Cheap labour games [updated]
By Robyn Benson on April 12, 2013 4:57 PM
The latest Royal Bank of Canada scandal is chock full o’ lessons for us all. Corporations don’t just make and sell ever-cheaper products in their endless pursuit of profit. They cheapen and devalue people as well. This isn’t about foreigners, them versus us. Working people are all on the same side, or should be. The trouble begins when we let that other “them”—corporate power and its political cover—divide us.
So let’s avoid that trap. The workers who are brought into Canada under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, to work at 15% below average wage thanks to the Harper government, are not our enemy. They are being bought and sold on the market, a gift of cheap labour to Canadian business.
“Flexibility” is the watchword—a reserve army of temporary, low-paid workers replacing those with permanent, stable jobs. Why should we be surprised? An entire parallel public service has been built by the Harper administration on precisely that principle.
Sound familiar? Whether temporary foreign workers or temporary Canadian workers, they’re all being treated as a cheap, exploitable resource.
http://www.aec-cea.ca/2013/04/cheap-labour-games.html
It begs the question.....
If these people are earning less, then they pay less in taxes
if they pay less in taxes where did the Harper government steal the money to buy down their deficit???
So let’s avoid that trap. The workers who are brought into Canada under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, to work at 15% below average wage thanks to the Harper government, are not our enemy. They are being bought and sold on the market, a gift of cheap labour to Canadian business.
“Flexibility” is the watchword—a reserve army of temporary, low-paid workers replacing those with permanent, stable jobs. Why should we be surprised? An entire parallel public service has been built by the Harper administration on precisely that principle.
“They look like government employees, but they’re not,” [economist David Macdonald] said. They are exempt from the government’s normal hiring requirements such as bilingualism and proven ability to do the job. And they aren’t on the government payroll; their remuneration comes from a private outsourcing firm (which usually means they have no job security or benefits).
Sound familiar? Whether temporary foreign workers or temporary Canadian workers, they’re all being treated as a cheap, exploitable resource.
http://www.aec-cea.ca/2013/04/cheap-labour-games.html
It begs the question.....
If these people are earning less, then they pay less in taxes
if they pay less in taxes where did the Harper government steal the money to buy down their deficit???
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