The Labour Force Is About To Have Its Turn

Monday, April 26, 2010 03:45 AM

Listening to the President of Local 1-424 of the Steel Workers, Frank Everitt, and later hearing the upbeat mood of the Mining Association there is a distinct feeling out there that the economy is in the throes of turning around in BC.

Everitt paints an interesting picture in that it his (and his groups') belief that finding skilled labour is about to become a problem in BC. and that bodes well for those workers who have had to weather some very trying times over the past two years.

According to Everitt and the mining bosses, the baby boomers are about to leave the labour market and when that happens we will see all sorts of shortages in the labour market , the likes of which we have never seen.

The problem is expected to be so acute that many employers are prepared to work out special shifts , say three days of work a week , with extended time off in order to keep some of those people set to retire in the labour pool.

At one time Everitt said industry would not hear of such terms, but more and more it is being written into contracts around the province.

In the mining sector, many industry chiefs are saying that the labour force for the new mines will, in all likelihood, come from many parts of Canada, may work as much as 30 days then taking 30 days off.

They point to the Oil patch in Alberta where workers from the southern USA are spending a month on the job in the tar sands then returning home for a month. It’s the way of the new world they say and with additional pressure being placed on the labour pool by the prospective mines , an up surge in the lumber and pulp industry, and the price of a barrel of oil hanging around the 80 dollar mark, things are expected to warm up in the labour market in the coming year.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Monday, April 26, 2010 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: SummerSoul on April 26 2010 4:21 AM

This sounds great for labour, but haven't we heard such glowing predictions before?
This century was supposed to bring us the four-hour workday while robots performed all of our onerous chores. Flying cars and nuclear power "too cheap to meter" come to mind.
Now we find frozen wages, unemployment and governments coddling the rich while punishing the poor.
I'll believe the good news for workers when I see the results.

I'm SummerSoul and this is SummerSoul's opinion

Posted by: redneck on April 26 2010 7:03 AM

Exactly

Posted by: cheeta on April 26 2010 7:19 AM

the other issue - its skilled labour so they companies need to put some time and money into training - of course they don't seem to want to do that. They want to hire only skilled people. Those who don't have the skills - are still out of luck. The ordinary, average "guy" type jobs are slim!

Posted by: bruceb on April 26 2010 8:09 AM

I am one of those "baby boomer" tradesmen that is moving on. After 36 years in the north I am moving south and looking to enjoy life more. My current employer has his head in the sand and figures that he can still hire trades the same way they did in the late 70's. The upcoming trades shortgaes have been talked about for years but many employers have refused to talk about the problem. Some seem to think that all they have to do in bring in contractors to "fill the gap" until they can hire someone. The contractors are getting to the point that they are having trouble hiring skilled and reliable tradesmen. The lack of apprentices trained (especially in the wood industry) is now going to turn around and bite them in the butt.
Just my opinion as an almost semi-retired trademan.

Posted by: trackster on April 26 2010 8:49 AM

And the food bank line ups get longer and longer
Trackster

Posted by: ervboy on April 26 2010 9:00 AM

Could someone please tell me why we need US workers in Alberta ,Canada?

Posted by: Denaljo on April 26 2010 9:09 AM

"US workers in Alberta" They are just the tip of the iceberg.
The Chinese, Mexicans, Americans, etc. etc. are all OK; but those damn Newfies gotta go and make room for real Canadians!

Posted by: Outwest on April 26 2010 10:24 AM

You are to dam cheap to spend any Money on training, all you want is fully trained Peoples coming out of CNC and the likes and now you crying , you can't be helped , I wont come back after 40 Years for any amount of Money.

Posted by: metalman on April 26 2010 11:00 AM

It's too bad the brain trust could not see the obvious ten or more years ago. I am a simple tradesman, not a seer, nor an mba, and I forsaw the 'impending shortage of skilled trades people' that long ago.
It was, and now is, simple observation.
Knowing what to do about it was, and is, another kettle of fish, but I bet things would be looking a lot better today if all the focus on training was implemented ten years ago. Head in sand thinking for sure.
metalman.

Posted by: Denaljo on April 26 2010 11:25 AM

So true metalman! Not only the lowly tradespeople knew what was going on back then but the Higher ups in companies knew also. Some companies [Canfor] are lucking out by scooping up people from idled mills and delaying the inevitable. In a few short years when the real crunch comes ; companies will be asking the governments of the day to raise the age limit for retiring and begging for more foreign workers because they were unable to find anyone locally.

Posted by: Denaljo on April 26 2010 11:39 AM

Fully trained peoples coming out of CNC!? What a joke! Those programs are nothing but a money grab.
An electrical app. would be shown a red, green, black wire etc. and told what pretty colors they are ; just like in their box of crayons.
A millwright app. would be shown the tools of their trade - a hammer. a bigger hammer. and maybe a bandaid for when they whack themselves with their tools.
A plumber would be told that poop runs down hill so do not pick up an old pipe and stare into it.
All those programs were an attempt by the gov. to say "look we are doing something"; but in the end all it did was extract thousands from these kids that the majority will never be able to use as they are not qualified to do anything. Companies are not willing to do the right thing and train young people to be good safe workers because it is much easier to run crying to the government and say "Help!"

Posted by: metalman on April 26 2010 12:30 PM

To wit the 17 million ( ? ) dollar CNC trades centre. Construction is supposed to begin soon, once the General Contractor pricing is in and analysed. Two welding shops, one each millwright, machinist, and autobody shop. Faboulous new building, the oh so wonderful LEED Gold, and they are tearing down a perfectly good trades building that has seen upgrades in recent years to make room for parking.
Now THAT'S intelligent. I guess the fact that the new building will be more efficient on a per square foot basis than the old one makes it okay.
Anyway, a lot of local ( I hope ) construction kobs will be created. That's a good thing.
metalman.

Posted by: Pojeb_sa on April 26 2010 12:41 PM

Pending shortage of labour? BWA-AHAHAHAHAAHAHAH! A-HAHAHAHAHAAHAH! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! (gasps for air) HAHAHAHAAHHAHAHA!

Because of NAFTA, any shortage of labour will be filled by workers from Mexico hired by American employers who will do the work in Canada for a fraction of the cost of domestic labour, and without training requirements. Who is Meisner kidding? Labour rights are completely done in this province, and in this country.

Everybody hates unions they are more interested in keeping themselves in existence than actually helping workers forced to be part of their collective. In our lifetime we can expect all unions to collapse in on themselves. Maybe whatever rises from their ashes will serve some kind of purpose remotely relating to working rights instead of social causes and political pandering.

In this new "global" economy everything is global but job opportunities for people in developed countries. All we can do is sit like cornered, caged animals while jobs are sent to the lowest bidder, and told we are all supposed to get university degrees to compete like rats for a piece of stale cheese which will always be placed just out of our reach.

Posted by: Outwest on April 26 2010 12:58 PM

Fully trained is just a Matter of speaking, it takes much more then CNC to make a Tradesman."Line up for your Student Loan here".

Posted by: joeboy on April 26 2010 1:19 PM

I was once employed at the same workplace as bruceb. I wouldn't be as charitable though. I'd say their collective heads are up their collective asses. They don't seem to care for older, experienced tradespeople
and I'm sure the younger tradespeople will be off to better paying jobs on the oil sands and elsewhere as soon as they are able. After all why work for $26.00 an
hour when you can work for $36 to $40 an hour? I know where I would be if I were 30 years younger. I for one live for the day that Mt Milligan starts up. It won't only be trades my old jobsite will have a hard time keeping and/or hiring.

pojeb_sa; you seem to have anger issues. Canada/BC haven't yet done away with training/safety, so your untrained Mexican workforce is a nonstarter. Maybe if we leave campbell in a little longer he may get around to gutting the apprenticeship system, but somehow I doubt that will happen. Although I am sure that mrpg and hespoke are cheering for just such a scenario.

Speaking of mrpg and hespoke; I can't believe the haven't been here with their pithy one liners. Telling us that if we all grab our ankles and say ahhhh for the campbell gang all will be ok.

Posted by: MrPG on April 26 2010 2:47 PM

I'd like to thank joeboy for the opportunity to live rent-free in his head. Hopefully that's not the best you can do.

As for the issue at hand, I believe many companies have not fully addressed the impending wave of retirements from the baby boomers. People are ignorant to many demographic changes, like smaller families, etc. It should be an interesting next 10-20 years.

Posted by: metalman on April 26 2010 2:58 PM

joeboy, for your information, the Campbell government gutted the apprenticeship system in B.C. about three or four years ago. I agree with Outwest though, CNC are not going to be turning out skilled tradesmen/women ready to work anywhere in their chosen trade, a rule of thumb is ten years after you complete your apprenticeship you (may) become useful.
Always assuming that you have worked steady in that ten years.
Exceptions happen of course.
metalman.

Posted by: joeboy on April 26 2010 3:51 PM

"live rent free in my head" mrpg. I doubt it. I just like taking potshots at the pompous and bugging the cheerleaders. It seems to work well with you. Every time I make a remark you take the bait. Hook, line and sinker; just like a good sucker.

Posted by: MrPG on April 26 2010 4:08 PM

Hm... everytime I make a remark, you jump on it as well. The student has become the master, my friend.

Livin' rent-free and lovin' it...

Posted by: gus on April 26 2010 4:44 PM

The brain trust could and did see the obvious and it was much longer ago than 10 years.

Here is a link to a 20 year old article. As far as I remember, the predicted general labour shortage was alreadey old hat then.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1990/04/09/73363/index.htm

The problem is not that it was not forseen. The problem is that it is not something that one could do very much about other than shifting workers around in the world.

That was the solution with guest workers in Europe which was already an aging population in a lower fertility environment than North America.

North America kept up with simple numbers growth from outside using immagration as a tool.

Western Europe population growth stayed relatively stagnant. Several countries kept up much of their standard of living by production quality and innovation increase and was able to corner specialty niches in the marketplace.

The new countries are now starting to be capable of playing the same game - cornering specialty markets. Not only are they producing good quality, but they are producing it much cheaper to reach their vast but financially poorer internal markets.

Posted by: jakeadoo on April 26 2010 5:31 PM

Denaljo,I happen to disagree with your views about the programs at CNC being useless and the fact an electrical apprentice only learns the colours of the wires is stretching the truth way out of whack.The best education is on the job training,but you still need some theory and knowledge being taught in the classroom.I believe these programs try their best to provide a well balanced approach,but there is only so much they can do.

Posted by: interceptor on April 26 2010 10:08 PM

I think part of the problem is there are alot of people who cant handle a broom but they consider themselves tradespeople... guess what - the good workers will find jobs and the culls hiding behind a union wont. It really hasnt changed in years.

Posted by: Eagleone on April 26 2010 10:42 PM

Its all irrelevant. Our governments are all bankrupt in everything but the pending devaluation of our currency. Society is about to collapse on itself in short order... this is the last gasp of free money from a private fiat currency world ponzi scheme, and our economy is about to all go down the rat hole.

Very few will be working because very few will have any currency in which to pay workers with. Our governments already have more in debt, and debt obligations (unfunded liabilities) than all the private wealth ever earned in the history of our country. They can never pay it off if they took every private dollar in the country to try. The implications of our debt slavery are horrendous and they don't include labor shortages.

Prepare yourself now while you still can is all I can say.

Posted by: SummerSoul on April 27 2010 5:54 AM

What's the difference between a pessimist and a realist?

Today, none.

Posted by: metalman on April 27 2010 8:09 AM

Well done, Gus.
metalman.

Posted by: MrPG on April 27 2010 8:20 AM

Eagle, how many years have you been predicting the end of the world as we know it?

Posted by: socredible on April 27 2010 10:33 PM

our governments are far from 'bankrupt', Eagle. Though that's the illusion that's presented to us by the way they currently do their books.

If they did as they say they do, and properly compared themselves to private businesses using the same methods of accounting, the National ASSETS are far, far, in excess of the LIABILIIES, ("money" claims, ultimately of the Banks), held against them.

In any private business the difference between ASSETS and LIABILITES represents the "Shareholder's Equity", or Capital.

So far as a 'nation' is concerned, the difference represents "Citizen's Equity". And year by year, barring natural disasters or actual destruction through war, these national ASSETS, and the corresponding Citizen's Equity on the other side of the Balance Sheet, are increasing, not decreasing, IN RATIO to the LIABILITIES. Even if those LIABILITIES are increasing, too. Hardly an indication of impending 'bankruptcy'.

Of course, if we're determined to view it otherwise, (or others, for their own purposes, have determined that for us), to continue to have our governments set down some 'money' figures and expect the 'facts' can be twisted to fit them, then anyone can certainly make the case for being on the road to national, or provincial "bankruptcy" using those figures, (And the need for things like the HST, too), Even if it really ain't so.