globalnews.ca/news/1290572/kenne … ntroversy/
cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c … -1.2621385
TFWs abused by employers. Who would have thought it possible?
Better watch out. Lots of Canadians think LMO’s in all sectors are abusing Canadian’s employment prospects and pay.
Unlike the UK, the Canadian government still has the ability to close the door to immigrants.
Yep, read that before, the likes of McD, Tim Horton’s, A&W all had open LMO’s, unlimited number.
Here in High River they are nearly 100% Philippine run.
But the problem is that if they didn’t have them they couldn’t stay open because the Canadians don’t want to work there.
My missus is Thai and works in a small factory (about 60 employees) and apart from the 7 or 8 office staff there are only 4 Canadian’s and 1 Irishman on the floor, the rest are a mixture of Thais, Ph’s & Mexican’s.
I was talking to the boss, who’s Canadian and he said, he would love to employ Canadian’s but when he does they just don’t want to do any work and when they have busy periods, he can’t get them to do any overtime.
The pay is not fantastic but also not too shabby at $15 - $18/hr depending what job you do.
The Ramada & Super8 hotels here pay $15/hr for cleaners, again, about 90% foreign labour.
I don’t know the answer but this is the reality of the situation.
Market forces: If the supply of cheap labour is unavailable, a more expensive supply will be used or the jobs the TFWs do won’t get done.
Canadians would take the jobs if it was made worth their while. Everybody has their price.
The price of burgers and donuts may rise as a consequence though.
What affects the burger flippers could affect other sectors using TFWs including trucking.
The problem here is, and I can only speak about this town, there is not enough people to fill the jobs if the immigrants weren’t here no matter how much the wages were.
Unemployment is virtually 0% in this town, also if you open the conversation up to include other work apart from fast food, we have many small factories and just 3 miles outside of High River is Cargill that employs I don’t know how many thousands of people of which I bet is somewhere between 90-95% foreign workers, there just isn’t a big enough population of Canadians to fill these jobs.
On the other hand I would like to see the suspension of LMO’s for the haulage industry or at least a massive reduction in them.
I think that it’s the only way that pay and conditions would improve, if these companies didn’t have a revolving door policy and had to start retaining drivers.
The difference here is that there are actually enough drivers here in Canada but they refuse to work for the crap long-haul money and being treated like s#it.
neilg14:
The problem here is, and I can only speak about this town, there is not enough people to fill the jobs if the immigrants weren’t here no matter how much the wages were.
Unemployment is virtually 0% in this town, also if you open the conversation up to include other work apart from fast food, we have many small factories and just 3 miles outside of High River is Cargill that employs I don’t know how many thousands of people of which I bet is somewhere between 90-95% foreign workers, there just isn’t a big enough population of Canadians to fill these jobs.
On the other hand I would like to see the suspension of LMO’s for the haulage industry or at least a massive reduction in them.
I think that it’s the only way that pay and conditions would improve, if these companies didn’t have a revolving door policy and had to start retaining drivers.
The difference here is that there are actually enough drivers here in Canada but they refuse to work for the crap long-haul money and being treated like s#it.
Neil:
Not picking an argument, but I think it funny 
that you like having TFW’s, except when they affect your chosen career, yet I suspect you benefitted through the TFW program.
As for the shortage of suitable employees in the west of Canada, that’s a long way from Ottawa where the decisions are made. Ottawa is the equivalent of London here in the UK. The population outside the capital thinks we are ruled by people who have no idea about and not much interest in our needs and desires. Trouble is, they make the decisions, not us. We can’t even vote them out as all we ever get is various shades of the same self-serving political “elite”.
(off topic - UK EU politics)
I think I’ll have purple at the next UK election, instead of blue. I’m not keen on yellow and I dislike red unless it is maple leaf shaped. Will it make any difference to my life? Blue, red & yellow just means more of the same. Purple may be a bit different, so worth a punt IMHO. We can always vote them out again…
Can’t we?
Big Jon’s dad:
neilg14:
The problem here is, and I can only speak about this town, there is not enough people to fill the jobs if the immigrants weren’t here no matter how much the wages were.
Unemployment is virtually 0% in this town, also if you open the conversation up to include other work apart from fast food, we have many small factories and just 3 miles outside of High River is Cargill that employs I don’t know how many thousands of people of which I bet is somewhere between 90-95% foreign workers, there just isn’t a big enough population of Canadians to fill these jobs.
On the other hand I would like to see the suspension of LMO’s for the haulage industry or at least a massive reduction in them.
I think that it’s the only way that pay and conditions would improve, if these companies didn’t have a revolving door policy and had to start retaining drivers.
The difference here is that there are actually enough drivers here in Canada but they refuse to work for the crap long-haul money and being treated like s#it.Neil:
Not picking an argument, but I think it funny
As for the shortage of suitable employees in the west of Canada, that’s a long way from Ottawa where the decisions are made. Ottawa is the equivalent of London here in the UK. The population outside the capital thinks we are ruled by people who have no idea about and not much interest in our needs and desires. Trouble is, they make the decisions, not us. We can’t even vote them out as all we ever get is various shades of the same self-serving political “elite”.
(off topic - UK EU politics)
I think I’ll have purple at the next UK election, instead of blue. I’m not keen on yellow and I dislike red unless it is maple leaf shaped. Will it make any difference to my life? Blue, red & yellow just means more of the same. Purple may be a bit different, so worth a punt IMHO. We can always vote them out again…
Can’t we?
No argument, you’re right I was being hypocritical.
neilg14:
No argument, you’re right I was being hypocritical.
No worries, so am I sometimes.
When I emigrated to Canada there were no restrictions I’m aware of. It was in 1957 though. I was 3 years old.
neilg14:
No argument, you’re right I was being hypocritical.
I think you have a very valid point, hypocritical or not. I’ve been here 5 years now and I do genuinely think that the system that let me in is also the same system that is in a large way responsible for the job being as dire as it is across great swathes of the industry in this country. Companies here only get away with the poor conditions they offer because they know that another foreign replacement is no more than a phone call away. The very fact that many foreign drivers, probably the vast majority, move on asap from their original employers as soon as they get PR speaks for itself and just backs up the argument that the temporary worker program helps prop up a system of poor employment conditions in this industry. I like most of us on here came to Canada via the TWP/PNP/PR route but I am also very aware that my arrival here back in 2009 was another turn of the cog that allowed the job to remain as crap as it was so that locals wouldn’t do it and following the well trodden path, I also left my original employer as soon as I got PR because I found the working conditions intolerable and I was hugely miserable in the job as a result. The company didn’t care though, no sooner has the big bunch of Brits and Irish who came together left, we were replaced with Lithuanians and Russians, many of whom have now also left for the very same reasons that we did.
Its like anything else, its a matter of measure and scale and the industry here has been taking the urine big time when it comes to bringing in foreign drivers and what started off as perhaps a well meaning exercise, has now descended in to an abused life line for long haul trucking firms who only thrive by being bottom dwellers employing foreigners on a constantly revolving door basis because no one will stay and work in such abysmal conditions.
robinhood_1984:
neilg14:
No argument, you’re right I was being hypocritical.I think you have a very valid point, hypocritical or not. I’ve been here 5 years now and I do genuinely think that the system that let me in is also the same system that is in a large way responsible for the job being as dire as it is across great swathes of the industry in this country. Companies here only get away with the poor conditions they offer because they know that another foreign replacement is no more than a phone call away. The very fact that many foreign drivers, probably the vast majority, move on asap from their original employers as soon as they get PR speaks for itself and just backs up the argument that the temporary worker program helps prop up a system of poor employment conditions in this industry. I like most of us on here came to Canada via the TWP/PNP/PR route but I am also very aware that my arrival here back in 2009 was another turn of the cog that allowed the job to remain as crap as it was so that locals wouldn’t do it and following the well trodden path, I also left my original employer as soon as I got PR because I found the working conditions intolerable and I was hugely miserable in the job as a result. The company didn’t care though, no sooner has the big bunch of Brits and Irish who came together left, we were replaced with Lithuanians and Russians, many of whom have now also left for the very same reasons that we did.
Its like anything else, its a matter of measure and scale and the industry here has been taking the urine big time when it comes to bringing in foreign drivers and what started off as perhaps a well meaning exercise, has now descended in to an abused life line for long haul trucking firms who only thrive by being bottom dwellers employing foreigners on a constantly revolving door basis because no one will stay and work in such abysmal conditions.
Very well put and exactly right.
I don’t understand why the Gov isn’t doing something about this, they just seem to be making it harder all the time for us to enter Canada and gain PR but don’t seem to be asking these companies why they need so many LMO’s time after time.
Maybe there will be a clampdown on them as well.
On CBC news this week, they said this fast-food clampdown all came about because of just 6 complaints across Canada out of 100,000’s working in that industry on TWP’s, maybe if more truckers complained something would be done.
Surely the TFW thing is seen by all that use it as a stepping stone 
Sent you a PM, Newmercman. Cheers.