Ratufa
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Sauce: https://theijf.org/lululemon-tfw-deal
Sauce: https://theijf.org/lululemon-tfw-deal
whatbuttondoipush
"Sportwear"
Fatassfrodo
Burn it down.
BahbusTheGreat
Let them leave. They aren't some money generating powerhouse and their products suck.
putcleverusernamehere
("We want to expand but aren't going to hire any local workers") Fuck em, let em leave
SunBrolem
An incredible amount of our infrastructure depends on cheap labor sourced from third world countries. Whether that's immigrants working on farms, sweatshops making textiles, or those definitely not OSHA-approved steel milling facilities you see on here every now and again, the fact is, we've become dependent on it. Shutting it off would result in our own infrastructure toppling, and that's depressing and worrying in equal measure.
DarkAthena
Overpriced shitty clothes.
TheRedBaron8
This is how large companies keep wages low and distort labour needs by blackmailing the government with threats of leaving IOT retain more profit for the c suite executives at the cost of true labour costs that government uses to adjust services this is the most grotesque manipulation of government.
iklu
What is this source? It's behind a paywall.
RyanH42
They're a notoriously shitty and racist company so this isn't surprising.
Shaodyn
I love how it specified that they threatened to either not move their HQ to Vancouver or move jobs to the US instead. That feels like when you were a kid and you didn't want to play how one kid did, so he threatened not to let you play anymore.
ToSisPoS
This being the company that claimed it’s seaweed clothes had magical healing powers.
ToSisPoS
*its
SleepyEyeMinnesota
Sub contract several staffing agencies and have them take the liability. That's how it seems to work in the US
TheFashionGuy1
How do you expect us to give CEOs huge payouts if we can't exploit the workforce?
marsgoose
Mucho texto, but this is the entirety of the drive for immigration. Corporations want cheap labor, they also convince you you are progressive for being pro immigration, when in reality they just want slaves.
Nikolai5
They complained about having to post adverts with salary ranges.. How about they just fuck off, and we stop catering to these insane CEOs? They've fooled a lot of people into thinking a country would lose all business if we don't let them get away with whatever they want, but its just not true.
NChomsky
todayok
It gets worse. The gov't has set up a fake job board called 'Job Bank' where employers post 'vacancies' and then show the the gov't the posting as 'proof' it advertised but no one in-country was interested. Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program is ALL about getting the maximum number of foreign workers as fast as possible without any other consideration. It was just reported in the Toronto Star that the govt stopped doing fraud checks on employers as it was taking too long.
10Upvotes
CaptCrobar
First they moved the factories to the third world because it's cheaper now, one of the last bastion of jobs in store employee they want to hire foreign worker to replace them. Stop playing nice with these corps. The balance is breaking, we can't have a functioning country if you keep bypassing the most essential aspect of it.
RoseBeef
True story. Worked there for a few months on the officer team, very senior executive role. There were things going on that were so appalling that I resigned in disgust. Senior leadership were discussing some expenses and equipment purchases, specifically mounting racks for some of the internal IT equipment. A comment from someone on the board was that "it would be cheaper to hire Mexicans to just stand there and hold everything". This new doesn't surprise me, everything about Lululemon sucks.
Strategicgnomer
Listen. If you don't let me use slave labor, I won't push any more small businesses out of the market! Why is Canada so fucking stupid?
comacomacomacomachameleon
wait until you see what companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Oracle... do with H1Bs
iamgnat
And have been for decades.
I have a friend who came on a student visa and stayed as an H1B. He has been trying to get his green card and citizenship for almost 20 years but every time his spot has come up so far there has been some "mistake" and he has to start over.
So he lives in fear of having to go back to his home country where he doesn't fit in anymore.
thrashingcows
Won’t someone please think of the corporate profits!
Drix1942
I'm sick and tired of these mega corpos and their greedy, little paws.
CantHoldIt
Founder chose the name Lululemon because he thought it would be funny to watch asian people pronounce it.
tachyx
hnngh
Lulu's stock has not been doing great. The bacon tracksuits for the Canadian Olympic team didn't help.
Ratufa
Also, they just aren’t a hot brand anymore. Apparently having a right wing founder is bad for sales to their target main.
Ratufa
Also, they just aren’t a hot brand anymore. Apparently having a right wing founder is bad for sales to their target main.
SarcasticComment
that and legacy. few things stay popular for 10+ years. Those hot 20 somethings a decade ago are now wearing mom pants. You will live long enough to have the youth make fun of your pants, then possibly wear them again 15 years after that
HelloThere1812
Exemption from law? That's messed up.
todayok
This is in British Colombia. Wait until you see the employment and immigration scams Quebec is pulling.
Slimewire
It's beyond f'ed up over here, for sure
Affray
1)I've been phased out of two jobs because the company favoured temporary foreign workers over full time Canadians. My last job was paying
Affray
2)me a dollar less an hour than temp workers who didn't speak English and couldn't actually do the job because of it. They don't have
Affray
3)benefits or anything like that through the company like full time workers/residents do so the company can pay them more hourly but
Affray
4)ultimately invest less in them as employees. When I brought up how fucked it is that I'm getting paid less than guys who can't possibly
Affray
5)do my job I was told that I'm actually making five or six dollars an hour more than I am on paper because I get health benefits, which
Affray
6)we all paid into, because that's how it works. I've been watching this slide for years now. Profits over people makes me sick.
Bystandr
The thing to do is to make it unprofitable to make this choice. Send manufacture offshore to the sweat shop, make it twice as expensive.
SunBrolem
Trump did this with the tariffs and all it did was cause the costs to be offloaded onto the consumer. The actual solution is government regulation. Do what China does; If you want to do business here in the states, you have to have a percentage of your infrastructure here on US soil.
TheWarHymn
Isn't that also the policy of the US military when it comes to procurement?
FiftyShadesOfBroccoli
Instead developed countries do the opposite and try to lure investors with tax breaks, free land, infrastructure assistance, low-cost financing & grants etc. With the result that a rapidly expanding company like Amazon managed to pay negative taxes for several years. And then they lobby to exempt their workers from labor protections and essentially operate third-world style sweatshops in the first world.
hydrocarbon82
Third world conditions? Whatever, I don't think workers in the 3rd world are even given a bottle to piss in. These workers are being spoiled with that bottle! /s
jrntn
Or just don't grant the exception they asked for. Don't make laws to regulate businesses and then just allow them to not follow those laws, making a joke of yourself and your constituents. If Lululemon genuinely doesn't want to make money in Vancouver, they can go fuck themselves and be replaced by a competitor who does.
VodkaReindeer
It makes sense to squeeze the companies and people that are already in the country. You can squeeze more before they leave than you could if they had the option of not coming.
jrntn
And I'm sure that might be a relevant point to make about a company that isn't already in the country
mrdoctorphd
Yeah I don’t understand how a yoga pants store means one fucking thing to a whole Vancouver. Weak people in gov.
6313326
Or implement something like an additional tax per foreign worker hired under such a visa program. Maybe make a percentage of what they're paying them, something to bring the total up to what they'd have to pay someone not afraid of getting deported. So often companies initially offer well below market rate for positions so they can day, "Welp! We tried our best! There's just no finding the talent we need domestically!"
jrntn
No. Just make it fucking illegal. The way it literally already is if not for this braindead exception.
Syndicofberyl
If your business can't survive without exploiting people, then it doesn't need to survive
ficklemission
Canada has a skilled labor shortage combined with a cost of living crisis. I'm not sure the article is about exploiting people, there just aren't enough people to fill roles in some cases. Consider that Canada has a population similar to California, an economy the size of New York, and a tough climate. It can be difficult to fill roles even factoring in immigrants in the talent pool.
WoeToHice
I agree. Here's an interesting question: what makes the foreign workers exploitable?
styxthetrashbandit
"if you don't like that we cut your pay or made you work double overtime we can just fire you and you'll be deported for not having the job" - how they treat these talented people with talents locals don't have apparently
"We couldn't find local talent. We don't think locals are talented enough to do the job - so we hired foreign talent, but since they're foreign they're inherently not as quality as we'd find locally so we don't need to give them quality pay or benefits" - plays both sides
Syndicofberyl
Hiring people who are totally ignorant of safe work practices, labor laws, etc and paying them minimum wage in an area where domestic workers demand a livable wage
williamshakesbeer
From some people I know that are temp workers trying to become full citizens. Companies exploit them like crazy, telling them how much or how little they are allowed to work, horrible wages and no overtime pay. In some extreme cases treating them like inferior people. They make it out like they're doing them a favor by contracting with them and providing an opportunity. They actually use it as a threat because if they complain about anything they'll be kicked out of the country.
HighSorcerer
Different regulations and expectations from the workers, I imagine. If you hire local, you have to pay them $X, but if you hire temporary foreign workers, you can pay them $X/2 and without benefits or whatever. For example. I don't know their actual reasons.
proxykalevra
I work in it and have been told to my face by management workers from Thailand are 1/3 the cost of us workers... And the company compensates poorly on top of that.
patthefox
They're also usually hiring people where the quality of life is lower. They pay garbage wages and pretty much trap the worker in their job because if the worker quits, they have to leave the country. It is as close to indentured servitude as you can get without being such. The TFW program is also rife with human rights abuses both on Canadian soil and on the place they are recruiting. Recruiters charge the candidates thousands at times to get into the running for a TFW spot.
iamgnat
So pretty much the same as our H1B program.
Milkarius
they're also a lot less aware of all laws and regulations regarding their work
MAN9000
It's not about exploiting. You are thinking it means just poor people from poor countries, but Canadian immigration makes it difficult for everyone doing business in Canada. I have to cross the border to work on a regular basis for television in film. Their registration system for temporary work visas is less than transparent. And it REALLY sucks to have a production planned only to be turned back at the border because a Canadian border agent doesn't feel like letting you pass...
RunThatIn
you don’t have to do that. you choose to do that
TacoPoweredHelicopter
Try going the other way...
MAN9000
I am aware that that is an issue and posted a follow-up comment on that.
MAN9000
I've heard that Canadian immigration are being dicks about it in retaliation for the US's ridiculous immigration policies, such as the US requiring Mexican foreign workers in Canada to fly back to Mexico to renew travel visas rather than just letting them renew them at the US Canadian border.
6313326
I'm not defending US border policy re: Mexican foreign workers in Canada (for one: I know nothing about it), but why would having them renew their visas at the CN/US border be done? Wouldn't it make more sense to have that happen at Mexican consulates in Canada?
MAN9000
Likely they traveled by car or bus through the United States to Canada rather than flying, requiring a US Visa.