One cloud is enough to eclipse all the sun - Thomas Fuller

Everyone knows a guy, or is related to someone, or has a cousin who used to know this guy who worked through a temp agency. I myself have worked through temp agencies, I did for sixteen months with the same company. I made eight, count em, eight dollars an hour for one year and four months with absolutely no benefits and no job security. For those of you who don't know what being a temp entails, I will enlighten you, and for those of you who actively are a temp as we speak, go have a beer. You earned it today.

As a temp, you are just that, temporary, and companies will remind you of that at every oppourtunity. I will list several actual "reasons" companies I have worked for have dismissed temps.
- Coming in late by three minutes after never being late before. This was during a snow storm when most of the permanent workers were thirty minutes late or more. And this worker walked that dark, hellish morning. He came in the door looking like he had just trekked across Antarctica. They wouldn't even let him warm himself.
- Not being able to come in to work overtime on a saturday because your child was deathly ill. This was after learning how to operate several machines, in some cases better and faster than the permanent employees.
- Calling in sick.
- Calling in to let your supervisor know you were going to be a few minutes late due to bad traffic.
- Disagreeing with a permanent employee.
- Talking, in any way.
- Using the washroom during work hours.

I could go on and on. The worst part about all of these instances is that all of those people had children, spouses, families to take care of. They had bills and debts, yet somehow our government lets companies pay full time workers eight dollars an hour without any benefits. I would not be able to sleep at night knowing that there are people in my employ who have to figure out how to survive with 278 dollars a week.

Temp agencies are legalized slavery. They take advantage of people desperate for a job, as many are in Windsor, and take advantage of the fact that many people will endure sweatshop conditions due to fear of losing their jobs.

Companies love temp agencies. You just pick up the phone, call one of them, and in an hour you have an extra set of hands. You can ask for a man or woman, old or young, whatever you feel like having that day. You don't have to pay them benefits, or any of that other crap, and they just keep coming back no matter how badly you treat them! The best part of all is when you tell them that there is a "good chance" they will be hired permanently and they work as hard as they can for eight nine days and poof! you call the temp agency and tell them not to send them in the next day. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall at their house. What am I saying, house? They all live in crappy apartments! Well, I guess someone is getting evicted!

(disclaimer) The preceeding paragraph was a slight exaggeration, but just a slight one. I have been in the same room as employers talking about temps as if they were cattle. It was sickening, and I never looked at anyone in a management position the same way again. This attitude seeps out of the front offices and onto the factory floor. Other workers begin to look at temps as second class, and the attitude pervades uncontrolled.

Bill 161, introduced in 2006 was an attempt to legislate the temp industry, which has grown 275 percent in the past six years. This caused several workers to come forward with their stories. They sounded a lot like mine, and many people I have known in the past. They too told of terrible work conditions, unsafe practises, denial of simple payouts of benefits after termination by employers and many other infractions. Temp agencies simply fall back on contracts they have you sign, in which you basically sign away all your basic rights as a worker in Ontario. They take advantage of the prospective worker's eagerness to have a job of any kind, and in some cases the person's poor education level. At no time is any stipulation on the contract clarified by anyone at the temp agency. After my tenure with the temp agency ended, I never recieved my last paycheque, or any other monies accrued. This often happens to many people. When they ask about this money, the temp agency simply refers them to the company they worked for, and that company simply refers them back to the temp agency.

I tried to find what ever became of bill 161 but was unsuccessful. Perhaps one of you could enlighten me.

My question is this: why are temp agencies legal? They exploit the weak and needy. Temp agencies legally make a lot of money off of the blood sweat and tears of workers every day in this city, and people just sit back and accept it. Is it simply because companies don't want to pay out benefits? Will companies move out of this city if these agencies were actually made illegal?
I will begin writing letters to the editor of the Windsor Star. I want people to be aware of the injustices that so many good people face on a daily basis. Awareness is the first step to ousting these criminal organizations from our city.

We also need to make people aware of bills such as 161, so that conditions for everyone can improve, not just general labourers. All workers in this country need improved legislation guaranteeing higher basic wages, better health care and rights to everyone. Isn`t that what
Canada is really all about? Human rights for everyone, good health care for all it`s citizens. Only through the internet, the great equalizer, can we really make people aware of these crimes against the people of Windsor and many other communities.

In France and England the government is afraid of the people, and makes it a point to legislate laws that make people`s lives better. In our `democracy`, the government knows we will not say anything and therefore knows the people are afraid to make waves. Making waves is the only thing that has ever given anyone freedom and happiness throughout all history. If we simply stay the course, we can expect many more days of walking to work, covered in snow, only to have to walk back towards a life of uncertainty, poverty and disappointment.