ALF V1

Whether there's a boom or a bust, the economic reality facing women in Alberta is that they are falling further and further behind men.

A new study by the Edmonton-based Parkland Institute and the Womanspace Resource Centre in Lethbridge shows that the fight for rights and equality is far from over in this province. Nationally, Conservative government actions have stalled progress on women's issues, according to a report by the Canadian Labour Congress and several women's groups.

Gathering data from a variety of national sources, including Statistics Canada, the study shows that women in Alberta experience disproportionate levels of poverty and low wages. The median income for Alberta women working full year, full time is 66 per cent of that earned by men. The gender wage gap is worse in Alberta than in all other provinces. The boom years have made things worse, not better, for Alberta's women. In 1993 women working full time earned 71 per cent of what men earned.

Meanwhile, single mothers who rely on social assistance in Alberta receive the least amount of support of anyone in Canada. The situation is just as grim for female lone parents and their families, with 24 per cent being categorized as low income in Alberta, compared to the national rate of 16 per cent.

This situation has been met with a deafening silence in Alberta. This is the only jurisdiction in Canada where women have no formal voice in government, with neither a ministry nor an advisory council on the status of women. The Alberta Federation of Labour calls on the Alberta government to recognize that a high wage gap between men and women has negative consequences for the public and private sectors, including lost productivity, low retention of skilled labour and high levels of poverty. It is time for the government to follow the lead of other provinces - which have fewer financial resources - and tackle this issue.

Nationally, gender-equality issues have slowed under the Conservative government, according to a report by the Canadian Labour Congress and several women's rights groups presented to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

The report, called Reality Check: Women in Canada, criticizes the federal government for eliminating a proposed $5-billion national child-care and early-learning program, for closing 12 of 16 Status of Women offices across the country and for cutting resources for gender-equality projects.

"Half-hearted gestures regarding the possibility of changing our national anthem to reflect gender equality are no substitute for concrete policies to end inequalities," says Nancy Furlong, Secretary Treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "On one hand, for a few days some federal Conservatives say gender equality in the anthem is important, but on the other the government eliminates the phrase gender equality from the mandate of the national Status of Women office. The government pays lip service to the issue, but its actions speak far louder than its word."

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Immigration is not a topic often associated with the food system, but Harjap Grewal of NOII says immigration and the food system are "very much linked." He sees immigration as "the human impact of free trade policy, [and therefore] the reason why [farmers are] migrating."

Immigration is a growing issue in Canadian politics in the past decade, stemming from an increase in the number of people seeking refugee or migrant worker status in Canada. "We've actually made the politically difficult decision to maintain historically high levels of immigration," Jason Kenney, Minister of Immigration, said to the Calgary Sun.

On the surface, Kenney seems to be making it easier for migrant workers to stay in Canada. Kenney said migrants are "doing work Canadians are unwilling to perform," and that his government, despite the recession and rising unemployment, will maintain its practice of encouraging immigration and foreign labour. Tarina White of the Calgary Sun reported, "Calgary newcomers will have access to more language training (to the tune of) almost $9.5 million in funding. ... Kenney said he hopes the investment will boost the percentage of immigrants enrolling in language programs each year, which currently sits at 25 per cent." According to Bill Kaufman of the Sun, Kenney said his government is stepping up its monitoring of foreign workers' treatment while making it easier for the newcomers to become permanent residents and citizens.

However, a closer look reveals a different agenda.

Documented by NOII, Kenney "oversaw the largest immigration raid in recent Canadian history, which went largely unreported. In an illegal move, 41 [migrants] were tricked into signing waivers that removed their right to a hearing and many have now been deported."

White reported that Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan blames international free trade agreements for "setting up foreign workers to be exploited." McGowan accuses Kenney's ministry of "washing its hands" of temporary foreign workers once they arrive only for them to be routinely abused by their employers. He noted, "Only three per cent of migrant workers are eligible for permanent residency."

"We're the ones who set up an advocacy office to help workers who are exploited; we're the ones picking up the pieces. ... I find it galling [that] Kenney's trying to wrap himself in the cloak of virtue."

Dominionpaper.com, Sun Jan 31 2010
Byline: Ben Amundson

Domestic Violence is a Workplace Issue: It's time to make a real commitment to addressing violence against women (April 2009)

Policy paper adopted at AFL 46th Constitutional Convention, April 23-26, 2009

Entrenching Exploitation: The Second Report of the Alberta Federation of Labour Temporary Foreign Worker Advocate

In November 2007, the AFL Temporary Foreign Worker Advocate released "Alberta's Disposable Workforce" which examined the working and living conditions of temporary foreign workers in Alberta, documenting serious exploitation and abuse at the hands of employers and the government. In the months since, a lot has changed in Alberta, but much has stayed the same. The exploitation of foreign workers continues, even though the context has shifted significantly. With the boom turned to bust, it is important to update Albertans on the state of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

EDMONTON - The Alberta Federation of Labour today strongly criticized the federal government's proposed new measures to fast-track citizenship for only certain classes of temporary foreign workers in Canada.

"By restricting this benefit to only professional, technical and skilled occupations, the government is setting up a permanent underclass of unskilled temporary foreign workers who will be deprived of the rights to citizenship being extended only to elite workers," says Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan.

"The great majority of temporary foreign workers in Alberta do not fall into the privileged O, A and B designated occupations," says McGowan. "In 2007, only 14,842 Alberta temporary foreign workers would have been included - a bare 39.8 per cent of all temporary foreign workers in the province. That means 22,415 other, lesser skilled temporary foreign workers in Alberta would be excluded from this proposed citizenship fast-track."

McGowan notes that the fastest growing occupational category for temporary foreign workers in Alberta has been the excluded "skill level D" which is made up of unskilled service sector workers and labourers. "The newly released 2007 figures show that this category now accounts 6,338 workers," says McGowan. He also notes that total workers in this category has grown by 3463 per cent since 2003 - exponentially more than any other skill category.

"The government is saying that these people are good enough to come in and do the low paying and often tremendously physically gruelling jobs no one else is willing to do, but they will never be good enough to be citizens," says McGowan. "They will be a permanent underclass of exploited workers endlessly cycled back to their home countries when we're done with them."

McGowan was also critical of the effect this fast-tracking would have on the mainstream immigration system. "The government is basically allowing employers to decide who will be at the front of the cue for immigration," says McGowan. "If elite temporary foreign workers are given an inside track for immigration, then it is individual employers, not the government, who will be setting immigration priorities. That will create an unbalanced and unfair immigration process."

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For more information call:

Gil McGowan, AFL President @ 780.483-3021 (office) or 780.218-9888 (cell)

Nancy Furlong, Secretary Treasurer @ 780.483-3021 (office) or 780-720-8945 (cell)

Jason Foster, Director, Policy Analysis @ 780.483-3021

In 2006, Alberta became the first province in Canada to bring more workers into the country under the TFW program than under the mainline immigration program. In 2007, that troubling trend accelerated with the number of TFWs growing to nearly double the number of new immigrants coming to the province.

The official figures show that, as of December 1, 2007, there were 37, 257 temporary foreign workers in Alberta. That's up from 22,105 in 2006, 15,836 in 2005 and a mere 7,288 in 1997.

To put it another way: there are now more than twice as many TFWs in Alberta today than there were two years ago and more than five times as many as a decade ago. While Ontario and B.C. are still home to more TFWs (82,873 and 43,375 in 2007 respectively), no other province has experienced as dramatic an increase as Alberta.

"The floodgates have been opened by the federal and Alberta governments," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "It's now clear that the ever-increasing use of exploitable guest workers has become a central plank in the Tories' strategy to deal with the tight labour market in Alberta."

McGowan says the problem with relying on temporary foreign workers to deal with labour shortages is that they are much more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation than Canadian citizens or immigrants on the path to citizenship.

"We have to be clear about what's going on here," says McGowan. "The TFW program is not immigration. The people brought into the country under the program are not being treated like previous generations of workers who came to Canada from abroad. Many of them are being misled and taken advantage of by unscrupulous brokers and employers. And the vast majority of them will never become citizens � even though they come to Canada with that goal. We're in the process of creating a vast underclass of disposable workers."

Since creating its own advocacy office for TFWs in April 2007, the AFL has played a leading role in exposing the abuses faced by many foreign workers when they arrive in Alberta. Pressure from the AFL and other concerned groups has led the Alberta government to establish its own modest advocate program for TFWs and, more recently, to free up some money to help provide settlement services for TFWs.

"The Alberta government has lately been attempting to paper over some of the big holes left in the Temporary Foreign Worker program by the federal government," says McGowan. "But these are little more than band-aid solutions. The real problem is that guest worker programs are bad public policy, no matter how you dress them up."

What's needed, says McGowan, is something that Conservatives in Ottawa and Edmonton never bothered to do before they dramatically expanded the TFW program � and that's public debate.

"The TFW program is a train wreck. It's bad for foreign workers and it's bad for Canada. What we need is an open and wide-ranging public debate about the best solutions for Canada's long-term labour force needs. And that debate needs to involve more than just backroom consultations with CEOs looking for a quick and easy fix to their labour force problems."

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For more information call:

Gil McGowan, AFL President @ 780.483-3021 (office) or 780.218-9888 (cell)

To view the complete figures on temporary foreign workers and traditional immigrants released recently by Citizenship and Immigration Canada visit the following web addresses:

Stock of Temporary Foreign Workers, 2003-2007, by Provinces and Major Urban Areas

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2007/06.asp

Permanent Residents by Province and Major Urban Area, 1998-2007

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2007/02.asp

EDMONTON - Several union spokespeople with extensive experience on issues related to the controversial Temporary Foreign Worker program will make presentations to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration when it visits Edmonton tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday, April 1^st).

The committee will hear from Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan as well as the AFL's Temporary Foreign Worker Advocate, Yessy Byl.

In addition, presentations will be made by representatives from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Both unions represent thousands of workers in the two sectors that have seen the most dramatic spikes in the use of temporary foreign workers - the construction and service sectors.

"Employers and governments have embraced the TFW program as a silver bullet to deal with Alberta's increasingly tight labour market," says McGowan. "But we'll be demonstrating that the program is failing both Canadians and foreign workers badly."

The committee hearings will take place between 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., April 1, 2008, in the Empire Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald. The hotel is located at 10065-100 Street in downtown Edmonton.

Byl is scheduled to address the committee between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. McGowan and representatives from UFCW and IBEW will give their presentations between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

The cross-country hearings are being held to gather information for a report the Standing Committee is preparing for Parliament on the Temporary Foreign Worker program - which is a program administered by the federal government.

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For more information contact:

Gil McGowan, AFL President @ 780.483-3021 (office) or 780.218-9888 (cell)

The increasing ethnic and racial diversity of the province requires extra vigilance by Albertans against racism and intolerance, says the Alberta Federation of Labour today.

"Thousands of new immigrants and temporary foreign workers are flocking to Alberta as a consequence of our booming economy," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "We need to ensure that all these workers not only enjoy the same rights and protections that current citizens enjoy - but that they are also welcomed into our society."

"That means going beyond mere 'tolerance' of ethnic and racial diversity," says McGowan. "We need to ensure that new Albertans feel safe, welcome and are encouraged to become active members of our communities and broader society."

"The Alberta government can and should do more to protect new Canadian workers' human rights, prevent exploitation and ensure they are treated fairly when they come to our province. That means enforcing workplace regulations scrupulously and providing much more funding to all of the various social agencies and NGOs that work to help their transition into Canadian society."

"The government should lead by example by making it a priority to assist and welcome these new Canadian workers - whether their status is temporary or not," concludes McGowan.

Forty-one years ago, the United Nations declared that March 21^st would be the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This date was chosen to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre, when in 1960 South African police shot and killed 69 people who were peacefully demonstrating against the apartheid regime.

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For more information contact:

Gil McGowan, AFL President @ 780.483-3021 (office) or 780.218-9888 (cell)

Edmonton - The Alberta Federation of Labour reacted with guarded optimism to the Government's new measures announced today to protect temporary foreign workers.

The two special advisory offices for temporary foreign workers are a welcome - if long overdue - measure," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "The AFL had set up its own temporary foreign workers' advocate office last spring as a result of seeing a desperate need for such a measure."

McGowan also lauded the new investigative role assigned to the eight Employment Standards Officers assigned to investigate complaints by temporary foreign workers and to launch investigations and inspections on their own initiative. "We know from our own experience that many temporary foreign workers are either unaware of their rights or simply afraid to pursue those rights because of fears they will be sent home."

The real problem labour has with the new initiative is that it doesn't deal with the underlying issues surrounding the use of temporary foreign workers. "We are using these workers as disposable commodities to deal with very real inadequacies in our workplace training system and problems with our immigration system," says McGowan. "We are letting employers and government off the hook for failures of the system to train adequate number of workers with required skills and to pay wages and benefits sufficient to attract and retain Canadian workers," says McGowan.

Labour has also been very consistent in its opposition to the temporary foreign worker program, according to McGowan. "We say if these people are good enough to work here, they are good enough to be eligible for Canadian citizenship. The whole rent-a-worker aspect of the program is unacceptable."

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For more information contact:

Gil McGowan, AFL President @ 780.483-3021 (office) 780.218-9888 (cell)

Yessy Byl, TFW Advocate @ 780.720-8481 (cell)

Temporary Foreign Workers: Alberta's disposable workforce (The Six-Month Report of the AFL's Temporary Foreign Worker Advocate)

An analysis of the 123 files handled by the Advocate reveals a troubling picture of how Alberta is treating this group of workers. Quite frankly, we are exploiting their vulnerability and taking advantage of their precarious position.