Does BC Really Need 20,000 Global Temps? - By Tom Sandborn, TheTyee.ca
Perley Holmes is skeptical about Hochstein's claim that BC needs foreign workers on temporary documents to reach its Olympic goals. Holmes, the business manager for Local 97 of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, spoke to The Tyee in a recent phone interview.
"We haven't had a problem staffing jobs," Holmes said. "We've got 15 locals in Canada and 180 in the US. I've currently got 100 ironworkers on a list waiting to come out. We're running a training course now with a union firm and we graduate 10 a month. We're targeting aboriginal communities and preparing young people for good jobs. It's the companies that don't train apprentices that want to bring in foreign workers."
"There's a pattern here," said Holmes. "Hochstein and the BC Liberals worked to sabotage apprenticeship programs run by government and non-union companies do very little to train apprentices. Now they want to bring in offshore workers on a temporary basis to try to fix the problems they've created."