Malawi: Respect Human Rights and Allow Peaceful Protest
LabourOn 20th July 2011, civil society organisations, including the trade union movement headed by the ITUC-affiliated Malawi Confederation of Trade Unions (MCTU), took to the streets to advance legitimate calls for the government to address deteriorating economic conditions and international relations as well as repressive laws limiting civil liberties. Nationwide demonstrations in Malawi turned into two days of riots after government security forces brutally put down the demonstrations, leaving 19 people dead and many more injured. A set of recent legislative changes as well as the violent repression of legitimate and peaceful protest actions constitute unacceptable violations of international rights and standards. Despite the brutal police crackdown, protestors took their demands to the government, calling on President Mutharika to address these demands by 16 August. Many Global Union Federations, national centres and trade unions have joined the ITUC in condemning the violent repression and calling on the Malawi government to respect human and trade union rights.
Click here to link to "send message" to President Mutharika.
Labourstart.org, Fri Aug 5 2011Labor’s Decline and Wage Inequality
The decline in organized labor’s power and membership has played a larger role in fostering increased wage inequality in the United States than is generally thought, according to a study published in the American Sociological Review this month.
The study, “Unions, Norms and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality,” found that the decline in union power and density since 1973 explained a third of the increase in wage inequality among men since then, and a fifth of the increased inequality among women.
The study noted that from 1973 to 2007, union membership in the private sector dropped to 8 percent from 34 percent among men and to 6 percent from 16 percent among women. During that time, wage inequality in the private sector increased by more than 40 percent, the study found.
While many academics argue that increased inequality in educational attainment has played a major role in expanding wage inequality, the new study reaches a surprising conclusion, saying, “The decline of the U.S. labor movement has added as much to men’s wage inequality as has the relative increase in pay for college graduates.” The study adds that “union decline contributes just half as much as education to the overall rise in women’s wage inequality.”
The study was written by Bruce Western, a professor of sociology at Harvard University, and Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at the University of Washington.
The two professors found that the decline of organized labor held down wages in union and nonunion workplaces alike. Many nonunion employers — especially decades ago, when unions represented more than 30 percent of the private sector work force — raised wages to help avert the threat of union organizing.
Moreover, the study argues that when unions were larger and had a far greater voice in politics and society, they played a more influential role in advocacy on wages across the economy, for instance, in pushing to raise the minimum wage.
“In the early 1970s, when one in three male workers were organized, unions were often prominent voices for equity, not just for their members, but for all workers,” the two professors wrote. “Union decline marks an erosion of the moral economy and its underlying distributional norms. Wage inequality in the nonunion sector increased as a result.”
The two professors note that the decline of unions is part of a common account of rising inequality that is often contrasted with a market explanation that includes technological change, immigration and foreign trade. They argue that the market explanation usually understates the role of organized labor’s decline on increased inequality.
The study notes that in the 1970s, some skilled-trades unions and construction unions helped to increased inequality through exclusionary practices that reinforced racial and ethnic inequalities. But the study said that, over all, unions in the United States had been an important force for reducing inequality — although not as much as unions in Europe, which have more influence in politics and society.
The authors found that the biggest factor in the decline in unions’ power and density was job growth outside traditional labor strongholds like manufacturing, construction and transportation. They added that another important reason for the decline of organized labor was that “employers in unionized industries intensified their opposition” to unionization efforts.
They noted that as unions have grown weaker, there has been less pressure on lawmakers to enact labor-friendly or worker-friendly measures. “As organized labor’s political power dissipates,” the authors wrote, “economic interests in the labor market are dispersed and policy makers have fewer incentives to strengthen unions or otherwise equalize economic rewards.”
New York Times, Thurs Aug 4 2011
Alberta’s use of temporary foreign workers ‘shameful,’ says labour group: Many employers said to use guest-worker program as first choice, not last resort
Alberta employers are increasingly looking to temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to fill jobs despite long unemployment lines in other parts of Canada, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).
The number of approved applications (favourable Labour Market Opinions (LMOs)) for employers keen to bring TFWs into Alberta rose by 37 per cent between 2009 and 2010, rising by 11,655 to a total of 42,885, according to the federal government.
"While unemployment is in the double digits in other parts of Canada and more than 25 per cent for young workers in some provinces, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the TFW program is becoming the first choice for many employers rather than a tool of last resort, especially here in Alberta," said Gil McGowan, president of the AFL, which represents 145,000 workers.
There were 57,774 TFWs working in Alberta in 2010, down from the peak of 65,671 in 2009, according to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. But if all the newly approved applications are used by employers to bring new guest workers into the country, the number of TFWs in Alberta could jump to more than 100,000, said the AFL.
"The majority of applications for TFWs in Alberta — 38 per cent — are for workers in the accommodation and food services industry. We have now essentially created an underclass of cheap, exploitable workers in Alberta," said McGowan.
"We're abandoning real immigration in favour of using an exploitative guest worker program to fill our most menial and undesirable jobs," he said. "It's a shameful transformation and a betrayal of Canadian values and our traditional approach to immigration."
Instead of allowing the tight labour market in Alberta's service sector to drive wages up which, in turn, would attract workers from other parts of the country, employers are using the TFW program for recruitment needs, said McGowan.
"(The federal government) is using the TFW program to help employers, especially in the service sector, defy the economic laws of gravity by using foreign workers to keep wages low, when the tight market says they should be going up."
McGowan said he supports the recent call by Alberta Employment Minister Thomas Lukazsuk to scrap the TFW program and replace it with a more traditional approach to immigration.
Canadian HR Report, Tues Aug 2, 2011
Canadian jobs lost down the pipeline
Last week U.S. lawmakers decided that President Barack Obama must make a decision sooner than he wanted to on construction of the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver bitumen — thick, tarry oil — from northern Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Obama is concerned about environmental consequences. But here in Alberta, Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, is alarmed about something else.
“We’re sending jobs down that pipeline. Not just Alberta jobs but jobs for all Canadians,” McGowan said during an interview.
If we were to build more upgraders and refineries here instead of exporting raw bitumen, adds McGowan, thousands of workers would be needed for both the operation and maintenance of those industrial projects.
Needless to say, McGowan’s plea is not getting much attention from either the Alberta or federal government. They want to export the bitumen as soon as possible. Not just to refineries on the Gulf Coast but to China with a pipeline that would cross northern B.C.
And yet it was only five years ago that Premier Ed Stelmach promised to keep more bitumen upgrading jobs in Alberta.
“Shipping raw bitumen is like scraping off the topsoil, selling it, and then passing the farm on to the next generation,” Stelmach said in 2006 when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative party. “What value does it have?”
Despite that promise, stats compiled by the Energy Resources and Conservation Board reveal that the province’s upgrading capacity will not keep pace with the extraction of bitumen from the oilsands. The ERCB estimates that by 2018, only 52 per cent of the bitumen leaving Alberta will be upgraded. Stelmach had promised 75 per cent by the same year.
In his day, premier Peter Lougheed was determined not to export natural gas from the province without first stripping it of compounds that could be used in an Alberta-based petrochemical and plastics industry. Conservatives today would likely condemn his interventionist policies but they succeeded in keeping highly technical and well-paying jobs in the province.
Oilsands producers and politicians now argue that it is not economically viable to build more upgrading capacity than is already in place or planned.
Gil McGowan doesn’t buy those arguments.
“If we let the market decide, the market will simply send our jobs down the pipeline,” he said. “It’s small, short-term thinking.”
McGowan agrees that oilsands expansion is already faced with a labour shortage. But he says that wouldn’t be the case if the government staggered expansion instead of letting dozens of projects go ahead at once. Something else that Lougheed has also called for.
There’s no question that McGowan and the AFL stand to gain if more upgraders and refineries are built in Alberta. It’s much easier to organize a union in an industrial plant than it is in an oilfield, where workers are fewer and more transient.
He’s also well aware that most of the oil and gas industry in Alberta is not unionized. Unlike B.C. or Ontario, for example, where unions have a strong influence in key industries, labour in Alberta is not considered a major player.
So much so that when McGowan, who was a journalist before becoming a labour leader, requested observer status at the recent premiers’ conference on energy issues held near Calgary, the Alberta government turned him down.
Only through the intervention of contacts in the federal government and other provincial governments did he finally get permission to sit with observers from industry and environmental groups.
Gil McGowan may not be popular in Alberta but he’s certainly on the money when it comes to reminding Conservative politicians of the promises they once made and now have conveniently forgotten.
Toronto Star, Mon Aug 1, 2011
Byline: Gillian Steward
Tory leadership contenders defend energy stimulus program: Labour group says $2.9 billion would have been better spent elsewhere
EDMONTON — Despite Alberta Federation of Labour claims the province blew $2.9 billion on drilling incentive programs that failed to create jobs or investment in the oilpatch, the Conservatives vying to be the next leader continue to support them.
All six candidates for the premier’s job say the two-year incentive program that expired in March kept Albertans working in the oilpatch and in service industries when the recession hit in 2008. They suggest if Alberta found itself in similar circumstances under their leadership, they might announce a similar program in a bid to rejuvenate oil and gas exploration.
The labour federation has asked the auditor general and the all-party legislature public accounts committee to review the program and determine whether it achieved its objectives.
The federation says the $2.9 billion the program cost taxpayers would have been better spent on programs and services because it merely padded the profits of major international oil and gas companies. During the period the program was in place, the oilpatch lost 8,000 jobs, the federation says.
“We’re not opposed to stimulus efforts aimed at creating jobs,” said federation president Gil McGowan. “What we’re opposed to is spending literally billions of dollars of public money without any strings attached and with no mechanisms in place to measure the effectiveness of the program.”
The government “shovelled money out the door” without putting in place any measures to determine whether the spending was effective, he says.
“The fact that so many of the leadership candidates have blindly endorsed the giveaway is almost as bad as the giveaway itself,” he said.
But Tory candidates seeking to replace Premier Ed Stelmach this fall reject claims the program was a failure.
“I think drilling incentives have had a tremendous purpose and that’s been to keep the economy going,” said former justice minister Alison Redford.
“I don’t take the view the Alberta Federation of Labour takes with respect to what the impact has been on the economy,” said Redford. “Theorizing on whether there’s been an improvement or not is pretty difficult. We know that rig activity has gone up . . . so I support those initiatives.”
Former finance minister Ted Morton said the program was important to get rigs working.
“I think they were the right policies for the right time.”
Deputy premier Doug Horner said it was all about trying to create jobs.
He said it’s important to recognize that a tremendous amount of wealth is created in the province by development of natural resources and incentive programs have long been used to stimulate creation of jobs in those sectors.
“We don’t want to have a bunch of people sitting around and waiting for a rig to go up,” he said. “We want to have them working. So from that perspective, I think we achieved the results we were looking for.”
Horner said he didn’t recall what performance measures were created to determine whether the programs lived up to expectations, but he was satisfied they worked.
“We felt it would stimulate x numbers of wells drilled and it would stimulate the kind of activity we achieved which is good.”
Calgary oilman Rick Orman said the incentives were required because the Ed Stelmach Conservative government made “a mistake” in raising royalty rates. “I would prefer a situation where there is no need for incentives,” he said. “What we’re doing is we’re trying to say the royalty decision was the right thing — and backfill with incentives.”
“They may have created jobs; they may not have created jobs. I don’t know. But I know . . . that if we’re talking about labour shortages (now) there is something going on.”
Backbencher Doug Griffiths said he doesn’t know if the incentive program worked, but something had to be done to keep the economy going when the recession hit Alberta.
“I would probably agree that it didn’t create a lot of jobs, but one of the things it did was keep jobs from being lost because we had some challenges with the royalty review and the downturn in the economy that created a perfect storm that slowed down investment around the world and particularly here in Alberta,” he said. “Something had to be done to counter that so we didn’t lose jobs.”
Former Washington envoy and conservative cabinet minister Gary Mar said he would be interested in seeing the AFL report on the program, but he believes it was successful.
“I am not sure they have it right, but I would be happy to look at their numbers too see how they have come to that conclusion because it has not been my observation,” he said.
But NDP leader Brian Mason also called for a review of the program.
“I think if you are going to create a stimulus program you need to define exactly what you are trying to accomplish and measure your results to see if you get any,” he said.
Calgary Herald, Mon Aug 1 2011
Byline: Darcy Henton
‘Dubai of the North’ tag irks Alberta
CALGARY - Calling Alberta the "Dubai of the North" is insulting to the Arab city, says the provincial employment and immigration minister.
Thomas Lukazsuk is reacting to a comment made by the boss of the Alberta Federation of Labour, who said employers in the province are choosing to hire cheap imported labour over locals, a trend seen in many Arab cities.
"Would that make me a blue-eyed sheik then?" Lukazsuk said tongue in cheek.
"A comment like this is very insulting to Dubai," he said, noting there are many people in Alberta from that city.
Gil McGowan, president of the labour group, said Lukazsuk got it backwards because Dubai, a city in United Arab Emirates is known for building its economy on the backs of imported cheap labour.
"We're becoming the Dubai or Saudi Arabia of the North, not only because we have oil, but because we're abandoning real immigration in favour of using an exploitative guest worker program to fill our most menial and undesirable jobs," he said.
"We've joined a global underground railway trading in human misery.
"It's a shameful transformation and a betrayal of Canadian values and our traditional approach to immigration," said McGowan.
New figures from the federal government show that the number of approved applications for employers wanting to bring imported workers into Alberta soared by 37% between 2009 and 2010, rising by 11,655 to a total of 42,885.
McGowan said no other province comes close to Alberta in terms of the per capita usage of the federal government's Temporary Foreign Workers program.
Lukazsuk said employers are not choosing to bring imported workers because they're cheap labour, but there's simply a staggering lack of people to take the jobs.
"Even if we are 100 per cent successful in putting all Canadians to work we still would be short," said the minister.
"We will be relying on foreign workers, but what we really need are permanent foreign workers," said Lukazsuk, who has been critical of the federal program.
The minister said it costs more to employers to bring foreigners than it is to hire locals because the wage required to pay either is the same and there's extra expenses incurred for flying them here and finding accommodation.
While McGowan recognizes there are labour rules regulating wages, but insisted vulnerable imported workers tend to take lower pay, keep quiet in spite of abuses and not assert their rights for fear of losing jobs.
Lukazsuk said his department has established offices in Calgary and Edmonton to look after those issues and some abusive employers have been prosecuted.
London Free Press, Fri July 29 2011
Byline: Renato Gandia
Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity Begins Six-Figure Ad Buy for GOP Recall Candidates
Six-Figure Ad Buy for GOP Recall Candidates
Wisconsinites See Why 'David Koch' Was Told 'Thanks a Million!' By
Walker During Prank Call As Pro-Republican AFP Spending Tops $500,000
in Wisconsin This Year
Madison – Americans for Prosperity, the organization funded by big oil
billionaires David and Charles Koch, has just purchased over $150,000 in
television ad time for Green Bay, Madison and Milwaukee in what could be a new
wave of spending to try and save the six Republican state Senators who are
being recalled for their support of Gov. Scott Walker's reckless attacks on public
education, health care, workers' rights and the middle class. This is in addition to
$380,000 Americans for Prosperity previously spent this year to support Walker's
agenda.
"The granddaddy of corporate, big oil special interest money has turned on the
money pipeline in a new six-figure bid to save Scott Walker's Senate majority,"
said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. "The Koch Brothers'
Americans for Prosperity has now dumped over $500,000 to pollute Wisconsin
airwaves about the failed agenda of Scott Walker and the Senate Republicans –
and they may just be getting started."
Gov. Scott Walker was roundly-criticized when just days after unveiling his
scheme to end the rights of 175,000 Wisconsin workers, he was pranked in a
recorded phone call from someone he thought was David Koch. Walker not only
admitted during the call his team considered sending agitators to cause trouble
during the protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol, but also told "Koch" he
needed the group to come and spend money in the state, saying:
...they 're going to need a message out reinforcing why this was a good thing to
do for the economy a good thing to do for the state so the extent that message is
out over and over again, that's obviously, that's obviously a good thing.
Americans for Prosperity emerged as the most powerful of all of the groups fueling the
so-called Tea Party movement and has spent in excess of $65 million since 2008,
including $40 million in 2010 when Republicans seized power of numerous state
legislatures and Gubernatorial seats, including Wisconsin – which went from having a
Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled Senate and Assembly to complete
Republican control.
Governor Walker and the Republican legislature have put protections for clean air and
water in the crosshairs of their pro-corporate agenda. This is particularly helpful for Koch
Industries, which owns Georgia Pacific, a company that has contributed nearly 10
percent of all phosphorus pollution in the Lower Fox River basin, according to a
government report released in June 2010. Koch pipelines in Wisconsin over the past two
decades have leaked 160,000 gallons of oil and gasoline, which is particularly
problematic in a state like Wisconsin, where 70 percent of residents rely on groundwater
as their drinking source.
In the final weeks of the campaign, a new shadowy group with strong ties to Americans
for Prosperity spent approximately $1 million to re-elect pro-Walker Supreme Court
Justice David Prosser in April 2011. After the election, the head of the state Americans
for Prosperity chapter bragged about the group's effort in the campaign's waning days to
help Prosser win by the slimmest margin in any recent Supreme Court race. Prosser not
only cast the deciding vote to uphold Walker's attack on collective bargaining, but also
joined the Court's majority in overturning a "lower court decision allowing a public
challenge to the permit giving Koch's Georgia Pacific plants more leeway in dumping
phosphorus into waterways." [ThinkProgress, 4/13/11; Slate, 6/17/11]
"The Koch pipeline has opened up once again for Scott Walker and his Republican
Senate," said Ross. "But it's the attacks by Scott Walker and his Republican Senate
lapdogs on the middle class, education, health care and workers rights that are fueling
the historic recalls and rejection of the Walker-GOP pro-corporate agenda."
# # #
One Wisconsin Now is a statewide communications network specializing in effective
earned media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values.
onewisconsinnow.org, Fri Jul 29 2011
AFL-CIO, Club for Growth help heat up recall elections
MILWAUKEE – Rallying the troops, Wisconsin's AFL-CIO is pouring tons of resources into the state to oust six Republican senators in next month's recall elections.
"People are passionate about the issues. They're going door to door, they're talking to their neighbors about why we need to recall these six GOP senators," said Stephanie Bloomingdale with the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.
Besides stopping in Milwaukee Tuesday, the union has already stopped in Green Bay, Oshkosh, and Kenosha, among others. And it has planned stops in La Crosse and Hudson next month.
"Working people are putting their nickels and dimes to have a fair shake in these elections," she said.
"They're spending millions of dollars to buy the election," said Brad Courtney, Chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
He claims it's much more than nickels and dimes.
"The unions are basically trying to overturn the elections of last November clearly stated we didn't like where the state was going, we want a complete change," he said.
"What they'd really out to do is ask Club for Growth where their money is coming from," Bloomingdale countered.
Conservative group Club for Growth is also pouring in tons of cash to help Republicans, but because third party organizations are funneling in money, it's tough to know exactly how much.
What is for sure, these upcoming elections could be a game changer.
"We're going to have a huge turnout," said Courtney.
"These recall elections are critical in restoring our democracy," said Bloomingdale.
TMJ4, Mon Jul 26 2011
Alberta called misery magnet for foreign labourers
Calling Alberta the "Dubai of the North" is insulting to the Arab city, says the provincial employment and immigration minister.
Thomas Lukazsuk is reacting to a comment made by the boss of the Alberta Federation of Labour, who said employers in the province are choosing to hire cheap imported labour over locals, a trend seen in many Arab cities.
"Would that make me a blue-eyed sheik then?" Lukazsuk said tongue in cheek.
"A comment like this is very insulting to Dubai," he said, noting there are many people in Alberta from that city.
Gil McGowan, president of the labour group, said Lukazsuk got it backwards because Dubai, a city in United Arab Emirates is known for building its economy on the backs of imported cheap labour.
"We're becoming the Dubai or Saudi Arabia of the North, not only because we have oil, but because we're abandoning real immigration in favour of using an exploitative guest worker program to fill our most menial and undesirable jobs," he said.
"We've joined a global underground railway trading in human misery.
"It's a shameful transformation and a betrayal of Canadian values and our traditional approach to immigration," said McGowan.
New figures from the federal government show that the number of approved applications for employers wanting to bring imported workers into Alberta soared by 37% between 2009 and 2010, rising by 11,655 to a total of 42,885.
McGowan said no other province comes close to Alberta in terms of the per capita usage of the federal government's Temporary Foreign Workers program.
Lukazsuk said employers are not choosing to bring imported workers because they're cheap labour, but there's simply a staggering lack of people to take the jobs.
"Even if we are 100 per cent successful in putting all Canadians to work we still would be short," said the minister.
"We will be relying on foreign workers, but what we really need are permanent foreign workers," said Lukazsuk, who has been critical of the federal program.
The minister said it costs more to employers to bring foreigners than it is to hire locals because the wage required to pay either is the same and there's extra expenses incurred for flying them here and finding accommodation.
While McGowan recognizes there are labour rules regulating wages, but insisted vulnerable imported workers tend to take lower pay, keep quiet in spite of abuses and not assert their rights for fear of losing jobs.
Lukazsuk said his department has established offices in Calgary and Edmonton to look after those issues and some abusive employers have been prosecuted.
Calgary Sun, Thurs July 28 2011
Byline: Renato Gandia
New figures show use of temporary foreign workers set to surge while unemployment among Canadians remains stubbornly high
Alberta becoming "Dubai of the North" as many employers use guest-worker program as first choice rather than last resort, warns labour leader
Alberta employers are increasingly looking to temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to fill jobs while long unemployment lines continue to plague other parts of Canada.
New figures from the federal government show that the number of approved applications for employers wanting to bring TFWs into Alberta soared by 37 per cent between 2009 and 2010, rising by 11,655 to a total of 42,885. No other province comes close to Alberta in terms of the per capita usage of the federal government's TFW program.
"While unemployment is in the double digits in other parts of Canada, and more than 25 per cent for young workers in some provinces, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the TFW program is becoming the first choice for many employers rather than a tool of last resort, especially here in Alberta," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 145,000 workers.
Federal records show that there were 57,774 TFWs working in Alberta in 2010, down from the peak of 65,671 in 2009. But if all the newly approved applications are used by employers to bring new guest workers into the country, the number of TFWs in Alberta could jump to over 100,000.
"The majority of applications for TFWs in Alberta - 38 per cent - are for workers in the accommodation and food services industry. We have now essentially created an underclass of cheap, exploitable workers in Alberta," says McGowan.
"We're becoming the Dubai or Saudi Arabia of the North, not only because we have oil, but because we're abandoning real immigration in favour of using an exploitative guest worker program to fill our most menial and undesirable jobs. We've joined a global underground railway trading in human misery. It's a shameful transformation and a betrayal Canadian values and our traditional approach to immigration."
McGowan says the increasing use of TFWs is particularly troubling at a time when unemployment remains stubbornly high in other parts of Canada. Instead of allowing the tight labour market in Alberta's service sector to drive wages up – which, in turn, would attract workers from other parts of the country – employers are being allowed to turn to the TFW program to fill their recruitment needs.
"For a government that prides itself on 'letting the market decide,' the Harper Conservatives are doing exactly the opposite in Alberta's labour market," says McGowan. "They're using the TFW program to help employers, especially in the service sector, defy the economic laws of gravity by using foreign workers to keep wages low, when the tight market says they should be going up. It's an illegitimate and inappropriate use of government power."
In construction related to the oil sands, the use of TFWs is also up dramatically. Wages for guest workers are higher in this sector, but McGowan questions the over-reliance on the TFW program there, too.
"There are currently more than 60 major oil-sands construction projects underway in Alberta," says McGowan. "Employers say they can't get the work done without temporary foreign workers. But if the Alberta government set a more reasonable pace for development in the oil sands – say ten or fifteen projects at a time instead of 60 – then we could handle the work with Canada's existing construction labour force. Governments and oil companies have become high on rapid development in the oil sands and temporary foreign workers have become the crack cocaine that they use to fuel their addiction. For the sake of all the TFWs who are being exploited and all the Canadians who are looking for work, it needs to stop."
With all of this in mind, McGowan says he supports the recent call by Alberta Employment Minister Thomas Lukazsuk to scrap the TFW program and replace it with a more traditional approach to immigration. He also says federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has to do more than talk to employers when he visits Alberta as part of his cross-country tour this summer to discuss immigration issues.
"Employers in Alberta have increasingly become addicted to the TFW program as a way to keep wages low and keep the labour force docile," says McGowan. "If Kenney wants to get a full and more accurate picture of the real impacts of this program, he's going to have to do more than talk to the addicts."
- 30 -
CONTACT: Gil McGowan, AFL president, 780-218-9888