When Canadians go to work abroad the locals say the same thing.
Not being given any notice from Black & McDonald has UA pissed off.
Union or non-union, skilled Canadian workers are paid the same in heavy industry.
Canadians who work abroad are paid their regular rate which is higher than the prevailing rate in 99 % of those countries.
And they are usually there in a management/consulting role to get projects running, not being brought in at a lower rate to displace the citizens of that country...............
Whenever a new study or article comes out proving that the Canadian job market, compensation packages and standard of living are dwindling for most workers — especially young Canadians — the knee-jerk response from right-wing reactionaries is to sputter: ” Move to Alberta!” or "Go into the trades!" or "Go into the trades in Alberta!"
First, this is not a national economic plan. They are simplistic sermons by simple-minded blowhards who won’t let their ignorance hold them back from scolding others.
Second, many Canadians from across Canada have already taken those paths or are in the process of doing so, sometimes facing large roadblocks along the way.
Third, for many other Canadians, neither option is possible or realistic, for various reasons. A worker is a human being, not a robot to be shoved into whatever slot the capitalist master wants to put him or her, only to be yanked out and shoved into a different slot at a moment’s notice.
Fourth, many of those much-touted jobs will no longer be available to Canadians, because those jobs are being given to underpaid temporary foreign workers, under the Harper Conservative temporary foreign worker program.
The normally pro-Conservative newspaper
Fort McMurray Today has revealed that on Labour Day 2013, about 270 pipefitters and welders at a Husky tarsands project came into work to be told that their services would no longer be needed.
An equal number of temporary foreign workers brought in by Saipem, a non-union Italian company specializing in oil and gas construction projects.
Over the next 30 days, dozens of temporary foreign workers from Mexico, Ireland, Portugal and Italy were arriving at the site 60 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, waiting for turnover.
By Sept. 27, the original workers —all contractors with Toronto-based Black & MacDonald— were gone.
How much more blatant could these greedy ****ers get? This is sickening! It is a slap in the face, a kick in the teeth, a spit in the eye … and totally predictable.
Any Alberta worker who thinks this was a mistake, one that the Conservative government will fix, is sadly deluded. Harper’s temporary foreign worker program is working exactly as planned. He and his cronies merely hoped the public wouldn’t catch on and raise a fuss
.
In a previous post, I warned that this would happen. I argued that the Harper Conservatives hate Albertans, including those who work in the Alberta tarsands. I explained that the HarperCons and their provincial counterparts would be giving away Alberta’s valuable oil for next to nothing to American and Asian corporations; giving away Alberta’s jobs to mistreated foreign wage-slaves; and sticking Albertans with the bill to clean up the massive environmental destruction (or merely watching Albertans suffer without bothering to clean up the mess).
Whenever someone says the Conservatives are good for the economy or good for “the West”, that person is repeating a lie. Face it Albertans, you got conned!
