How about a boycott against Tim Horton's? (viz. the UCC Settlements action)

I'm up for that… in fact, I've just begun it.

Mike, isn't it franchise dependent?  Personally, I think it would be hurting more than helping.  The Tims I go to usually has the same people working there for about 4 years, until they graduate.  Many of them I suspect came here for university, judging by their accents.  Boycotting would mean Tim's probably would have to let some go.

I think it's best to focus on the areas where there is a problem rather than harming places that does treat it's workers fairly just because they share a brand.

Most of the Timmies workers I know are local high school and college kids or else retirees making extra bucks to supplement their pensions. Until this story broke, I'd never heard of a coffee place using foreign workers.

Mendalla

Timmies was just an example. The first paragraph voices the concern. And the questions remain:

Is screwing people what we do to get by in Canada? 

Have we always done it? (The Chinese railway builders and Irish "navvies" come to mind).

Are you okay with it? Or is this just another pinko, lefty, greeny distraction?

Or are concern, action and advocacy Christian responsibilitie

I think it's something that has been done for an extremely long time, well before most of our ancestors were in Canada.  I do think that race/ethnic superiority attitudes has decreased, and with that we do care more about others now compared to what we used to.

I don't think. so, they are human responsibilities.  Some people may feel that way due to their religion, but Christians aren't the only ones who care.

Hi Mike

I'm reading the morning Star and the screwing continues.

Get a load of this...!!!!! Migrants are compelled to pay EI but will never be allowed to collect....never...never...never...!!!

In general throughout human history the rich have screwed the poor and the haves have screwed the have-nots. Since the vast majority of people in Canada would be "rich" or "the haves" compared to many of the migrant workers, the answer, unfortunately, is often "yes."

Not only us. I suspect that if you look at most cultures today and throughout history you'll find the social phenomenon I mention above.

Nope.

It may well qualify as "pinko, lefty and greeny." I think, however, that from any perspective, expoitation and mistreatment should not be considered distractions.

I believe that the ethical imperative of the gospel is to stand in solidarity with those who are more vulnerable than we are. So, the answer is yes.

And I just read that the Harper's $15 billion Nexen deal includes allowing the Chinese to bring in cheap labour to dosome of the work, exempt from Canadian labour practices and requirements.

A few days ago Immigration Minister Jason Kenney launched a new program to speed the arrival to Canada of foreign tradespeople whose skills are in demand: the "Skilled Trades Stream" is set to admit up to 3,000 foreign workers next year. It's being billed as a way to address labour shortages, particularly in "remote regions".

It's all adding up to a fairly ugly picture.

In highschool, I did a report on the history of our area in Western Pennsylvania. It was once the site of the world largest coal tipple. It focused on coal mining and immigration, company stores.... and exploitation and xenophobia.
 

As the railway extended, they would set up a shanty town and an influx of immigrant workers would be brought in to live in hastily built shacks.  Engineers would soon arrive and set out streets and such and build a proper town. The mines would get a steady stream of cheap and exploited labour from immigrants coming from wherever people were fleeing at the time. They would build up distrust and dislike and folks being openly hostile about each newly arriving group. Employees needed to be scared of, fear....outwork the new arrivals to keep up profits. Once a formal city was started, then "shantytowns" of newly constructed places would go up and each new group would get the shantytown. This would mean they were marginalized... The shanty would  become part of town and a new shantytown would pop up.

I had some idea what I was in for when 7th Street was still called Jew Town...

What it boiled down to was making a buck... and how many bucks more can you make if you do__ or ___.....

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

So, Mike, thanks for stirring that kid once more to strive for equality, justice... and end to discrimination and exploitation....

Thanks for stirring memories of a place I long called "home"...

Right now, I sit and sing Sixteen Tons

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

The Tim Horton's franchise that employes my sister regularly brings in groups of Filipino temporary workers. Once the group is here, the hours are reduced for the Canadian workers so the commitment of hours for the temporary workers can be met.

The government shafts quite a few workers with their EI rules.  Since the Martin budgets, EI has become a pay roll tax on employers and employees to increase revenues for the federal government.

I was reminded of the children, mostly orphans, who were shipped to Canada and became cheap labour for farmers and others.    In the 60s and 70s, First Nations families on welfare in Alberta had to spend their summers providing cheap labour for sugar beet growers in Southern Alberta.

Many of the abuses are screened by the government from becoming known to the general public.

After Michigan, workers and middle-class people need to consider more support for the Ocuupy and similar movements.

We can name call centres and those who outsource to them.

We can name Walmart or whomever we like to dislike. Yet, we can name the most favoured folks also.

It does not even have to be " an other" or someone born outside Canada.

Plenty of places. sadly many, hire temps instead of full time employees. Some hire contract workers to avoid paying benefits. Plenty hire part-time workers to avoid same.

It is not just fast food places, services, or retail. It is all kinds of jobs.

Sadly, making a buck is about making a buck... turning profits are about turning profits.... people are seen as a cost of the product or service, a commodity and a labour force

Jim Kenney highlights that the injustices are often multiplied.  The greater the injustice done to foreign workers the greater the injustice done to Canadians.  Use of temporary foreign workers can only be justified when there is a shortage of Canadian workers to fill the positions.  Of course, plenty of people having the skills necessary to pour coffee and make sandwiches are already living here in Canada but are not interested in working at Tim's ... FOR THE WAGE THEY ARE OFFERING!!!! Raise the pay scale and the shortage would disappear.  Not many Canadians wish (or can even afford ) to work for wages that would be acceptable to Filipino migrants.  
 

Employers are abusing temporary worker programs to break unions and to depress wages for Canadians.  Our governments are assisting in the perpetration of this injustice.  

I for one have been boycotting Tim's for quite some time.  Tim's however, has succeeded in convincing many that stopping in at Tim's is the patriotic choice.  

Man! That didn't take long! Canada has already begun displacing Canadian workers in the resources sector with temporary foreign workers ... Apparently there are not enough coal miners in Canada with the ability to speak Mandarin to fill one coal concerns labour requirements.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/12/12/pol-immigration-minister-...

I agree with most of the above, but just to play devils advocate, do we actually have alot of young people that aspire to work in the mines? Or would think of Tim Hortons as a career choice rather than just a stepping stone to a "real" career? This of course doesn't justify hiring immigrants below current wages without benefits, but does it help to create the void that's being abused? Do we as Canadians place more value on a university education rather than our sons and daughters pursuing a skilled trade? Think about it, we have the words, "blue collar and white collar" and we tend to congregate according to those groups don't we?

Waterfall points to the tip of an iceberg: the cultural values with which our children grow up with attitudes about money, entitlement, worthwhile employment, and so much more.

Waterfall:

I'm originally from N.S. where coal mining has brought death and disaster to the workers  over the years. There has been no coal mining in N.S. since the Westray disaster but it is  possibly being revived in 2013  I recently read.

I think coal mining (including its owners) is   dirty business  and I would be happy enough to join with our Native communities in opposing mining in Canada  wherever and whenever possible. N.S. opposed a gold strip mine in Moose  River - sp-  2-3 years ago but lost the battle. I would not send anyone , Chinese or otherwise down into a mine.

I've also been reading that the lives of the  aboriginals who work in the northern mines are deeply affected . Mining is a high stress job, there are health issues, black lung disease, no sunlight for hours. The workers resort to alcoholism and drugs to deal with it since they have the money.

There's a bigger framework for this. Go back to free trade - the principle that goods should move freely between countries. The logical extension is that labour should be freely, too. That was the production of goods become cheaper - to the sole benefit, as we are learning - for a few of the very wealthy.

The basic issue here is morality. Morals don't mean just being good or just following the ten commandments to get into the heavenly chorus line that eternally praises God. There's a reason for morals No society can function long without them.

Western society has become pretty thorougly amoral, and the major source of that amorality is a perverted system of greed that we mislabel "capitalism". It is no such thing.

The practice of importing humans to be exploited here so that people who are here can be be dropped even from the list of exploited is immoral. The Canadian people have to learn that.

Here's something you may want to pass on…

It's in the form of a letter that can be sent on to MPs, etc. You could copy & paste, personaising & filling in the blanks, etc, and send it to you MP and local federal hopefuls/contenders.

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Dear_________

Here's something that I believe could usefully be looked into in relation to Canada: it's a report on child poverty and recommendations from New Zealand.

I'd invite you check out this document and maybe initiate something of the sort here.

http://www.occ.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/10154/Final_priorities_recommendations.pdf

You'll note that the first step this report calls for — that the government "adopt a strategic framework for addressing child poverty, ensuring accountability for outcomes" — would require child poverty to be measured and monitored and for some short and long-term poverty-reduction targets to be set. It will mean coming up with meaningful child poverty-reduction indicators, and regularly monitoring and reporting results.

In New Zealand, the strategy would need to include specific targets to ensure that Māori and Pasifika children achieve parity with other children. Here, the appropriate equivalent would of course be First Nations, Inuit and Meti children.

Other Measures to mitigate some of the worst expressions of child poverty include establishing a "Warrant of Fitness" for all rental housing (both social and private sector); supporting a public-private-partnership micro-financing model with the banking sector and community groups, with the aim of providing modest low-interest and zero-interest loans, as a mechanism to help low-income families access affordable credit and effectively manage debt; supporting young people who are pregnant and/or parenting to remain engaged in education… etc.

Best wishes!

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