A union that represents mine workers in Flin Flon and across Canada is taking a wait-and-see approach to America’s pledge to renegotiate or cancel a key free trade deal.
United Steelworkers (USW) Canada has long had concerns about the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Canada’s mineral sector and other blue-collar industries.
But Brad West, western Canadian communications director for USW, is not prepared to endorse US President Donald Trump’s unspecified plan to rewrite NAFTA.
“It really depends what type of change we’re talking about,” West told The Reminder in a phone interview.
“Obviously what the Trump administration intends to do is quite unpredictable, but if there is to be renegotiation, we believe it’s communities, working people and their families who should be at the forefront of any renegotiation, and that the priority of trade deals should be raising standards and livelihoods of all people, not trying to drag them down so that already-profitable companies can become more profitable.
“At the end of the day, it’s the substance that matters. It’s like, ‘Okay, you want to renegotiate NAFTA?’ Okay, that could look at a number of different things, and depending on what it looks like it could have a positive or a negative affect on Steelworkers and on local communities that are reliant upon the work that Steelworkers do. So the devil really is in the details on this.”
West said USW has been critical of NAFTA and other trade deals the union believes fail to promote a level playing field for Canadian industry.
“I don’t think that we can say that [NAFTA] has had a positive effect [on mining]. That’s how I would characterize it. We haven’t seen it as being a boon to the mining industry,” he said.
“Specifically within the mining industry, I don’t have specific data to point to and say, ‘We’ve had this number of job losses,’ but certainly there’s been some impact. I think we’ve been somewhat insulated in the mining industry, more than other industries, owing to the fact that our country is blessed with a number of natural resources.”
Due to trade deals, West said, some international mining companies have tried to “roll back the clock on wages and benefits” of their Canadian workers so they are more in line with low-wage mining operations in other countries.
He said NAFTA is part of this trend, pointing to mining operations in Mexico, where wages are much lower than they are in Canada, and the “real attack on labour unions” underway in the US.
Not everyone agrees NAFTA has been bad for mining.
“Canada’s mining industry has been a strong advocate for liberalized trade and investment flows for many years,” Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, said in a 2015 statement. “NAFTA, free trade agreements with Chile, Peru, Colombia, and other countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have all helped to increase Canadian exports and investment, supporting jobs for Canadians here and abroad.”
Andrea McLandress, executive director of the Mining Association of Manitoba, told The Reminder the US is an important market for the Canadian mining industry.
A border tax on US imports – a concept suggested by Trump – could increase costs and lower profits for companies operating in Canada and be punitive for American importers, she said.
Enacted in 1994, NAFTA was designed to remove trade barriers between Canada, the US and Mexico. Negotiations on a NAFTA revisions reportedly began August 16.
Trump has said he wants to revamp NAFTA for the benefit of American workers, adding he will cancel the deal if he cannot achieve this as-yet-undefined objective.
Based on Trump’s record as president, West is not confident the administration will act in the best interest of workers, including those in the US.
“Some of his rhetoric with respect to Canadian workers and industry has been very negative,” he said. “So we think it’s absolutely incumbent on our federal government to take a strong stand to protect Canadian workers and protect Canadian industry.”
