Letters to the editor

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Re: Skilled labour ‘shortage?’

Dear Editor,

Tope Oriola’s article “Is there a skilled labour shortage in Manitoba?” (Jan. 10) touches the top of a big iceberg. As a 1960 immigrant to Canada, I can now at age 72 look back on a working life spent mostly in the U.S., and yet mostly in fear of not being able to get work. I think this concerns not only immigrants, but also locals — and aboriginals, who are usually mentioned after the immigrants. Is employment discrimination the only problem?

My experience was that after years of door-to-door salesmanship, driving bilingual taxis, and above all working “on the board” as a draftsman while I had a perfectly good engineering degree from the same school as the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, I finally ended up being able to select professional employees. I recruited at a rate of half a year or a year per person, with plenty of resumés available. My boss happened to be an earlier immigrant from the same country as I, although under more tragic circumstances, but was generally patient and gracious, but not quite above hiring and firing staff over my head occasionally, when he thought that toughness would protect the stability of his division.

About half of my candidates resigned within a few months because they felt insecure. One of the most successful was a relative of a higherup, which provided that margin of confidence to keep fighting.

Even after piling up a second and third degree, I only found myself crowded out of the job market by age 69. Why are immigrants by nonpartisan consensus necessary to do the dirty work? Will we ever become a mature, sustainable society without exploitation of foreigners lured by make-believe? I hope the research Oriola references or suggests will settle that.

Roger Belling

Jerema’s negative editorials

Why is it that the editorials that Carson Jerema so often chooses take the negative view of things? An example is his latest tirade, “So what if the senate endorsed the day of action!” (Jan. 17).

Given that senate is mostly made up of professors, the endorsement of the National Day of Action is more than just a symbolic victory. It means that I can more easily and confidently talk to my professors about missing class for an important event. Given that professors also seem to be noticing that funding for education is inadequate, the motion in senate was also a great way to build bridges and have a collective discussion about what this university stands for.

I think it’s great that UMSU took the initiative and worked out a motion that everyone could live with. That’s what the democratic process is all about. That’s called compromising, in a useful way.

If some writers at the Manitoban don’t agree with the tuition fee freeze and don’t think it’s important to lobby governments for more funding for education, that (although difficult to understand) is their business. I just don’t understand why they go on and on about it every week. Aren’t there more truly controversial and ignored issues to write about in the Manitoban, like what’s happening in Sudan, the war in Iraq and cuts to women’s programs in Canada?

Edwardo Famakin