I'd like each of you on the committee to picture the worst job you've ever had in your life. After that, I would like you to remember the kind of work you were doing and the boss you had.
Probably what you did was either quit the job or look for another job. I'd like you to picture me taking all those options away from you--because that's what we at the Immigrant Workers Center believe you're going to do when you have a program like the temporary foreign workers program.
The fundamental principle of functional labour is the ability and the mobility of someone to leave a job. So if you tie the status of someone to that job, you are not going to be able to have that mobility and to have the bargaining power for better working conditions, or better anything.
I would like to state that the people we see are exploited and discriminated against, and most of the time they're in fear of retribution from their employers. And these are the people who have permanent status; these aren't the people who are going to have no status in this program.
In conclusion, from our experiences on the front line, more temporary immigration into precarious jobs will not help the situation. It will open the doors to more exploitation, discrimination, and abuse for those people who we want, in our country, to work. It is our position that we need these workers. Therefore, we should be providing them with permanent residence. If they're good enough to work, they're good enough to stay, and this is a temporary solution to a permanent and ongoing labour shortage that we need to address.
Thank you.