Royal Bank Of Canada: Migrant Workers

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley Dept: Now the chickens have come home to roost. The events last week with the Royal Bank of Canada are not isolated. This follows on the heels of unions in British Columbia in court battling the government decision to approve HD Mining use of offshore coal miners after the company rejected the applications of hundreds of Canadian miners, according to The Star. We shouldnt be surprised, given the repeated warnings sounded by unions and migrant workers advocacy groups. What is surprising is that Finley has not offered her resignation over the issue. She should do the right thing and resign over what has happened on her watch and Last year the government announced changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program TFWP Temporary Foreign Worker Program TFWP , indicating that it would fast-track the processing of employer applications for migrant workers and allow employers to pay them up to 15-per-cent less than prevailing wages. The Canadian Labour Congress CLC warned that those changes would make an already flawed program worse. I met with Human Resources Minister Diane Finley shortly after the announcement and provided her with a book of abuses that one of our affiliates had compiled. The CLC urged Finley not to implement the changes and to conduct a thorough review of the program. The Alberta Federation of Labour recently found that the federal government has granted thousands of fast-tracked work permits designed for employers seeking high-skilled migrant workers under the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion ALMO . The documents show many migrant workers brought in under the ALMO process are actually toiling in fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.