We DEMAND that you meet two conditions to end the blockade!!!,, but we wont say what.

By the way, what were they asking for? More booze and a raise in their monthly welfare cheques?

We have the White man's report! Where is the aboriginal report?
Fair and balanced? I think not!
Look at the comments, and all on 1/2 side, the side that reads papers, and have computers to get online!
Will someone phone an aboriginal and ask them what the problem is being complained of? A bunch of aborigininals blocking a road means that the white man's agreement has been broken.
For these aboriginals to get out and do something like that, it has to be serious! And look- no violence!
A very good way to get coverage of the white man's plight working in the jungles of Manitoba!
And I hear that the City has been spraying for mosquitoes up there!

man, there are third world countries that you can go to for work and not have to worry about being held hostage.

god bless canada.

AdamX wrote:man, there are third world countries that you can go to for work and not have to worry about being held hostage.

god bless canada.

Yeah, places like Flin Flon and The Pas...
:@@@:

Don,t forget the the Puck

lol.

Ummmm, the puck?

Pukatawagon

Merci.

Pukatawagan......Home of the infamous Puk U....

Native protesters have taken down a barricade at the Wuskwatim dam project in northern Manitoba.

Protesters on Thursday had put up the barricade at the site of the $1-billion, 200-megawatt site generating station. They said Manitoba Hydro wasn't following through on promises to hire local native workers.

Progress had been reported on Friday night in ending the barricade, but Manitoba Hydro spokesman Glen Schneider told CBC News the dispute continued into the weekend.

"Our staff and Ron Evans, Manitoba Chiefs, and Jim Moore from NCN [Nisichawayisihk Cree Nation] negotiated an agreement with the people on the blockade and they began to dismantle the blockade, however a group decided to maintain the barricade," Schneider said.

After that, Manitoba Hydro obtained a court injunction that was delivered by the RCMP. The remaining protesters complied and the blockade was taken down Saturday evening.

There's no word yet on the details of the agreement reached between the protesters and Hydro.

I read the issue was workplace quality related: racism on the job site.

I wonder how much Hydro paid the Indians to go away.

Has anyone taken the time to look at what it takes to get hired at this dam project?

http://www.gov.mb.ca/jrs/wuskwatim/pdf/w_registration_instructions.pdf

not saying that its a all encompassing excuse or anything but they sure dont make it easy to apply

You'd be surprised at how difficult some companies make it to submit an application. Few are as onerous as this for sure...

Spell out precisely what is needed on a resume: if there is legitimate interest then ask for the detailed submission.

That said, if one wants to work then you do what is required...

True, but you would think in this particular case the band would have something set up at the band office and have a program in place to help its people apply, but there does not seem to be a local office listed on the site. I wonder if this is just because people just dont even know how to apply?

On CBC Friday, they were discussing the demands.

The first one (and primary thing) was that in the contract...a percentage of workers were supposed to be from the First Nations (30% if I remember correctly)

According to Hydro though...of the 800 workers, only 44 were from the First Nations...so obviously in violation of the contract.

What REALLY upsets me...is how can that be put into a contract to begin with? That's BLATANT RACISM before any work is actually done. What would happen if I wrote a business contract to work on some tribe's land...but wrote in that 90% of the workforce, had to be white men from Winnipeg? I'd get sued, shut down, and probably thrown in jail (cause those kinds of "crimes" people actually go to jail).

As of right now...the RCMP or Canadian Forces (whoever has the most guns) should go in with a couple of bulldozers and give these terrorists an ultimatum...move it or lose it...and get them the hell out of the way.

only 44 from the local first nation. 300ish in total from other first nations.

Deank wrote:only 44 from the local first nation. 300ish in total from other first nations.

That's not what they said (though it may be the case)

They simply said "Hydro guy (don't know his name) admits, that of the 800 workers on the project, only 44 were from the First Nations"

It's still stupid either way. I've been to many First Nations communities with my current job...and we have a hard time finding 5 workers who will work more than a week.

Heck..we were even in Gillam (which isn't a huge First Nations area...it's actually mostly Hydro people), and we hired 6 "locals" (all Native). I went up and did orientations for them all...and covered what they needed to get done.

Of them...only 5 showed up the next day...2 quit at the end of the week, 1 disappeared (no word), and the last one (ironically one who was partially crippled) lasted 3 weeks...till he tried climbing some scaffold (after we had directed him not to because of his disability) and fell off. No major injury...but enough for him to file a WCB claim...and then he disappeared too (we got the claim canceled after only 1 week).

So, we ended up having to fly up our own crew of 4 guys (who had some experience...so needed less training)...and worked right through the winter on our project there.

How (or why) Hydro committed to such a ridiculous number makes no sense...ESPECIALLY if they plan on keeping on schedule.

Because its part of the whole new deal with first nations.

Hydro basically has a choice. Agree to something like this, or dont have the project go through.

AGEsAces wrote:

Deank wrote:only 44 from the local first nation. 300ish in total from other first nations.

That's not what they said (though it may be the case)

They simply said "Hydro guy (don't know his name) admits, that of the 800 workers on the project, only 44 were from the First Nations"

It was widely reported that 44 hires were from the local reserve, and that fully 1/3 the existing employees are aboriginal. It was also reported that of all the hires to date half were aboriginal.

from the first link on this topic

"Hydro spokesman Glenn Schneider said of the 880 workers on the site now, 44 are from NCN and 32 per cent of the total workforce —283 workers — are aboriginal."

the NCN being "Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation" which is the FN in question.
of note the FN in question has been attempting to keep its people informed their website is quite well layed out and has this interesting little PDF attached to it

http://www.ncncree.com/ncn/documents/WuskImpNewsletterJl09.pdf

That PDF has this little bit in it

As many NCN Citizens know, they must now
be registered with and apply for jobs on the
Wuskwatim project through the Province of
Manitoba’s provincial Job Referral Service
(JRS). This is a change from earlier phases
of the project where most NCN Citizens
could obtain employment through NCN’s
direct-negotiated contracts without going
through the provincial employment service.
With many direct-negotiated contracts now
concluded, the JRS is the main channel for
applying for Wuskwatim work.

If applicants do not provide
frequent follow-ups with the JRS, their
applications can become inactive.
“In the December 2008 edition of the
Wuskwatim Implementation newsletter,
we emphasized the importance of
registering for jobs and maintaining
ongoing contact with the JRS. The
situation has not changed since then,
so applicants need to maintain contact
with the JRS,” said Chief Jim Moore.

so yeah.. its a crappy process, but it seems it is indeed the process that is the problem and in the above noted newsletter from July 09 the band has already said it was working to make the process easier. Because apparently the 800ish people hired to date are freakin abnormal geniuses who could figure it out.

man they even built a training centre for the specific purpose of training people to go to work on the dam

http://www.ncncree.com/ncn/atec.html

But something that has been forgotten in all of this, the 30% of the first nations that are to be employeed must meet the "lower than others standards" of the employment agreement in order to be employed. MB Hydro has standards that must be met to be employed on one of these job sites, yet they lower these standards for the first nations people so they (being the first nations people) can meet the requirements and still most do not. They can be hired and receive "on the job" training that others who apply must have before they even apply to work at this and other sites similar. So what is to be done, hire unqualified people and then the costs of this project will go through the roof at whose expense? Why is it always put back on the employer (in this case MB Hydro) when the first nations don't take responsibility for getting the necessary skill set that is required and offered to them at their own reserves?
Makes me so annoyed to see that everyone must jump through all kinds of hoops to accomodate them.

Supposedly over 300 NCN people have gone through the training at the purpose built education centre since it opened.

So mayhaps the training is insufficient? Or the other hand being, people are simply refusing to follow the process for getting hired.

Or maybe the jobs that they have been trained for are just not the ones that are available yet. When I looked at the referral site it explained what years certain jobs would be available so that may also be the case, that the jobs for this year are not the ones that most of the FN have taken training for.