THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

BA TRAGIC BLUNDER

TILE PROVINCE,

Skilled scarce

Men wanted here

Immigration Minister Jack Nicholson said in Vancouver a special survey shows B.C. needs 10,456 professional, technical and skilled workers now and will need 21,567 by the end the year.

Mr. Nicholson forecast that the requirements for Canada by the end of the year will be at least 100,000 and likely as high as 150,000. He said the immigration department has started a recruiting pro- gram in Europe after an eight year cessation in overseas immigration promotion, and that he is hopeful the boom will not be slowed for lack of skilled workers.

Mr. Nicholson said the program has been launched after con- sultation with labor leaders and is patterned to give full weight to labor’s fears that immigrants could take jobs from Canadians.

The department of immigration will open recruiting offices in southern France and northern Italy, and if necessary will do this in parts of the U.S. where there are pockets of unemployed with skills useful in Canada. Among these he mentioned depressed U.S. coal areas where miners could be usefully employed in the B.C: mining industry. :

“I know we can get more immigrants in the U.K., Germany, Hol- land and Italy, and a limited number in Austria and Belgium,” Mr. Nicholson said.

The B.C. survey at the request of the provincial government was

carried out bya 20 immigration department staff directed by an expert '

in the field. It covered 710 B.C. firms including majors and minors in forest products,- construction, mining and agriculture. These firms came up with the totals of 10,456 additional manpower requirements

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"The plan to import skilled workers from other ;

countries, after a ‘horseback survey, reveals — a shameful failure to provide opportunities

for our own people." — Moore.

“WHY NEGLECT OUR OWN BOYS?"

“Mr, Jack Moore,

IWA Regional President, Vancouver, B.C.

“Dear Sir and Brother:

“As an IWA member and the father of two boys, 18 and 17, | ask you to do something to get jobs for the thousands of young, potential union members, who are unemployed because of inexperience. The daily papers have pages of ads for experienced help and now the employers plan to import skilled men from other countries. Surely if foreign coun- tries can train their inexperienced workers in the skills needed, we can do it here for our own boys. Something must be done at once, for our young people are being let down.

“It seems to me that if the men now employed get a better chance for promotion, room could be made for quotas of inexperienced youths to get training on the job.

“Some expression of concern by you might help to break down the apathy of those who can and should do something for inexperienced unemployed youths of today — the potential derelicts and hoodlums of tomorrow.

“Yours, truly concerned, “J, J. KELNHOFER.”

now and 21,567 by the end of the year...

The contrast shown above between a crying need and the hypocritical plans of a bumbling officialdom tells a story that rings a bell in many a trade unionist’s home. It reminds our union of its responsibilities toward the many thousands of our youths who tomorrow, we hope, to welcome into the ranks of the trade union movement.

This problem has a bearing on the job security of many of our members who must now adjust to radical changes in production methods. We may tell our fellow-members that his point of view has our full sympathy. We should also be able to tell him that we intend to do something about the problem which concerns the boys and girls in an IWA home.

Only recently, a shopping centre, with which I am familiar advertised seven jobs. The manager informed me that he had 2,000 applications from young people seeking work. These youngsters were seeking work which did not require experi- ence. Some were students and others were school drop-outs. It was a cross-section of our youth now besieging the labour market, aimlessly and hopelessly.

NO ANSWERS

Brother Kelnhofer asks questions for which our provincial government has no satisfactory answers.

If other countries can train their workers in the skills required, why can we not do as much for our own youth? Why should this new immigra- tion be used to fill job opportunities for the skilled to supplant our young people who are asking that their own country should provide them with the same opportunities? Why are workers now em- ployed denied proper opportunities to qualify for more highly skilled occupations instead of being displaced by trained workers from abroad?

I suggest that the Hon. Mr. Nicholson should take a look at the results of Federal Government

"A SORRY RECORD"

By JACK MOORE

Regional President

leadership in this field. By April, 1964 the com- bined federal and provincial expenditures under the Technical and Vocational Training Assistance Act (1960) was more than $560 million of which more than $340 million was furnished by the fed- eral authorities. Up to that point, only 150,000 students had been graduated, (mainly vocational and high school students) in all Canada. Most of the money went into the construction of 214 new technical and vocational secondary schools, 52 new trade schools, four new Institutes of Technology, 10 new combined trade and technical schools and a number of additions to all these kinds of insti- tutions. The contractors got more assistance than the unemployed.

POOR FIFTH

Among the ten Canadian provinces, British Co- lumbia rates as a poor fifth in taking advantage of participation in this plan.

The program to train the unemployed reached less than 7 per cent of the jobless. Out of a total labour force in Canada of nearly seven million people, only 21,000 in Canada were aided to up- grade their skills to enter or re-enter employment.

British Columbia is the darkest spot in Canada, for training of both the employed and the unem- ployed. The chief reason given for the failure of training for the unemployed is simply that the training allowances provided are simply not suf- ficient to enable workers to remain in training.

Let us turn to the report of the B.C. Depart- ment of Labour to discover what is being done to help those who need help to qualify for skilled jobs.

Remember that our work force in this province is over 650,000. In 1964, the number of unemploy- ed ran as high as seven per cent of this figure. Trade union membership in 1964 totalled 226,690 or 42.7 per cent of the employed workers.

In December, 1964, there were 3,797 registered apprentices in training in 39 trades; 456 had com- pleted their apprenticeships in that year.

Both daytime and evening classes for appren- ticeship technical training enrolled 2,676 in various

institutions. In pre-apprenticeship training, 511 -

graduated and 322 were in training.

Under the Tradesmen’s Qualification Act, 561 certificates were issued for automobile mechanics, radio-television and refrigeration technicians only.

When we examine the trades for which training was provided, we realize that much of the training was provided for non-existent jobs. There has been little co-ordination between training and job place- ment, a glaring mis-matching of skills.

If we lump together all the training opportun- ities in B.C. and contrast it with the known need, the outlook is grim indeed.

Suppose my friend is asked to send his boys to the B.C. Institute of Technology for the two- term courses, what will he find? They must have at least Grade XII education.

For each lad, he will be required to pay annual fees of $188.50 and from $60 to $125 for textbooks, instruments, ete.

MISSPENT FUNDS

The cost to recruit, transport and place each skilled immigrant, now sought by Mr. Nicholson may easily approximate $5,000 per person. Im- agine what this expenditure could do for a Cana- dian youth who lacks the means and opportunity to acquire the skills demanded when he applies for work.

British Columbia has a sorry record in youth training. The time has come when the trade union.

movement must exert its maximum influence to _

improve the status of its present and future mem- bership. Pe

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