I was watching a story on the news tonight that left a sour taste in my mouth. It was about temporary workers being brought into the province to fill positions that our own people have no interest in filling.
This in itself doesn’t bother me, the fact that we need to bring in foreign workers is great if it’s because there are more good jobs than there are people to fill them.
No, it’s what the employers council of this province says is the reason why they are needed, namely the current EI system.
That is just a self-serving, non-relevant excuse used by these wealthy owners of businesses, such as the fast food industry, to try and influence the government into eroding the EI program even further by making it even more difficult for people, including seasonal workers, to qualify for employment insurance.
Thus, they hope, this will make things more desperate for those local workers that they’ll have to accept the puny wages and part-time hours that this fast food and other industries like them offer.
It really makes me angry when I hear millionaire owners of certain businesses and their well-paid representatives stating they need to bring in cheap labour from other countries because very few locals want to work for part time minimum wages.
They have their own ulterior motives in blaming it on the employment insurance system — but curiously omitted from the news report is how the employment insurance system is responsible for this state of affairs.
If it was explained how the EI system negatively affects their industries, it would reveal their selfish intentions for blaming the employment insurance system.
Stated in the report were examples of businesses such as in the fast food industry, where the only way an employee would be able support a family, pay a mortgage, feed and clothe the kids, afford to pay property tax, sales tax, the tax on the hydro bill (a shameful practice by the government on a basic necessity) is if they either were the owners of such businesses or were the well-paid managers of such (the owner’s representative).
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being wealthy or being a well-paid manager, but there is in being greedy. I believe, actually, the reason they need to bring in foreign workers is because those millionaire business owners refuse to pay wages and offer significant hours of employment that would enable local workers to make a decent living working in these industries.
If the wealthy business owners would leave their estates in Florida or Arizona long enough to come back to their estates in this province and explain that they only require part time employees to run their businesses, then I can accept that. Don’t blame it on the employment insurance system, but lay the blame where it belongs — on their own greed.
Glenn Collier
St. John’s
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banish me....go for it. I will just move my company elsewhere. I don't care who my workers are. I have the right as the owner of my company to dictate what wages will be paid, regardless of anyone's ability to make a living. Those with no skills or education find themselves working 2-3 jobs, where as those with an education and in-demand skills seem to be earning more and more and more. Seems just to me. Everyone deserves a living wage, but they must earn it. I will not provide a living wage to anyone without a post-secondary education, and no one can force me to do so.