Dozens of unionized and presently unemployed, construction workers demonstrated in front of a Winnipeg building site on Wednesday
There is a growing resentment right across Canada over the use of temporary foreign workers to displace Canadians. The construction workers say this is yet another case of bringing in temporary foreign workers when there are qualified local workers who are available.
The work is taking place to build the new Women’s Hospital, a job that would keep construction workers employed for about 2 years.
The unions says that firms are abusing the foreign worker programme by claiming there are no qualified local workers. The unions say, the temporary foreign worker programme allows the firms to pay 15% lower wages which is why they try to cut out local workers.
The subcontracted construction company owner has said only seven or eight of his 35 workers are from outside Canada and they are being paid the same wages as his Canadian workers. Company owner Alex Pagnotta noted he received approval from Service Canada to hire the workers, adding Manitoba has a shortage of workers who can do skilled concrete formwork
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