When Ravi Kumar became the team lead of around 25 housekeeping staff at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet in Richmond last year, he expected a raise in keeping with the added responsibilities.
On Saturday, Kumar was among janitors at five Vancouver buildings who voted in favour of a new collective agreement with Dexterra Group, after the employer came back to the bargaining table with a contract offer to evade a strike vote. According to the statement, companies that employ SEIU members, like cleaners, security, and maintenance workers — have “increasingly been relying on international students to staff their accounts.”Ria, who has worked as a security guard at the Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby for over a year, said she and most of her colleagues are either international students or recent graduates with work permits. She requested that The Tyee use a pseudonym to protect her privacy.
“Most of the students here, they don’t get work easily, so it’s hard to fight for our rights and to raise our voice at work,” Kumar said. Preliminary excerpts of Francis’s research, published by New Canadian Media and the Globe and Mail, found that the vast majority of international students struggle to find work in their chosen fields after graduation.
“It’s really hard for them to learn about the labour market or what kind of employment opportunities there are and most colleges aren’t focused on that.”