Canadians Expose Foreign Worker 'Mess' In Oilsands

[maryjane48]

Canadian tradesmen from a huge oilsands construction project are waving a red flag about safety hazards and near misses, which they blame on the use of foreign workers who aren't qualified and can't speak English.

"When you bring in a bunch of workers who are unqualified to do this job it's only a matter of time before you kill someone," said Les Jennings, who was an ironworker supervisor at the Husky Sunrise plant until a few weeks ago, when he quit in frustration.


"People are angry and upset," said journeyman ironworker Johnny Demosten, who is still working at the site. He said many of the foreign workers don't know crane hand signals and other safety precautions.

"If they are journeymen, they are supposed to know the signals. It's pretty dangerous."


He said he reported numerous serious concerns about safety and poor workmanship, until, he said, managers told him to stop.



a foreign worker took a blow torch to a propane tank to defrost it. Others intervened to prevent an explosion.


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/01 ... 46498.html



there you have it, harper dies not care about saftey , or anythuing else as long as his buddies get rich. the idea that canadians will be first for jobs is another smoke screen for us the tax payer to blindly let these projects go on sad that anyone would support the nazi harper

[FreeRights]

Just throwing it out there, but if Harper were a Nazi, like you've briefly detailed, he wouldn't be allowing foreign workers to be gainfully employed in an oil & gas facility.

[maryjane48]

Just throwing it out there, but if Harper were a Nazi, like you've briefly detailed, he wouldn't be allowing foreign workers to be gainfully employed in an oil & gas facility.

what he shouldnt be allowing is canadians losing jobs to under trained tfw? it doesnt matter what anyone calls harper , what matters is you seemingly accepting this situation

[Smurf]

I have worked on many construction sites in the past, along with being a safety rep and a union rep. I have seen this very scenario many times. I don't believe it was as serious in the past as I saw very few tradesmen, mostly laborers. You could not even explain rules or procedures to them because they could not understand English. It was frustrating and extremely dangerous to work around them. I saw more than one person refuse to work with them. In the 70's three died on one site due to their inability to understand and getting themselves in dangerous positions. TFW's should be a very last resort and in the case of being licensed tradesman should not be allowed to work until they can speak English and pass our exams. Till then they should be laborers or possibly apprentices and should still have to speak English for either.

[Bsuds]

If you can't speak English then you can't work here...end of story. If you are too stupid to not know what's dangerous then you can't work here either!

[Smurf]

Trouble is that those seem to be the first people to get the jobs. It is rediculous and even more rediculous is that some people stand up for these programs.No tradesman should be allowed on the job unless he has full Canadian certification and can speak English. If they can speak, read and write English then they can start as apprentices and advance according to their knowledge and abilities, otherwise they can be considered as laborers.

[hobbyguy]

Speaking English is no guarantee of workers understanding how to work safely.

I once had a union employee who was so incapable of digesting what safety was, despite training etc., that he got himself fired for repeat violations that endangered himself and others. He was a certified fitter/fabricator/welder.

A certified maintenance electrician in a union plant I supervised also didn't "get it". Just wouldn't follow lock out procedures etc. He was on a "last chance letter" after second suspension when he took a job elsewhere. The second suspension was for not following safety procedures when he didn't de-energize or lock out a main circuit (480 Volt) before working on it. Nearly killed himself and blew the main breaker for a 300,000 sq. ft. plant.

That said, foreign workers often come from cultures where safety is not a consideration. I have seen Asian welders arc welding without so much as sunglasses - etc. The modus operand is highball, do whatever it takes to get the job done fast, and to heck with worker safety - there's 1,000 more where you came from. Quality of work often goes out the window with that attitude as well - which is why building collapses are very uncommon in Canada, but very common in Asia.

The way around that is very simple, if you want to be a TFW in Canada, you have to be trained in key aspects of working culture IN CANADA. 30-60 day course would be adequate?

I would love to hear what companies like Saipem would have to say about that idea.

Actually, that might be a partial solution to the TFW issues, as part of the problem is that Canadian employers do not spend as much as they should on worker training. It would help tilt the scale toward looking at Canadian workers who just need an opportunity for a bit of training.

[Smurf]

Very good Hobbyguy however having worked with a number of these people, how do you train them when they can't speak English. How do you explain a job to them, when they can't speak English. It is far from being as simple as a few weeks training, when they can't even understand what you are saying. You yell to warn them about something and they don't understand or worse yet, don't even realize you are talking to them. You could never teach them all the little things in a short time. That is part of the reason we have apprenticeships where apprentices work under a tradesman for a period of time,less supervision as time goes on. In many cases these people are coming as tradesman and going with no supervision. It is a very difficult situation and definitely dangerous to say the least.