Castanet

Doesn't surprise me in the least, and there would be a few reasons for bringing in foreign workers. Not overlooking the demographics etc in this country, I would like to hear from others working in the mining sector about safety issues.

My husband has worked in the mining industry for over 30 years, most of those years have been spent in underground environments. There are dangers in all mining jobs, but he has always expressed to me that he would never work in a coal mine. The methods used to extract coal and the explosive gasses that people have to contend with are just not worth the risk. I imagine there are a great number of miners/tradespeople in this country who feel the same way.

China has a deplorable safety record when it comes to coal mining. These Chinese workers will think they are in seventh heaven coming to Canada and working in new "state of the art" mines with decent living conditions and a meal plan too.

But will they speak up when it comes to safety issues or violations? Not likely. As far as Chinese workers training Canadians...not going to happen. The Canadians will hold the staff or upper management positions and most will never be underground throughout the work day.

As with any big mining company, what counts is getting the money topside, keeping the shareholders happy, and finding ways to keep the mining inspectors off your back.

BS this is simply a way to lower our standard of living to that of China. These Chinese companies are bringing in Chinese workers to avoid paying the wages required to survive here in Canada. They don’t say how much they will be paid just that it will be competitive. To me the fact they don’t want to say the wage speaks volumes.
They say that they are bringing in Chinese as they have the skills required but then go on to say the Chinese mines use old out dated technology and the new mines here will be using new state of the art technology. How can the Chinese be experts on equipment and procedures they have never used? More BS. Plus to top it all off these expert miners die at a rate of 2000 per year in China I don’t see them to be very good at it if they can’t even keep themselves alive.
Wages will never get any better here if we allow companies to bring in foreign workers rather than pay more to attract Canadians. It’s all about supply and demand until a company has to pay to get the supply of workers that they demand. So poor.
There are hundreds if not thousands of people from the Okanagan working in Fort Mcmurray. I’m sure if the pay was similar they would have Canadian people lined up for a job.
Working in a underground mine would take a specific set of skills but seriously how long would it take to train a person that has never worked in a mine to operate a piece of equipment. Weeks? A month or two. Seriously how hard can it be to learn something like that. There must be out of work heavy equipment operators that could learn to operate a new piece of equipment in hours.
Apparently after learning 100 English words these Chinese workers can then train Canadians to do the jobs. Really, if a Chinese guy that can’t speak English can train Canadians then it must not be that hard to learn.
We have allowed foreign companies to buy our resources and now we are allowing them to bring in their own workers.
They say that there is a shortage of trained miners and that it is a hard dirty job. Well to me that just says they do not pay enough to attract workers to a dirty dangerous job. So rather than paying whatever it takes to attract workers they just bring in slaves. We live in a free enterprise society where supply and demand are supposed to balance each other. Look at gas prices we are told that the supply is getting low so the price must rise. Same can be said about food or real-estate or whatever. But on the flip side if people won’t work for the wages offered the companies just bring in third world slaves. Prices raise due to supply and demand well then so should wages.

No one should be surprised by this.
Just part of the omnibus Bill C-38.
One piece of that legislation is 15% foreign labour discount with a guaranteed 10 days fast track delivery.
If a Chinese or foreign oil company wants to hire vietnamese or mexican workers they get to pay them 15% less then a Canadian worker for the same work and Harper has promised these oil companies to change our immigration laws to fast track in 10 days a foreign worker to Canada.
Now I see that it's working for the mining industry as well.
Thanks Harpo !!

Temporary foreign workers have been coming long before Harper came along, but it has been been getting worse lately. Last year was the first time in Canadian history that more temps were allowed in Canada than immigrants.

Migrant worker: a euphemism for legalized 21st century slavery.

I thinl it is getting to be a problem. Things like this show some of what is going on.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story--4-.htm

Priest's company exploited workers
by The Canadian Press - Story: 81627
Oct 9, 2012 / 8:29 pm



An Alberta company owned by an Orthodox priest has been fined $215,000 for bringing in foreign welders and machinists from Europe and exploiting them for profit.

Kihew Energy Services Ltd. pleaded guilty Tuesday to breaching the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in what police are calling a human trafficking case.

The fine is to be paid to northern Alberta's Lakeland College, which the court said was unknowingly utilized by Kihew in the commission of the offence.

The guilty plea came in exchange for withdrawing individual charges against the owners of Kihew, including Father John Lipinski, 43, of St. Paul, Alta., his wife, Angela, 42, and Calvin Steinhauer, 38, of Goodfish Lake, Alta.

The investigation found that Kihew placed ads in a Polish newspaper and on a website to recruit European welders and machinists to come to work in Canada.

An arrangement was made between Kihew and a college employee, who has since been fired, to pass the workers off as students training in welding and English as a second language.

The first group of 60 foreign workers arrived in December, 2005.

A few of them attended some ESL classes but none attended the welding classes they were required to under their student visas.

The court found that Kihew contracted out the foreign workers to several businesses at a high hourly rate of pay but the workers themselves made very little.

Court was told Kihew made about one million dollars through the scheme.

RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said at the time the workers were promised they could legally work in Canada and after six months bring their families here.

He said they signed work contracts stating that they could be fined $25,000 and deported if they didn't follow the rules.

"They were also told, very explicitly, not to discuss their wages or the arrangements of how they came to be in Canada," Webb said. "They didn't speak and read English so they were going on what they had been told. It was simply a case of being exploited.''

Lipinski has been releived of his duties at parishes in St. Paul and Bonnyville by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada.

I'm sure those people trusted a priest to do the right thing for them. How many more are being taken advantage of? The union at XL claims it is happening there and I'm sure it is. The companies love these people because they can't complain ( don't speak or read english properly) and they don't want to cause any trouble because no matter what they are better off than at home.

These type of things are going to end up making unions that much more necessary and that much stronger. Could be very good for unions in the end.

Next thing you know, we're bringing Chinese workers to build railroads for us!

The government needed to pass laws that help companies bring in foreign workers and pay them less so the owners can keep on making money (not enough unemployed people in Canada and training takes too long!) and spending money on themselves which in turn keeps us all employed. Top priority.

My 1% neighbor buys groceries for 500 people every week, a car everyday, a house every year and his wife gets her hair died twice a day.

Captain Awesome wrote:Next thing you know, we're bringing Chinese workers to build railroads for us!

Italians, too.

SurplusElect wrote:
My 1% neighbor buys groceries for 500 people every week, a car everyday, a house every year and his wife gets her hair died twice a day.

Why?

grammafreddy wrote:

SurplusElect wrote:
My 1% neighbor buys groceries for 500 people every week, a car everyday, a house every year and his wife gets her hair died twice a day.

Why?

Being cheeky, trickle down style. Isn't that what happens when the top 1% do well?

Hire foreign workers to keep their profits rollin' in, and consume enough for 98% of us to stay employed?

SurplusElect wrote:...Hire foreign workers to keep their profits rollin' in, and consume enough for 98% of us to stay employed?

You don'y become top 1% by mindlessly consuming all the money by buying tacos and cars.

Captain Awesome wrote:You don'y become top 1% by mindlessly consuming all the money by buying tacos and cars.

Apparently 100,000-ish Canadians will buy enough tacos and cars to employ the rest of us if we keep on giving them laws like this.

SurplusElect wrote:Apparently 100,000-ish Canadians will buy enough tacos and cars to employ the rest of us if we keep on giving them laws like this.

I'm pretty sure they were referring to coal mines, not taco mines.

Mmmmm, taco mine....