National Statement
June 18, 2012
Toronto, ON—SIKLAB Canada, a progressive Filipino Canadian workers organization, denounces the proposed reforms to the Employment Insurance system and the wage cuts for temporary foreign workers as yet another regressive manoeuvre by the Conservative government that will hit all workers in Canada and worsen the ailing economy. While otherwise promoted as a plan towards greater “economic growth and prosperity,” we must refuse to be misguided by this racist, divisive and anti-worker drive for lower wages and greater insecurity through the flexibilization and contractualization of labour. While the lives of the vast majority of workers continue to be wracked by the neoliberal agenda of globalization—as seen in cutbacks to healthcare, employment, education, housing and settlement programs—no greater insurance can be availed by workers in Canada than by exposing and opposing neoliberal globalization and by advancing our full participation and entitlement as workers in Canadian society.
The changes, set to take effect in early 2013, will stream out-of-work Employment Insurance (EI) claimants to jobs that pay up to 30% less than their original wages, through the broadening of what a “reasonable” job search entails into positions that pay within a 70-80% bracket of their previous wage. Their eligibility for benefits will now also depend on the new criteria for “Suitable Employment,” which will nitpick into personal circumstances, working conditions, hours of work, commuting time, type of work, and hourly wage—details of which have yet to be fully disclosed. With these retrograde policies, we must all the more question the nature of work under neoliberal globalization and the conditions under which they are performed.
In the latest slew of undemocratically expedited reforms under the Conservatives’ “Omnibus Bill”, which encompass changes to immigration, employment, the criminal justice system, the environment and pensions, workers in Canada now face stringent restrictions for claiming EI benefits. Such barefaced disregard of workers’ realities, disguised under the cloak of creating “disincentives” against taking advantage of the system, promote the false logic of getting those who receive benefits off of EI as a salve for the unemployment problem. Figures from Statistics Canada, however, show that there is only one job available for every 5.8 unemployed workers, signalling a wound that is much deeper than any short-term reform can hide. Rather than blaming workers for the ailing economy, it is now all the more necessary to enhance workers’ participation in developing new long-term economic strategies and fostering genuine public institutions and social services to tackle the current crisis and beyond.
According to HRSDC Minister Diane Finley’s announcement on the reforms, the changes are also designed as a strategy to ensure that employers prioritize local over temporary foreign labour in filling labour shortages that unemployed “regular” Canadians can perform. Temporary workers are once again being used as a scapegoat to pit workers against each other, through the promotion of racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, which masks the rabid expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). The wage cuts for temporary foreign workers—up to 15% for high-skilled workers and 5% for low-skilled—and the doubling of the rejection rate of permanent residency applicants between 2006 and 2011 from 1.4% to 3.5% are direct manifestations of Canada’s drive to expand the pool of cheap labour. “The hypocrisy of the Conservative government in expanding the TFWP while cutting back wages and social services shows their lack of political will to genuinely tackle the unemployment and economic crisis for the benefit of workers,” states Yolyn Valenzuela, Vice-Chairperson of SIKLAB Canada.
Moreover, temporary foreign workers under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) can no longer access EI, despite paying regular contributions. Such restrictions are an outright disservice to workers under the LCP whose labour also functions to meet Canada’s healthcare and childcare needs. Though technically available, EI benefits are essentially inaccessible to these workers as they are subject to the exploitative restrictions of the LCP—the live-in requirement that must be fulfilled within four years and the employer-specific work permit that ties them to only one employer. Taking time off and claiming EI is simply impossible for workers under this racist and anti-worker program as they race against the clock to fulfill such stringent requirements.
In the face of such blatant attacks against the lives and conditions of workers, SIKLAB Canada will continue to be vigilant against all measures that wedge false divisions between workers and undermine their genuine development. We will continue to expose and oppose the neoliberal agenda of globalization and advance the working class struggle towards our full entitlement as fundamental contributors to Canadian society. We will heighten the struggle for our genuine settlement, integration and full participation as part of the working class in Canada.
Scrap the racist, anti-woman and anti-worker Live-in Caregiver Program!
Stop the cuts! End the contractualization of labour!
Expose and oppose the neoliberal agenda of globalization!
Advance the movement for genuine settlement and integration!
Advance and uphold the working class struggle!
-30-
For more information, contact:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
siklab-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook and Twitter: Siklab Ontario