1 October, 2014IndustriALL Global Union affiliates United Steelworkers (USW), representing workers in the US and Canada and Unite the Union from the UK, collectively Workers Uniting, have declared their opposition to a number of provisions in the proposed Canada and EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Although repeatedly criticized by the trade union movement, the provisions still remain.
Among the provisions are the notorious Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions (ISDS) allowing multinational companies to sue governments over laws, regulations and even domestic court decisions that affect current or future profits. Critically the draft ignores a fundamental trade union demand that labour rights violations be subject to the same dispute settlement mechanisms as commercial conflicts.
According to Workers Uniting, Canada has been sued under similar provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) more than 20 times and has been forced to pay over USD 150 million to corporations.
“CETA sets a terrible precedent for future trade agreements, especially the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between Europe and the U.S.,” says USW International President Leo W. Gerard.
“In addition to the deficiencies we have cited in the CETA – which will likely be replicated in the TTIP – the attacks on labour rights in the U.S. threaten the living standards of European and Canadian workers.
Rather than weakening these rights and exporting lower American standards through secret trade deals, we need to look at how to expand European mechanisms to protect workers’ rights and promote worker involvement in companies.
This position is echoed by the German trade union confederation DGB, supported by IndustriALL German affiliates IG Metall and IGBCE, which has raised its concerns in the TTIP negotiation process. It says that a future TTIP must not be permitted to jeopardise workers' rights and must comply with the ILO's core labour standards and the OECD guidelines for multinational companies.
Any agreement must not affect national laws, especially those governing the labour market or social security systems, collective bargaining autonomy, the right to strike, minimum wages or collective agreements. This applies not only to present provisions, but also to future expansions of these protective rights.
Detlev Wetzel, President of IG Metall, says:
"We reject any kind of investment protection agreements and expect all ILO core labor standards be signed by the US. If even one of these points is in doubt, IG Metall will say 'no' to TTIP and CETA."
The DGB is also calling for the rejection of Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions. ‘In principle, regulations designed to protect investments are not an essential part of an agreement reached between the USA and the EU and should therefore not be introduced along with the TTIP.'