‘I’ve cracked the code:’ Websites connecting Ukrainians with jobs in Manitoba

Mark Myrowich (left) and his employee, Ukrainian Oleg Lutsyk, (right) first connected through social media. (Source: CTV News)

A group is hoping to help alleviate the worker shortage in Manitoba by matching skilled Ukrainian refugees with businesses wanting to hire Ukrainians.

Communities across Manitoba are facing serious worker shortages, including a large revegetation plant, ECBVerdyol, in Riverton. Owner Mark Myrowich says they ship their products across North America, but he was struggling to find workers in the municipality of roughly 3,000 people.

“I couldn’t make the product for them because I didn’t have the people,” Myrowich said.

Looking much further outside of Riverton, Myrowich, a second-generation Ukrainian Canadian, began looking overseas.

“What I’ve been doing is hiring Ukrainians. I cracked the code.”

Oleg Lutsyk is now working at ECBVerdyol after he and Myrowich connected on Facebook. His parents and sister’s family are still in Ukraine. Lutsyk hopes they will join him in Manitoba.

“It’s a great opportunity to start a new life because here is so peaceful,” Lutsyk said.

Now, 30 Ukrainians are working for Myrowich, but Myrowich found some of his employees were highly skilled in different industries.

This includes Olena and Yurii Linov, a duo that owned a clothing store in Ukraine.

‘’I think we were first in Ukraine in our niche of sportswear clothes,” Yurii said.

Together, they began creating two websites, one for Manitobans looking to hire Ukrainians, and one for Ukrainians looking for jobs. Both sites launched this week.

Myrowich says this service is a way of carrying on his grandparent’s legacy, more than 100 years later.

“I think of them in this situation and this is my opportunity to pay it forward,” Myrowich says.

 

With files from CTV's Jill Macyshon