May 2016: Members of Unifor and the Council of Canadians join to protest TPP ouside a luxury Toronto hotel where  the House of Commons standing committee on international trade was holding a 1-day hearing into the 12-country ’free trade’ deal.

May 2016: Members of Unifor and the Council of Canadians join to protest TPP ouside a luxury Toronto hotel where the House of Commons standing committee on international trade was holding a 1-day hearing into the 12-country ’free trade’ deal. The 170,000 were the number of names on an anti-TPP petition to that date
Photo Credit: Council of Canadians- Unifor

Anti-free trade sentiment increases

Even before the debate over the Canada- EU free trade deal (CETA), Canada’s largest private sector trade union had come out strongly against another such deal.

Unifor (Union for Canada) represents some 310,000 workers in Canada. It has been campaigning against such deals for over a year. The union released a statement today saying union leaders are in the national capital this week to meet with politicians in order to express their concerns over the  Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal.

Unifor National President Jerry Dias said recent debates about CETA and the negotiations with the Belgian region of Wallonia have highlighted the concerns many people have with the extraordinary powers given to corporations in trade deals, as well as the impact those deals have on the lives of all people.

Unifor national president Jerry Dias, says the union believes in trade, but fair trade, and says the TPP as is, will hurt Canadians
Unifor national president Jerry Dias says the union believes in trade, but ‘fair trade’, and says the TPP as is, will hurt Canadians © Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press

Saying the union is a strong believer in  trade, he sais such trade must be fair and serve the needs workers and communities first.

“The TPP, like too many other trade deals, encourages a race to the bottom.”

Unifor’s main concerns are:

  • -The Investor State Disputes Settlement (ISDS) system will allow companies to sue governments if they pass laws that hurt their profits, even if those laws are in the public interest;
  • -Patent provisions in the TPP will drive up the price of prescription medications; and
  • -Jobs will be lost and local communities hurt. Several studies have found that the TPP could cut jobs throughout Canada, while offering only minimal economic benefit to the country.

With regard to CETA and such free-trade deals Dias says “Wallonia drew renewed attention to what is wrong with modern trade deals, and to the kinds of trade deals people want”.  He says Wallonia’s objection to CETA highlighted the concerns many people have with the extraordinary powers given to corporations in trade deals, as well as the affects of those deals on the lives of all people.

Calls for opposition to TPP at the Unifor convention in Ottawa, August 2016
Calls for opposition to TPP at the Unifor convention in Ottawa, August 2016 © Unifor

Unifor leaders from across Canada are scheduled to meet with a number of federal politicians from all parties over the next three days to express their concerns with TPP and other trade deals.

Unifor was created in 2013 with the merger of the United Auto Workers union and that of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers

Additional information- sources

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