[CTC] Martinez & Pickthall || A second chance to get it right on trade

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2018/01/19/a-second-chance-to-get-it-right-on-trade.html

A second chance to get it right on trade
Talks on NAFTA present a tremendous opportunity to get it right on trade, write two trade union leaders.

By ROBERT MARTINEZ JR.Opinion
STAN PICKTHALL
Fri., Jan. 19, 2018

The Machinists Union is a North American trade union representing hundreds of thousands of Canadian and U.S. workers. Our members manufacture, assemble, service and transport the goods that create the global economy.

We know how important fair trade is to the economies of our two great nations and our member’s livelihoods. We also know the damage wrought by unfair trade rules like those that exist in the NAFTA, CETA, CAFTA, KORUS and other trade agreements.

The cost of NAFTA has been staggering. More than 900,000 American jobs and over 500,000 Canadian jobs have been lost due to NAFTA as U.S. and Canadian companies shifted production to Mexico. We said it was a bad deal when it was signed and the facts don’t lie.

We are not alone. Twenty-four years after NAFTA was implemented, Mexican workers still find themselves being deprived of basic human rights, like the right to engage in collective bargaining and be free from discrimination, child labor and forced labour.

While we are heartened, that after all of these years, NAFTA will be renegotiated, we must ensure the negotiators actually agree to changes that will make a difference for workers. We have a tremendous opportunity to get it right this time.

The sixth round of negotiations for a new NAFTA will be held on January 23-29 in Montreal. We hope this round will involve dramatically revising two critical areas: adding real and meaningful labor standards and eliminating the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism.

Negotiators must not settle for a labor provision that copies what was proposed in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). Among other things, that standard was narrowly confined to cover only violations that were in a manner affecting trade. This is an ambiguous and limiting condition that led to the ridiculous conclusion by a panel this summer to dismiss a case against Guatemala filed by U.S. and Guatemalan workers citing Guatemala’s notorious history of labor rights violations.

Coverage of labor violations are also seriously narrowed under the TPP template because they must be sustained or recurring. Shouldn’t a country be held accountable for any labor violation, especially where it involves murder of a trade unionist?

It is time negotiators get serious about implementing a labor provision that raises labor standards for all workers.

That is why we demand that a renegotiated NAFTA explicitly state that labor standards are defined by the Conventions ratified by the International Labor Organization, an agency under the United-Nations.

Canada’s proposal most closely reflects this demand. And Canadian negotiators have got it right: right-to-work laws in the U.S. are nothing more than cover for preventing workers to unionize. They force democratically elected unions to represent workers that do not pay them a penny. How many of the same interests that advocate right-to-work would also advocate the right to golf free at one of their country clubs—sticking actual members with paying their bills?

And while negotiators are at it they can get rid of the investor-state dispute settlement provisions that allow corporations to challenge national laws and regulation in private courts. These provisions have permitted companies to seek and receive millions of dollars from Canada. Recall the $13 million settlement paid to the Ethyl Corporation under NAFTA’s ISDS provision? ISDS provides private corporations with greater rights than they could receive under national laws. How is this fair to the citizens of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico?

It’s time for negotiators to get real about NAFTA talks that provide meaningful improvements to the working conditions of workers in all three countries, including the right to join and benefit membership in a union.

Robert Martinez Jr. is International President of the Machinists Union and Stan Pickthall is Canadian General Vice President.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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