:: rawblogXport ::

:: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 ::

UNIONS PROTEST VISAS FOR CHEAP FOREIGN LABOUR BC/Yukon Building Trades Press Release
Vancouver….Building Trades members rallied outside the regional offices of Human Resources Skills Development Canada (HRSD) today to protest a recent decision that permits cheap US workers in Canada. Building Trades members waved placards and demanded that the federal government stop importing cheap labour, while hundreds of BC workers sit at home.
 
“The federal government is siding with some contractors to import cheap foreign workers,” said Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the BC and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council. “It is completely outrageous that the federal government will permit foreign workers to take our jobs. We’ve got over 200 workers sitting in the Ironworkers Hall,” according to Perley Holmes, Business Manager for Ironworkers Local 97.
 
The decision to allow Lower Mainland Steel Ltd. to hire 50 U.S. Ironworkers as “rod-men” is the second time foreign worker visas have been approved for construction workers in the last few months. In December, Building Trades unions protested a decision by HRSD that led to foreign worker visas for 11 New Delhi workers to dismantle a pulp mill in Gold River. “This issue is igniting passions throughout the industry and across the community,” Peppard continued. “Government officials told us after Gold River that this labour brokering would stop. It now looks like hiring cheap foreign labour is becoming a pattern. All this while unemployment has climbed to 7.9% with 36,000 more jobless in BC,” Peppard said.
 
“Allowing workers from outside the country to undercut our own workers will drag safety and quality down to third world levels. Is this where we want our industry to go?” Peppard asked.

posted 5:07 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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