Alecs Iancu
"It is always tempting to find a scapegoat in the 'other' when economic difficulties appear. But unemployment, exploitation and reduction of the number of jobs are not caused by the East-Europeans," said the general secretary of the British Trade Unions' Congress (TUC), Brendan Barber yesterday.
In a comment published on The Guardian's web site, Barber pleaded against turning Romanian immigrants into "scapegoats" for all the social problems in Great Britain.
His comments came as recently, parts of the British media and politicians voiced opposition to the entry of Romanian and Bulgarian workers on their market after the two countries join the European Union on January 1.
Barber said, in his comment called "Stop blaming immigrants - exploitation is the real problem," that the high unemployment rate, the social and health services' crisis and the lack of jobs are internal problems of the British social system and have not been caused by the wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe.
In his opinion, Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants will not take the jobs of British citizens because they will be specialized in fields in which Great Britain lacks enough labor force. According to Barber, the immigrants will not burden the social and health services either, as most of them are healthy adults without children.
The TUC's general secretary also underlined that it is not Eastern-Europeans' fault that they get paid with the minimum income, which is a requirement of the British legislation.
The poor conditions immigrant workers are forced to accept are due to British employers and lodging owners who take advantage from immigrants' inability to find a decent place to live, he said.
Barber added that the first solution to fight this phenomenon is "trade unions' solidarity against exploitation, against cutting back the number of jobs" and the refusal to accept lower standards, smaller incomes, and the lack of respect to immigrant workers.
Copyright © 2004-2006 Bucharest Daily News
An aristocratic title is not enough to ensure a noble behaviour. A person's greatness comes from acknowledging the mistakes and agreeing to correct them.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
*** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 2% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.doilasuta.ro ***
| Nh lake region real estate | New hampshire lake region real estate |
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
