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Importing Migrant Workers

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dutchie said:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...or-gine-rinehart/story-fn9hm1gu-1226366976152

Is it just me or have we gone crazy.

How many people here are unemployed (and rising)??
Click to expand...

Yes, but do they want to work? And are they prepared to re-locate to do so?

A great deal of my extended family is not well-off at all, some of them on unemployment benefits. For most, it's not that they can't get a job, it's that they're too lazy to get one.
And for the others, they'd rather stay on unemployment benefits than change states.

Obviously it doesn't encompass everyone, but most are within these bounds.
 
Yep, I agree, we should start a political party just like the Labor party used to be, one for the workers.

The mob in there now are all professional pollies, not really for the workers at all IMO.

There are plenty of people over east willing to work in WA in the mines. I know the place that just lost 400 from the aluminium smelter would probably have a few happy to go to WA for work.

Just place a big ad in all the eastern papers, soon get workers I reckon, people are paying thousands for training courses so that they are ready to work in the mines then find there are no jobs ????
 

Talked with a mine sparkie who got made redundant when a mine closed 12 months ago - the visa sparkies were on 1/3 of the local sparkies packages, saving about 100K per person per year. Lots of incentive if you're the owner. And OZ is pricing itself out of the global market in many ways, not just labour.

If you can get a trade, a tradie does a lot better than may uni grads now - but some of these have knackered bodies by 50ish! A desk jockey can usually continue longer.

There are some jobs (fruit picking) which locals won't do ('coz it's harder than it seems) - backpackers & migrants have made up the numbers for years. The "working poor" would in many cases be better off on a benefit.

MW - be wary of tradies from Europe. Some may be Muslim (reference to another thread)!!!
 
Good point. Perhaps employers want people who will just do the job.
Unlike the workforce at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance who have announced they will not work for a week.

I'd like to see imported workers take up these jobs.
 
The word from employment agencies is don't bother going to the mines unless you have very specific skills.

I'm no socialist and not one who routinely sides with unions and the like. But to be very polite, the mining companies are taking us for a ride on this one. There are plenty of people who would give these jobs a go if given a chance at training and relocation (which is exactly what the foreign workers will be doing).

It's the pursuit of cheap labour. Nothing more and nothing less.
 

While i agree with this, i think that there is also a lot of people who wouldnt be willing to relocate or FIFO and i doubt they would be able to find 7500 people.

Personally i know i could go to numerous different mines and have a job within a day, but many people just aren't willing
 

Our nation has become soft.

If we cannot do the work, we need to encourage fit working migrants to bolster our slack workers.

It has always been thus.

Australia is a nation of migrants.

gg
 
I've done FIFO for a few years in the mining/ construction game in the pilbara as a trades assistant. Always had my eye out for traineeships or apprenticeships. Rare as hens teeth in the circles I travel unless your indigenous. I've never been on a project where they couldnt have got more workers if they'd just asked around. Always plenty of people trying to get on site.

I dont know where they advertise for these jobs. RIO was in the paper a few weeks ago talking about going on a recruiting spree, wanting 6000 workers. Last time I looked they had 170 jobs on their website. Go figure!
 

+1

There is a near total lack of fair dinkumness about the mining job shortages.
 
Smurf1976 said:
It's the pursuit of cheap labour. Nothing more and nothing less.
Click to expand...

Agree too.

I can't understand why these mining magnates enjoy so much popular support.

They make millions digging up resources that belong to us all. They fight tooth and nail to minimise the taxes they pay for doing this. Now they're not even willing to provide Australians with jobs to do the digging.
 
Klogg said:
Yes, but do they want to work? And are they prepared to re-locate to do so?
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A better question is, why the hell should they have the right to make such choices?

Get rid of welfare and the minimum wage - overnight labour shortages will end (except of course very highly skilled labour such as doctors).


I don't want to pointlessly import more people into the country to put yet more pressure on our 3rd world infrastructure.
 
I was reading our agricultural sector has a desperate Labour shortage that is costing the industry 150m per year in lost productivity.

This incidentally is less than three days profit for Gina Rinehart.

I dont care what anyone says we have a unhealthy and unbalanced economy and these Miners bringing in immigrant Labour at 1/3rd of local rates are clearly taking the piss.
 
In most countries especially in Asia, if you dont work you starve and your family suffer,
it is a previledge for them to have a job and they work hard and hardly complain.

They go where there are jobs and they work hard to keep their job.

I can see why company like to employ these over sea workers..

Here the BHP coal strike, 10% pay raise isnt enough, they want everything.
If they want that sort of condition start their own business, else sooner or later they negotiate themselves out of a job...

There are more willing people working for less

I think Companies making decent profit should employ Aussies worker but sometimes I see these crazy unreasonable union demands you got to feel for the company as well.
 
ROE said:
In most countries especially in Asia, if you dont work you starve and your family suffer,
it is a previledge for them to have a job and they work hard and hardly complain.
Click to expand...


Anyone who wants to live the Asian dream is welcome to move to Asia - why lower our standards just because less successful nations do this ? So we can make more individuals superwealthy like in Asia 99pc of wealth in hands of 1pc .... Crazy stuff.
 
This is not just about mine workers.
Gillard has a system to relocate and train workers, but I read somewhere lately it has failed to do the job.
There appears to be a split between Bowen and Gillard.
Gillard was not told prior to the decision to import workers, and now the decision cannot be reversed.
It is possible they are importing workers to get the project going etc.
Just remember every time a union goes ahead with a strike, both the company and the surplus next year loses.

This morning I read in one of the papers a Labor MP was questioned about a Rudd return.
It appears that the MP stated if Rudd was to returned he hoped it would save some Labor seats for their rebuild. He also said that some MP's were scared of a Rudd win at the next election as they would have to put up with him for 3 years.

On FIFO I have spoken to a few guys in our locality who had businesses and shut them down and joined the FIFO crowd and are loving it. Three I have personally talked to, and both them and their wives are loving it.
One who has a steel welding works, continues to operate it as a one man show in his time off.
Why did they chose to do this? The answers were all the same, They are sick to death of dealing with their workers. No unions pressure involved.

On a mine shut down in Nth Qld.. Some were sacked and the rest deployed to other sites.

So I believe what we see in the media is far from the truth of what is going on in the background.
The business of our economy (Paul Howes outburst) is "fractured" in many, many areas. To top it off the PM refuses to support a FWA inquiry. That is, a report from the group she created.
I think the Labor MP's are having a hard time doing their job under the current PM.
We the voter watch and wait with interest!
joea
 
numbercruncher said:
Anyone who wants to live the Asian dream is welcome to move to Asia - why lower our standards just because less successful nations do this ? So we can make more individuals superwealthy like in Asia 99pc of wealth in hands of 1pc .... Crazy stuff.
Click to expand...

Australian are settling in Thialand and other area's and working in the WA gas and oil. FIFO.

Why? Rudd altered the tax system to disallow their tax advantage of offshore jobs.
To explain. if they were getting taxed at 30% then building houses or investing with their gains (in Australia), Rudd decided to take the difference between 30 and 42% as well.

They then said "get stuffed" and went overseas.
Why? They said you cannot get ahead in Australia. The government will not allow you!

Why do uni. graduates head off shore? To get a head!!
This current government is doing untold damage to our economy by their "impulse" decisions.
joea
 
Ferret said:
I can't understand why these mining magnates enjoy so much popular support.
Click to expand...

I doubt if they do. Most see them as getting fat (literally) from the exploitation of state owned assets and cheap labour. It doesn't take a lot of brains to dig up rocks and sell them off . I see no problem with the principle of a Federal mining tax in addition to royalties but I think we the nation are getting too little out of the proposed tax.
 
So_Cynical said:
+1

There is a near total lack of fair dinkumness about the mining job shortages.
Click to expand...

+1
working with BHP who is putting the blame on unions and EA strikes for closing project and mines.
No strikes at the Brisbane offices but employees treated like dirt and slashing numbers /budget like mad;
The great mining boom is the biggest scam of the time.
But as this is the only hope for the PM to pretend returning to budget balance, let's keep the dream figures on the news.
The mining boom is over and has been for a while. Recession is here, we just have figures lagging by a few months and when the billion $ projects will be officially 'mothballed', that is when the public will become aware..

DIYR but I do not own any BHP, RIO or mining shares anymore (and thankfully seeing the last month or so....)
 
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