[bootlegga]

$1:

Labour brokers may be charging Chinese miners up to $16,000 for the chance to work in Canadian mines as temporary foreign workers, a CBC investigation has found.

The National visited a prominent recruitment agency in Beijing carrying hidden cameras. Investigators posing as miners learned that workers with minimal mining experience are being offered positions in Canadian gold, copper and potash mines.

Recruiters said that, once working in Canada, miners would be paid no less than $10 per hour. Permanent workers in Canada’s underground and surface mines are paid on average $25 to $30 per hour.

Investigators also learned that workers are asked to pay a deposit of several thousand dollars to secure a spot in a Canadian mine. The agency said that the remainder of the $16,000 fee is taken directly from the miner’s paycheque until paid in full.

The recruiters claim that the deduction occurs with the knowledge of the employer, although the agency provided no proof that it was acting on behalf of a specific company or business.

In Canada, it is illegal for employers to charge recruitment fees to temporary foreign workers.

In a written statement to the CBC News, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada explained that "an employer who has requested the services of a recruiter is required to cover all recruitment costs related to the hiring of the temporary foreign worker."

Unscrupulous recruitment agencies have long been one of the most serious issues surrounding the much-criticized foreign workers program, says MP Olivia Chow.

In 2009, as part of a standing committee on citizenship and immigration, Chow co-authored reports that made recommendations as to how Ottawa could better protect a swelling temporary workforce.

There are currently over 300,000 temporary foreign workers in the country, a number that has almost tripled since 2002, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Other, more inclusive CIC figures, show that the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada grew from 186,753 in 2001 to 446,847 in 2011.

The province of Manitoba, which employs 1.6 per cent of the temporary foreign workers in the country, has enacted comprehensive legislation to try to protect its temporary labour force, including fines for inadequate pay and poor working conditions.

A recent change to the federal program has shortened the amount of time it takes to approve foreign temporary visas.

That change was welcomed by British Columbia Construction Association president Manley McLachlan, who sees an immediate skills shortage in a province with an aging population, $240 billion in new construction projects, and low unemployment.

"We need those workers to build the mines and the malls and any other facility so that the folks who are here in Canada have jobs going forward," says McLachlan.

But a program so valued by Canadian business does not adequately protect the welfare of workers, worries Chow.

Her concerns are echoed by Karl Flecker, the director of human rights at the Canadian Labour Congress.

“I would describe the temporary foreign workers program as a corporate-driven public policy,” Flecker says. “They are working hand and foot with employers to be able to exploit people.”

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney dismisses many of the criticisms as myths perpetuated by big labour unions.

In reality, the federal program is one that Canadians should feel proud of, he told CBC News.

“What I have found is people are very happy to have the opportunity to make very decent money in Canada and very happy with the fact that the vast majority of Canadian employers are good, honest and decent people.”

But labour activists such as Flecker remain unconvinced.

"We have this long history of importing others for deadly and dangerous dirty work for someone else’s profit and I think that most Canadians recognize it’s an ugly part of our history," says Flecker. "We don’t want to repeat that.”

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chinese-miners ... 26608.html

[ShepherdsDog]

That their culture, and the culture of most of the world. It has its benefits and drawbacks It's even prevalent, to a degree, in Canadian culture....kickbacks and such...especially in Quebec.

[herbie]

The interesting part is how they plan to use those "temporary" workers for 14 years. And plan on replacing 10% a year with Canadians. By the time it's full of qualified Canadians, it should be out of coal so they can collect EI.....
a second mine has cancelled it application.
WAH! If we can't use foreginers we're not gonna open!
Good!!!! Fuck yourselvss.

[andyt]

They had 10 years lead time on this, why not train Canadians to work there from day one? How will Canadians magically learn this long wall mining technique if the company is not willing to train them?

[Xort]

andyt andyt:

They had 10 years lead time on this, why not train Canadians to work there from day one? How will Canadians magically learn this long wall mining technique if the company is not willing to train them?

It's way more fun to say you can't find any skilled workers than it is to do something about it.

[Freakinoldguy]

andyt andyt:

They had 10 years lead time on this, why not train Canadians to work there from day one? How will Canadians magically learn this long wall mining technique if the company is not willing to train them?

Probably because one of the requirements for the job was the ability to speak Mandarin which, when you think about it was probably one of the reasons none of the Canadian miners qualified.

So if you're in Nova Scotia, unemployed and waiting for a good job to open up anywhere in Canada, you're likely gonna have to take a Mandarin course before you can even get your foot in the door mining Canadian coal.

[kilroy]

And once you learn Mandarin you will automatically be eligible to come up with $16000 to have the opportunity to go to work in China in one of the mines that the Canadian mines will be modelled on. Such a deal.

Actually there just aren't enough Canadians to exploit/harvest the resources in this country fast enough for the multinationals who would really like to make a bundle off the resources. I mean, who can argue with that. Trickle down isn't just a theory of economics, it is a fact of life we should accept. If someone builds a dam across the flow of cash, and a trickle gets through after the diversion occurs we have to be happy any gets through at all.

[ShepherdsDog]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

andyt andyt:

They had 10 years lead time on this, why not train Canadians to work there from day one? How will Canadians magically learn this long wall mining technique if the company is not willing to train them?

Probably because one of the requirements for the job was the ability to speak Mandarin which, when you think about it was probably one of the reasons none of the Canadian miners qualified.

So if you're in Nova Scotia, unemployed and waiting for a good job to open up anywhere in Canada, you're likely gonna have to take a Mandarin course before you can even get your foot in the door mining Canadian coal.

Gee I wonder if my eldest could get a job. Both my kids speak Mandarin fluently. I speak it passably. My youngest has it best, as he speaks, reads and writes Mandarin as his first language. damned child labour laws

[Freakinoldguy]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

andyt andyt:

They had 10 years lead time on this, why not train Canadians to work there from day one? How will Canadians magically learn this long wall mining technique if the company is not willing to train them?

Probably because one of the requirements for the job was the ability to speak Mandarin which, when you think about it was probably one of the reasons none of the Canadian miners qualified.

So if you're in Nova Scotia, unemployed and waiting for a good job to open up anywhere in Canada, you're likely gonna have to take a Mandarin course before you can even get your foot in the door mining Canadian coal.

Gee I wonder if my eldest could get a job. Both my kids speak Mandarin fluently. I speak it passably. My youngest has it best, as he speaks, reads and writes Mandarin as his first language. damned child labour laws

And it just keeps getting better. The company that owns the mine has decided that Jason Kenny's comments about using foreign workers portrays the company in a bad light and are contemplating suing the Gov't and Mr. Kenny.

Oh, and I almost forgot one of these specialized Mandarin speaking miners has decided to sue the Canadian Mineworkers Union and the Gov't because he's being treated unfairly..........can you say Charter and can you say Racism.

This is out of hand by a long shot.

They should shut the mine down and send all these people packing and if they ever want to do business in Canada and BC again they'll train and then hire Canadian workers before any of their cousins, brothers, mothers and aquitances get the opportunity to put a foot through our front fucking door.

[kilroy]

Having Chinese workers coming in is less of a problem than having Chinese, or any other multinational corps being here and dictating how our country is going to develop. Whether it is pressure on our social, financial, or environmental standards, you know it isn't the $10 an hour guy that is controlling the attack.

The accepted mythology behind Free Trade deals was that they aren't supposed to work as downward levellers for such standards. But, by golly, it looks like that is the direction we are going. If the provincial leaders give a flying f*^k about Canada that direction will change again. Needless to say I don't think either the LIB/CONS can see past the 'progress' we have had since the custa was signed.

[Freakinoldguy]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

And it just keeps getting better. The company that owns the mine has decided that Jason Kenny's comments about using foreign workers portrays the company in a bad light and are contemplating suing the Gov't and Mr. Kenny.

Oh, and I almost forgot one of these specialized Mandarin speaking miners has decided to sue the Canadian Mineworkers Union and the Gov't because he's being treated unfairly..........can you say Charter and can you say Racism.

This is out of hand by a long shot.

They should shut the mine down and send all these people packing and if they ever want to do business in Canada and BC again they'll train and then hire Canadian workers before any of their cousins, brothers, mothers and aquitances get the opportunity to put a foot through our front fucking door.

My mistake it's the United Steel Workers that the Chinese worker is going after and just to put the icing on the cake they're taking that issue up with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

WTF, a temporary foreign worker being allowed to use our own special brand of Star Chamber to give it to us up the ass even more. If the CHRC hears this case and is stupid enough to rule against Canada, the unions, and the Gov't in favor of some wog from China then they'll really have shown their true colours and it'll be time to shut them down permanently.