, I wouldn’t want to see them. And they’re confined to these very, very small quarters… for many people like myself it’s no coincidence that you have radicalized labour coming from Mexico and the Caribbean to work in these fields. We’re continuing the condition of slavery and indenture-ship. We’ve decided to call it something else but that is exactly what’s going on here.”

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/canadas-migrant-workforce-has-very-few-rights

We Cannot Create Steamfitters or Electricians Overnight

There have been concerns that some employers are bringing in foreign workers for high-skill jobs and then placing them in low-skill jobs, such as fast food restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour.

“We understand the objectives they’re trying to achieve and making sure that the program is not abused, that it’s not displacing Canadians who could do the work, but on the other hand, we get caught in that broad brush,” explained Atkinson.

“There may be unemployed Canadians, but if they haven’t been trained or don’t have the desire to go through the training, we can’t create pipe fitters or electricians... over night.”

http://www.joconl.com/article/id55281

Outsourced More Than 2.4 Million American Jobs Over the Last Decade

As you can see from the chart, the economic recession has had little impact on Corporate America’s patriotism. In fact, in 2009, representatives of many of the nation’s most powerful corporations attended the “2009 Strategic Outsourcing Conference” to talk about how to send American jobs overseas.

Conference organizers polled the more than 70 senior executives who attended the conference about the behavior of their companies in response to the recession. The majority said their companies increased outsourcing in response to the downturn, with only 9 percent saying they terminated some outsourcing agreements.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/04/19/159555/us-corporations-outsourced-americans/?mobile=nc

Job Matching Crisis Leads to Unintended Consequences

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:13:00 -0600

It`s a Job Matching Crisis

But that wasn’t the only data debate raging this week.

According to a new paper just published by Kevin McQuillan, a professor at the University of Calgary’s school of public policy, the government does not have the accurate information when it comes to making policy on temporary foreign workers.

His report titled All the Workers We Need: Debunking Canada's Labour Shortage Fallacy, challenges the government’s claim that there is a massive labour shortage in Canada that requires thousands of temporary foreign workers to fill the jobs.

According to McQuillan, it’s a job-matching crisis. "I think there are some challenges for sure in the labour market but the idea that we’re facing now or likely to in the near future a major labour shortage in the country, I think is just wrong," McQuillan said.

So how do we judge the temporary foreign worker’s policy based on that information?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/05/11/pol-the-house-essay-national-household-survey.html

Unintended Consequences of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

That will not be the end of the story. The temporary foreign worker rule has been stretched over the years so that it is no longer just a way to bring some grape-pickers in for a few weeks of harvesting. A migrant can stay in a Canadian job four years and still be considered a temporary foreign worker. Four years is a long time for a Canadian to stay in many private-sector jobs. Calling these temporary jobs, therefore, is an odd use of language.

The difference for people in the so-called temporary foreign worker program is that they are forbidden the hope every other Canadian worker has of working up to a better job or going down the street to take better work from another employer.

It is a way of exempting employers from competitive pressure to treat their workers well. It was not designed for that purpose, but as with most immigration rules, the unintended consequences are the ones that attract attention.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/temporary-aint-what-it-used-to-be-207157371.html

Job Strategy Needs Balance

It may be the case, as Ms. Braun-Pollon suggests, that Saskatchewan needs to hurry up with its labour law reforms to provide employers with the freedom to offer flexible working hours and other conditions they say are needed to attract and retain young workers. However, it's also time to closely examine the province's growing reliance on migrant workers to fill vacancies everywhere from the fast food industry to the skilled professions. It makes little long-term sense when eight in 100 young people have no job and 12 in 100 potential aboriginal workers are unemployed.

These short-term fixes have to be balanced with a plan to invest what's needed to secure the future of those who are able make a long-term commitment to the community.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/strategy+needs+balance/8375088/story.html

Senator Accuses TCS, Infosys, Wipro of Abusing H-1B Visas

“There are some specific abuses of H-1B,” Senator Richard Durbin, said during a Congressional hearing on immigration reform by the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, during which the lawmakers discussed threadbare the H-1B visa issues.

In fact, Senator Durbin went on to brand the top Indian IT companies as outsourcing firms.“These outsourcing firms like Infosys, Wipro, Tata and others—Americans would be shocked to know that the H-1B visas are not going to Microsoft; they’re going to these firms, largely in India, who are finding workers, engineers, who will work at low wages in the US for three years and pay a fee to Infosys or these companies,” Durbin alleged.

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/L4gxGJBkfDXIi0JcK3vQsJ/Senator-accuses-TCS-Infosys-Wipro-of-abusing-H1B-visas.html

Saudi’s Smart Move on Illegal Immigrants

There are no longer employees who are forced to do a job they hate or work at a house where they are uncomfortable with its people. here will be no scarcity as well in the labor market. The justifications for complaints are over.

The Labor Ministry now has the right to impose fees as it sees necessary against new foreign employees as long as there is an excess of millions of laborers inside Saudi whom contracts can be signed with.

This step will end the state of chaos. We now expect organizational steps to prevent repeating these mistakes. An example of these steps is raising wages so the employee does not find a justification to escape in search for a better salary and end up having employing Saudi citizens useful and competitive.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2013/05/13/Saudi-s-smart-move-on-illegal-immigration.html

Pipewrench Blog

Coca Cola's Attack on the Middle Class Worker.

The Dilema for Coca-Cola's Workers

Silcon Valley's Indentured Servitude Program

New policy benefits temporary immigrant trade workers

The Visa Abuse goes on at Tata Consulting

Temporary Foreign Workers can now Self Nominate into Permanance

Temporary Workers can Self - Nominate to Stay in Alberta

Addicted to Temporary Foreign Workers and in Denial

Is Canada becoming Dependent Upon Temporary Foreign Workers

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/are-bc-employers-among-those-addicted-to-temporary-foreign-workers/article12834482/

Protests are Building in Brazil

More Than one Million Join Brazil Protests

Canadian Business : Training People is no Longer Worth It

Banks in a 'Race to the Bottom' as They Push Jobs Offshore

Off shoring to Keep Profits Up

Darthmouth Business Faces Immigration Fraud

Border Services: Dartmouth Business Exploited Foreign Workers

Rubio Aide: There are American Workers who Can’t cut It

New Zealand Calling: Thousands of Australian Jobs Offshored to Slash Costs

No Warrant Needed If You Hire Temporary Foreign Workers.

The TFWP : Searching Without A Warrant

What are the True Costs of Offshoring?

Steelworkers Rally Against Harper's low Wage, Anti-Worker Agenda

Fishing for the Underclass

Creating a Non-Temporary Underclass of Workers

Foreign Nannies, Caregivers Shouldn’t Necessarily get Permanent Residency

Chamber of Commerce Clarifies its View on the Temporary Worker Legislation

Labor Unveils 457 Visa Crackdown

Global Youth Unemployment Experiences Push Back

Youth Unemployment is a Global Crisis not to be Ignored

Eurozone Jobless rate hits Record High as Blockupy hold Anti-Austerity Protests

Fake Shops hide Northern Ireland's Struggling Economy Ahead of G8 Summit

In Japan, Overseas job Outsourcing Heralds Low-wage Competition

Marion County: Teachers Laid off can Come Back as Substitutes

Jason Kenney's Attack on Canadian Labour

Firing Jason Kenney and Freezing Immigration

St. Louis: Miners Protest Union Busting Tactics

Wisconsin Dells Resort Operators say Immigration Bill Would hit Them Hard

Column: ‘I’m living as an undocumented migrant in Ireland’

Garment Workers Fight for $100 Amid Killings and Building Collapses

The Concerted Effort to Destroy Social Security

Social Security: The Cruelest Cut of All

The HD Mining Dispute Fosters a Heated Reaction

BC's Chinese Miner Dispute Prompts Angry Letters

Intra-Company Transfers vs. TFWP

IT Immigration Dominates in The UK

Migrant Worker Speaks of Poor B.C. Living Conditions

Canadian Companies are Hanging up Their Thread

How has Globalization hit the Canadian Apparel Industry

Why is Offshoring Such a Dirty Word

U.K. Banks cut 189,000 with Employment at Nine-Year Low

Documentary. The Dark Side of Chocolate

RBC Makes the bed While the Pope Talks About the Sea.

Canadian's Have no Problem Making the Bed

Windsor Shines Light on Human Trafficking

A Look Back at the Trouble in Tumbler Ridge

Documentary : Phoning from the Philippines

The Pope has Something to say About the Slavery at Sea

HSBC Quietly Sends Jobs to India

HSBC Bank Outsourcing Finance Jobs to India

After HSBC, StanChart's India Outsourcing Under US Scanner

Why Canada’s Immigration Policy is Unfair to Temporary Foreign Workers

Why Canada Needs its Temporary Foreign-Worker Program

In Conversation: Australia's Invisible Migrant Workers

Alarm Over Skills Shortage in Europe

Manitoba's Seasonal Farm Workers get More Health Care

RBC's new Code of Conduct might Warrant a Documentary

RBC Code of Conduct a Welcome step: Steelworkers

ICBA Celebrates Pushing Canadians Over the Ridge

Slavery Unfortunately is Still With us in Modern Form

Migrant Job Squeeze Sets off Alarm Bells for UK Fruit Farmers

A Sobering Documentary, 'America The Gutted'

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program is a Broken Pane

Throwing Stones at the TFWP

RBC Pledges to not Send Work Offshore, Just to cut Costs

Foreign Workers Local Neighbors

Institutionalized Pattern of Discrimination Against American College Graduates

Transitioning Temporary Foreign Workers to Permanent Residents

Companies are not Searching for American Workers