tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311998.post110557391227498047..comments2024-03-27T07:47:11.168-07:00Comments on LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Will Canadian Labour Accept Free Trade?EUGENE PLAWIUKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11736971647879996375noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311998.post-27928925678728329332012-01-31T00:07:35.417-08:002012-01-31T00:07:35.417-08:00So nice of you to update! Not enough do. My tip to...So nice of you to update! Not enough do. My tip to promote your blog is to share where you care. Comment where you actualy read, have interest and enjoy to write.So nice of you to update! Not enough do. My tip to promote your blog is to share where you care. Comment where you actualy read, have interest and enjoy to write.Zack Ridderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00281593994519000591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9311998.post-1109752320965818572005-03-02T00:32:00.000-08:002005-03-02T00:32:00.000-08:00Labour converts on free trade road
Fifteen years ...Labour converts on free trade road<br /><br />Fifteen years after a fight to the finish, the CLC says Mulroney's deal wasn't so bad<br /><br />Editorial <br />Victoria Times Colonist<br /><br />Thursday, September 23, 2004<br /><br />When the U.S.-Canada free-trade deal was being negotiated in 1987, Canadian Labour Congress president Shirley Carr warned it would throw 800,000 Canadian workers out on the street and put this country "in the grave."<br /><br />This week, 16 years later, the current CLC president, Ken Georgetti has acknowledged that the deal "has not been an economic disaster" for Canada, after all. Although some jobs in this country were lost in the restructuring of the 1990s, he said Wednesday, they've recovered slowly, and the manufacturing sector in this country has actually benefited from the new trade arrangement.<br /><br />It's time, he declared, to stop fighting free trade: "Omelettes are not easily unscrambled."<br /><br />What heresy is this? Organized labour's was the most powerful voice against free trade when former prime minister Brian Mulroney was its champion. Georgetti himself, at that time president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, predicted it would prove disastrous for this province.<br /><br />He warned in 1988 that U.S. companies would buy Canadian pulp rather than newsprint, closing down newsprint mills in B.C. It would mean Canada would no longer be able to restrict the export of unprocessed fish on the West Coast, he said. Canada would no longer be able to take advantage of its lower energy costs by giving Canadian firms cheaper rates.<br /><br />"The government has simply turned over the economic development of Canada to the Americans," Georgetti declared.<br /><br />Now that the CLC has accepted North American free trade as a fait accompli, and is urging us to move on to other things, where does that leave its political ally, the New Democratic Party?<br /><br />The NDP, too, no longer speaks as harshly of the deal. Party leader Jack Layton says we should be pursuing "fair trade" rather than free trade. New Democrats still say NAFTA, as it has become, can push down Canadian wages, social programs like medicare, environmental protection, safety and labour standards and the revenue from taxes needed to pay for public services.<br /><br />They want Canada to take a tougher stand against the Americans in disputes over things like softwood lumber -- something that even Industry Minister David Emerson advocates -- and want the NAFTA dispute-settlement mechanism eliminated in any future agreements under the pact.<br /><br />The CLC hasn't changed all its spots. Georgetti says that most of the new manufacturing jobs created under free trade are in smaller, non-union plants. This is a bad thing, he says, because non-unionized workers are paid less and have poorer working conditions.<br /><br />The CLC president says that the productivity of Canadian workers has grown at a rate less than half that of U.S. workers since 1992 but blames this, not on workers, but on companies that haven't invested in new technology.<br /><br />Other critics of free trade in its early days have bitten their tongues. John Ralston Saul once warned the deal would lead to the destruction of our social programs and lower our living standards. But look where free trade has got him.<br />© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2004EUGENE PLAWIUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11736971647879996375noreply@blogger.com