Canadian Seafarers File A Lawsuit Against Federal Government To Protect Maritime Jobs

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The Dieselduck
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Re: Canadian Seafarers File A Lawsuit Against Federal Government To Protect Maritime Jobs

Post by The Dieselduck »

Yes, the SIU is finally waking up, a little late, but hey the Guild is, well the guild is nowhere to be found on these topics.

Looks like the SIU has filed three lawsuits that challenge the use of non Canadian crews on foreign ships operating in Canada. To me there is really two issues that get confused in there. One is the Canada Transportation Agency to grant a Coasting Trade Act Waiver to a foreign ships, something that is pretty routine now and that riles me to no end, as the impacts of those decision are not weight upon anything but the impacts a Canadian shipowner might feel.

The other aspect is that once the ship is operating in Canada, without paying taxes - yet taking advantage of tax payer funded infrastructure - the crewing of that ship is typically not considered as a separate matter. To me it seems that the government takes the CTA waiver to apply to the ship and its crew. Which of course is a windfall for shipper's bottom line, but totally destructive to canadian mariners, doubly so, as we still have to pay to maintain the public funded infrastructure those shippers take advantage of.

I think its great to see the SIU go after that particular aspect of the whole Harper trend of killing Canadian marine jobs.

PF Collins of St John's is the leading facilitator of this scheme in Canada.
Love the stated goals on their website
Love the stated goals on their website
Here's one of the SIU's press release

SIU of Canada Sues to Protect Maritime Jobs (9/9)

The SIU of Canada, to which the SIU is affiliated, issued the following news release on September 9.

Seafarers launch lawsuit against the Federal Government to protect Canadian maritime jobs

The Seafarers’ International Union of Canada (SIU) has launched a lawsuit challenging repeated decisions by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) to grant temporary work permits to foreign maritime workers crewing foreign ships operating in Canadian waters. Canadian law requires that ships carrying passengers or goods between Canadian ports (“cabotage”) may only use foreign workers if no qualified Canadian workers are available.

“The Government of Canada has allowed foreign workers to take 2,100 jobs from qualified Canadian maritime workers,” said SIU President Jim Given. “The Federal Government continues to misuse their authority to grant temporary work permits to foreign workers, while passing over Canadian sailors who are ready to work”.

The SIU lawsuit challenges the temporary work permits recently granted to foreign workers aboard the Sparto, an oil tanker sailing under the flag of convenience of Cyprus. Since the beginning of 2015, the Sparto has been granted permission 10 separate times to ship crude oil on the St. Lawrence Seaway and Gulf of St. Lawrence, between the Maritime Provinces and Montreal. The Government of Canada recently issued work permits to 16 foreign workers on the Sparto despite the law stipulating that temporary work permits can only be issued if qualified Canadian workers are not available. The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the work permits should not have been issued and the termination of those work permits. Employment and Social Development Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada are named as respondents in the lawsuit.

To date, 2,100 Canadian jobs have been lost as a result of the federal government not properly enforcing Canadian immigration law requirements. Since 2013, approximately 4,000 temporary foreign work permits have been issued by the Government of Canada for domestic shipping. Approximately 25 percent of Canadian maritime workers are currently unemployed.

“The Government of Canada is willfully ignoring the law and giving up on qualified, ready-to-work Canadian workers,” said Given. “We cannot sit by and watch while foreign workers are being given work permits and are paid as little as $2.00 an hour to work on ships in Canadian waters.”

The lawsuit comes on the heels of reports of another foreign vessel, the Amalthea, operating between Canadian ports with foreign workers paid as little as $2.00 an hour.

The SIU has made numerous attempts to contact Federal Government officials around Ottawa’s failure to enforce immigration law in connection with issuing work permits to foreign crew. To date, no acknowledgement has been made and no action has been taken.

Here are some more links to thee articles

http://www.seafarers.ca/siu-launches-tw ... -lawsuits/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3219066
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Merlyn
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Re: Canadian Seafarers File A Lawsuit Against Federal Government To Protect Maritime Jobs

Post by Merlyn »

What a state the world is coming to now concerning shipping/ foreign crews/ wages etc. We had a Russian Bulker over UK on the south coast tied up alongside for months concerning non payment of crews wages. Admiralty high court writ pinned to the mast so after several weeks owners stopped supplying food etc for crew in attempt to starve them off the ship. In steps local do gooders, appeal funds set up to provide food to keep the crews alive and then MCA do an inspection, port authority serves another writ for no alongside fees paid and the ship stays there for what appears almost forever. What a mess and not a good picture to paint for all persons thinking of entering the trade. Definitely not the line to sign up with methinks.
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