Assignment task: On Saturday, June 10, 2006, British Columbia's minister for transportation, Kevin Falcon, celebrated the start of the tunnel-boring operation for the new rapid transit line linking Vancouver airport with other parts of the city. The boring machine Sweet Leilani-was so sophisticated that it required specialized staffing from Costa Rica, Peru, and Colombia. The only problem was that these workers were paid as little as $3.47 per hour, a lot less than the legislated minimum wage in British Columbia. Less than a month later, a majority of the foreign workers had voted to become unionized.
As each driver pulls into the yard, the foreman asks, "How much?" Most of the people in the trucks offer $5 an hour. Cespedes automatically responds, "$7.25; the going rate is $7.25 for an hour's hard work." Sometimes he convinces people to pay that much, but usually not. The workers, who come from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala, know that dozens of them will end up with no work at all this day. Most accept $5 or $6 an hour because they know that when the day is over, $50 is better than nothing.
Canada today is confronting a unique problem: it no longer has enough workers, especially those in construction and the trades. Employers crying out for temporary workers argue that Canada should beef up its guest worker program and make it easier to recruit immigrants. On the other hand, critics (including trade unions) argue that guest workers depress wages for Canadian workers and worsen working conditions. At the same time, some Canadian unions have begun to support guest workers struggling to unionize.
The hard truth is that immigrants to Canada and the United States do the jobs that no one else wants. Immigrants represent the bottom level of our national economy, working in restaurants and hotels, on construction crews, and in private homes cooking, cleaning, and caring for children. Across North America, about half of all housekeepers, household cooks, tailors, and restaurant waiters are men or women born abroad. Few immigrants make much more than the minimum wage and unless they gain landed immigrant or citizenship status- are unlikely to receive any health or pension benefits. Like the United States and Britain, Canada has not signed a UN Convention that protects the rights of migrant workers.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Q1. In what ways do you or members of your family depend on the low-paid labour of immigrants?
Q2. Do you think there is anything wrong with paying someone the current minimum wage for hard work? Why or why not?
Q3. Do you think that guest workers to Canada should have the right to become permanent residents and eventually citizens?