Shelling out
Re: When EI beats shelling lobster, John Ivison, April 6
In complaining about people in New Brunswick who prefer EI to shelling lobster, John Ivison studiously avoids saying exactly what wages and benefits are offered for that gruelling work. As anyone who has ever done it knows, standing hunched over in the cold for the better part of 10 hours, five or six days a week, takes a considerable physical toll on almost anyone who does it on anything but a temporary basis. Even so, if the compensation package for that work reflected the price workers pay for doing it, I’m sure we wouldn’t need to exploit desperate foreign workers. The solution is simple: charge a price for the luxury of processed lobster that does reflect that price and don’t let lobster processed for slave wages be sold in Canada. Kurt Weinheimer, Toronto I certainly agree with the i dea that we should not subsidize workers with EI benefits that are so generous that people choose to collect them rather than taking available jobs. But to evaluate this situation fairly one needs to take a closer look at the jobs that are being offered. According to a column published in this paper last year, a lobster processing plant had problems finding workers. That column, unlike John Ivison’s column, gave i nformation on the pay offered for these shellfish labourer jobs. Here is a quote: “The job pays $ 11.25 to $13.93 per hour, based on experience and education.” This is for work that Nat Richard, a director of Westmoreland Fisheries, refers to as “tough work.”
How many Canadians would be willing to take what appears to be an almost minimum wage job, doing “tough work” in a smelly fish plant?
I am sure that if Mr. Richard was asked why his company doesn’t offer higher pay, he would say that his company would cease being competitive.
So instead his company takes advantage of the temporary foreign workers program and the government ends up paying EI to Canadians who could have taken those jobs. These EI payments, in my view, represent a subsidy to the Canadian fisheries industry. Michael Poliacik, Toronto