06) SCRAP THE TFWP

People's Voice Editorial

            Under the guise of addressing shortages of skilled workers in certain regions or industries, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has been relentlessly expanded under the Harper Tories, as part of their core agenda to weaken the labour movement. New revelations about employer abuses of the TFWP have sparked more calls to change the program, or to shut it down.             Unity of all workers is the bedrock of our common struggle for social justice and equality. We must be vigilant against the divisive strategies of the bosses and pro-corporate governments, especially their deliberate attempt to fan hatred against workers from outside Canada. The demand to scrap the TFWP must not become a racist or narrow nationalist campaign. Today, capital flows unrestricted across borders in search of maximum returns, so working people must have the right to improve their own lives by seeking better employment, regardless of their passports, or their lack of formal documentation.

            But the TFWP is not a form of solidarity extended by the ruling class to non-Canadian workers. In a recent Vancouver Sun interview, Dan Keely, President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, claimed that Canadian youth burdened with student debt refuse to take fast food jobs, while foreign-born workers accept low wages and turn up for every shift. In other words, TFWP employees are considered to be reliable cheap labour.

            Today, Macdonald's is being called out for its hiring practices, including reluctance to hire young Canadians. Yet this fast food giant raked in $6 billion (US) profit during 2013. Clearly, such corporations can afford to pay higher wages. The TFWP is a deliberate government tool to help business maximize profits, at the expense of all working people, wherever we are from. The call to scrap the TFWP must be part of a wider struggle to build unity around the fight to put people before profits!

(The above article is from the May 1-15, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)