June 10, 2010

Engineers union holding fundraiser for member caught in immigration red tape

IAN HARVEY

correspopndent

Members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793 are usually involved raising materials at construction sites but this Saturday, June 12, 2010 they’re going to raise money for a would be immigrant caught in a tangle of government red tape.

Lee Mallozzi and his family came to Canada in 2007 from England after being offered a job as a steel company site crane supervisor. Everything went well until it was time to apply for an extension of his work permit.

The company he was working at went under and at the same time his new company made an error in his application and as a result it got stuck in the process. Coincidentally, while it was hung up, the rules changed and when the federal immigration office ordered Mallozzi to reapply, he found he didn’t qualify under the new guidelines.

Lee Mallozzi came to Canada with his family in 2007 to take a job as a steel company site crane supervisor.

To make things worse the family were given two weeks to leave Canada immediately.

“We’d bought a house, the kids were in school, we were committed to staying here,” says Mallozzi.

“We were devastated. There was a story in the newspaper and then I got a call out of the blue from Mike Gallagher at IUOE 793.”

At the time he wasn’t a member of the union and a bit puzzled as to why they wanted to talk.

“He sat me down and said, we’d like to help you,” says Mallozzi. “I just about fell over.”

Mike Gallagher and the union stepped up because it’s the right thing to do.

“This family has played by the rules, wants to comply,” he says.

“They’re hard working, they’ve bought a house here and set down roots. He was here legally.”

The local is paying for an immigration consultant and the $20 tickets for the party at the union banquet hall at 2245 Speers Road in Oakville June 12 will go directly to the family and their associated costs.

“Right now he can’t work and they’re worried about losing their house,” says Gallagher. “And we’re also hoping to recover the costs of the immigration consultant.”

Mallozzi has subsequently joined Local 793 and Gallagher says there’s lot of work available once he gets his paperwork in order.

He cites a Construction Sector Council study that projects at least 8,000 new heavy equipment operators will be needed between 2010 and 2018 as the economy grows and older workers retire.

“We need trained operators,” he says. “You cannot get the people we need through training alone.”

Meanwhile, he says, some 192,000 temporary foreign workers are on the job in Canada, up from 103,000 five years earlier. Those workers, however, don’t include Mallozzi and that’s unfair, says Gallagher.

He says this case is somewhat different than the dilemma facing many Portuguese roofers a few years ago when Labourer’s International Union of North America Local 183 protested deportation orders.

“It was just as unfair, but in many cases those roofers were illegal,” says Gallagher. “In this case, the Mallozzis were here legally.”

The immigration department has fast tracked a review of the case and put the deportation order on hold.

Also, arrangements have been made to allow the couple’s two children to continue to attend school.

“We have no idea how long this will take but at the moment we’re stuck,” says Mallozzi.

“We can’t even go to the doctors because it costs money. We just have to suck it up.”

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