Royal Bank of Canada boss Gord Nixon and his crocodile tears were all over the news today.
He apologized to the workers he was caught trying to fire last week. Said he was going be more sensitive in the future.
In the future, when RBC ships your job to India, they will send a grief counselor round to your house the day after they tell you to clean out your desk. The grief counselor will hold your hand and pass you kleenex.
Gord made a nice pay packet of 12.6 million dollars last year, so it's not as if he has to care. He's doing this because it sincerely comes from his heart. He had no idea that the people he was firing would lose their jobs.
Showing posts with label Canada's foreign worker programs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada's foreign worker programs. Show all posts
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Canadian PM gets dangerously close to having a good idea
I know! I share your sense of shock!
Big Steve is pissed that there's way too many Canadians getting BA degrees, and not nearly enough becoming welders.
As a welder with a BA degree I have to admit this is probably the first time I've found myself in agreement with the PM. It was a problem twenty years ago and it's a bigger problem today.
Thus far the only measure taken by the Harper gang to remedy the situation is making it easier for employers to bring skilled workers in from other countries. There's always been bullshit aplenty about training more Canadians for these jobs, but the consternation has never gone beyond the bullshit stage.
You get a welding ticket to pay the mortgage and put dinner on the table.
You get a BA degree to meet hot chicks in the Psych 101 course.
We'll see if Big Steve follows through.
Big Steve is pissed that there's way too many Canadians getting BA degrees, and not nearly enough becoming welders.
As a welder with a BA degree I have to admit this is probably the first time I've found myself in agreement with the PM. It was a problem twenty years ago and it's a bigger problem today.
Thus far the only measure taken by the Harper gang to remedy the situation is making it easier for employers to bring skilled workers in from other countries. There's always been bullshit aplenty about training more Canadians for these jobs, but the consternation has never gone beyond the bullshit stage.
You get a welding ticket to pay the mortgage and put dinner on the table.
You get a BA degree to meet hot chicks in the Psych 101 course.
We'll see if Big Steve follows through.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Canada's "foreign worker program" is a threat to every working Canadian
It's been going on for so long in some industries that it's generally seen as normal. Commercial apple orchards and other agricultural industries import seasonal workers from Mexico and all around the Caribbean because none of the million plus unemployed Canadians have the skills to pick apples for less than minimum wage.
Foreign workers are also in high demand in Alberta's oil and gas industry, because Canadian workers just don't have the skills, so we are told. Chinese miners are being brought in for the same reason.
And now it seems we can't even find Canadians to pour the coffee at Timmie's.
What is behind all of this is not a lack of Canadians willing or able to do the work. Indeed, in some of the higher-skilled examples, such as pipe-welding, there could very well be a shortage of skilled workers.
If that is the case, should it not be incumbent on our government to institute the training programs that would generate the skilled work-force the country requires?
But as everyone who gives this matter any thought already realizes, the foreign worker programs aren't about skills; they're about driving down wages.
If the apple-growers can't find workers perhaps they should consider providing a living wage; that is "living wage" by Canadian, not Mexican standards. If that means Canadians have to pay a little more for a bag of apples, so be it.
If it takes a coupe of years to train enough pipe-welders, and that sets back the development of the tar sands by a couple of years, that's not too high a price to pay either.
If Chinese companies can only afford to invest in Canadian coal mines on the condition that they be permitted to bring in a captive Chinese workforce, let them invest in coal mines somewhere else.
And if Timmie's needs to charge a little more for a cup of coffee so they can provide a decent wage to local folks instead of bringing cheap labor in from Mexico, I have no problem with that either.
Foreign workers are also in high demand in Alberta's oil and gas industry, because Canadian workers just don't have the skills, so we are told. Chinese miners are being brought in for the same reason.
And now it seems we can't even find Canadians to pour the coffee at Timmie's.
What is behind all of this is not a lack of Canadians willing or able to do the work. Indeed, in some of the higher-skilled examples, such as pipe-welding, there could very well be a shortage of skilled workers.
If that is the case, should it not be incumbent on our government to institute the training programs that would generate the skilled work-force the country requires?
But as everyone who gives this matter any thought already realizes, the foreign worker programs aren't about skills; they're about driving down wages.
If the apple-growers can't find workers perhaps they should consider providing a living wage; that is "living wage" by Canadian, not Mexican standards. If that means Canadians have to pay a little more for a bag of apples, so be it.
If it takes a coupe of years to train enough pipe-welders, and that sets back the development of the tar sands by a couple of years, that's not too high a price to pay either.
If Chinese companies can only afford to invest in Canadian coal mines on the condition that they be permitted to bring in a captive Chinese workforce, let them invest in coal mines somewhere else.
And if Timmie's needs to charge a little more for a cup of coffee so they can provide a decent wage to local folks instead of bringing cheap labor in from Mexico, I have no problem with that either.
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