Dino is one of the past-presidents of the labour council, and as he said, it's great to be here. Thanks for coming down. It's closer for a couple of the MPs.
My name is Brian Hogan. I'm president of the Windsor and District Labour Council, representing 40,000 members. My friend Randy is a member of the Council of Canadians, and also a labour council member.
Millions of Canadians voted for “real change” with the Liberal campaign. In February, unfortunately, there was no real change when you signed the Conservatives’ negotiated TPP agreement.
At our recent labour council meeting, the TPP was panned by every committee because it affects many citizens in so many ways. Our social justice committee talked about inequality, our sovereignty, and the challenges of local solutions like “buy Canadian” and “buy local”. Our human rights committee talked about our aboriginal community being affected, especially in terms of the environment. Public Health talked about drug costs. Environment talked about corporations affecting green economy initiatives we have tried here in the province.
There are some specific examples of the downside of trade agreements in our area. We've been looking forward to the construction of our bridge. Since it's a public project, it could be challenged under TPP or CETA as having unfair competition. Plenty of local workers would love to work on that project. Who knows if that will actually occur because of trade agreements?
Look at Leamington. When U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett was able to buy Heinz at the stroke of a pen, a 105-year-old plant closed. Now with the plant under new ownership, the workers make a fraction of what they made before; many are laid off, and many face the loss of their pension. This makes no sense, but it is what neo-liberal free trade has brought us. This is what the companies mean when they talk about the need to be more competitive, which is at the heart of the TPP.
Look at Hamilton just down the highway. The U.S. owners first took over a competitor, Stelco, in a smart business move. Now they're shutting it down to strengthen their empire and, in the process, using bankruptcy courts to try to get out of their legal obligations to thousands of pensioners. I'm telling you something you already know.
Obviously, the core issue of the TPP and other free trade agreements, which Dino touched on, is the control over our country's economy. Through these agreements, the global monopolies legally gain direct control over key aspects of the economy and deprive real people like us the rights to exercise control over our country, our wages, and our working conditions. When we talk about so-called free trade, we have to discuss reality. Dino touched on much of this. The downturn in manufacturing in Canada during the last two decades can certainly be traced in some part to NAFTA.
The TPP will only lead us further down the same path. It will cause more insecurity in communities like the ones all of you are from. We don't want Windsor and Essex to face collateral damage from the expanded corporate takeovers of our country under the guise of a new free trade deal. That is why workers are against it. The labour movement in Windsor-Essex is against these free trade deals, and has been against NAFTA and all the others that have come before. It's not that we are against trade; it is that we are against the selling out of our country and our communities to corporations.
Merci.
Randy has a few comments too.