On Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 13:26:58 (-0700) Sandwichman writes:
>Here's an odd thought. Tuesday I went to a public forum on immigration and
>labour. The big issue, apparently -- especially for the speakers from the
>business associations -- was the looming shortage of skilled workers.
You misheard them: they said "the looming shortage of underpaid and
frightened skilled workers".
Not really. They aren't worried about a shortage of underpaid and
frightened workers because they have policies and practices in place to
ensure a glut of those. The problem is those policies and practices
also prevent the underpaid and frightened from ever obtaining the
skills and credentials that are required for the higher-paying core
jobs. So, rather than giving the underpaid and frightened a chance to
move up, they would prefer to just bring in already trained,
experienced and credentialed workers from other jurisdictions. In other
words, they want someone else to pay the overhead costs for them (which
is a point the speaker from the BC Federation of Labour raised and I
seconded).