Union takes on Labor over 'cheap' foreign workers

February 14, 2010 by admin

(SMH) ONE of Australia's most powerful trade unions has set itself on a collision course with the Rudd government, backing a campaign against it over the controversial 457 visa scheme for temporary foreign workers. A report commissioned by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, to be released next week, will reveal the government has dropped the fundamental premise of the scheme, which is that employers must test the labour market before offering jobs to foreign workers. The author of the report, labour market and migration specialist Bob Kinnaird, writes that the Rudd government is no longer requiring employers to give preference to Australian workers, which he says ''goes further than even the Howard government's position'', which Labor had criticised when in opposition before 2007. read more