Canadian trade unions representing public employees, public sector workers, the health sector, steel making and rail and aerospace workers urged their government on Friday 16 September not to ratify the EU-Canada free-trade agreement (CETA).
In solidarity with mass demonstrations taking place in Europe and echoing the recent message of the 3.3 million member-strong Canadian Labour Congress which argues there are many questionable aspects to the agreement, the unions call on the Canadian government not to ratify CETA, highlighting its rules on investors’ rights and the lack of protection for public services.
“Canadian International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland is pitching the Canada-EU trade deal as ‘progressive’, but nothing could be further from the truth. CETA as written is fundamentally flawed, and favours corporate interests over those of Canadians”, states the United Steelworkers union (USW).
Among the key demands of the Canadian unions is the removal of all investor rights rules. There is no need, they say, to bypass the public court system and use extra-judicial arbitration that favours corporations in the investor-state dispute resolution system.
They also call for public services to be protected against privatisation, believing that CETA puts public services at risk by making it harder to reverse failed privatisations or expand Canadian public services in the future.
The Canadian unions also urge better protection for public services, arguing that, as things stand, any government service or sector not explicitly excluded is swept into CETA. This, they say, will limit the rights of provinces, municipalities, and other entities to get the most out of their procurement spending by favouring local goods and services.
In addition, the Canadian unions want a mechanism for enforcing labour rights to be included, with meaningful sanctions for violations of workers’ rights. CETA, they point out, contains provisions that address the rights of investors.
Lastly, they call for an end to pharmaceutical patent extensions, warning that CETA’s patent protection provisions could increase the annual cost of pharmaceuticals in the Canadian health care system by CAN $1 billion or more. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)