STATEMENT
Filipino Nurses Support Group

Genuine solidarity with migrant nurses needed!

September 22, 2006

With more attacks on health workers’ and professionals’ jobs and wages intensifying in British Columbia (B.C.), ever more fervent solidarity is needed for migrant nurses from Third World countries like the Philippines being imported as cheaper labour without access to basic human rights.

Under the neoliberal agenda of globalization, regular unionized nurses are being fired from their jobs, mainly in small rural towns, only to be replaced by temporary foreign-trained nurses from the Philippines.

This disturbing development pits Canadian-trained nurses against cheaper and more flexible nurses from the Philippines who are seeking greener pastures away from the worsening poverty and unemployment in their home country.

This is not surprising however, given Canada’s long history built on racism by importing cheaper workers from poor nations like the Philippines to fill skills and labour shortages.

One clear example is the ongoing recruitment of Filipino nurses under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) to do the cooking, cleaning, and all-around caregiving for the children, elderly, and sick of Canadian families oftentimes for less than minimum wage in the middle of a worsening nationwide nursing shortage.  Filipino nurses trapped in the LCP are used in the push to further privatize health care here.

The local labour sector’s drive to “protect Canadian jobs and Canadian standards” is not only short-sighted, but outright racist.  They fail to recognize that migrant labour has historically and is increasingly used to pull down workers’ wages at the expense of their fundamental human rights to ensure higher profits.

What is needed is genuine solidarity between Canadian and migrant nurses against the attacks on health workers jobs and wages and against the privatization of health care.   This is why the Filipino Nurses Support Group continues its over one decade long struggle for the full accreditation and reciprocity of Filipino nurses as a solution to the nursing shortage and health care crisis plaguing the nation.

Uphold the rights and welfare of migrant Filipino nurses!
Genuine solidarity with migrant nurses needed!
phone: (604) 255-6870
email: fnsg@kalayaancentre.net
website: www.kalayaancentre.net