International Trade committee  No, you give up your leverage. The fact is that you have the second round coming up. There was a commitment from President Trump that if we get a free trade agreement, which they did the morning he tweeted out that we're back to a good normal relationship, the tariffs would come

International Trade committee  Yes, we've had layoffs up in the Soo. There have been layoffs that we know of and, as some of the gentlemen have spoken about here, a lot of our smaller companies are at the brink of making some decisions on layoffs. You just heard the news this morning or last night, there's a c

International Trade committee  We hear the complaints that it's a very complex process. Like you say, there are a lot of applications. I know of two particular situations, one in Hamilton and one in Kingston, that have actually.... We've signed letters of support to make sure that they get those exemptions. My

International Trade committee  Let me back up. I can tell you that I've talked to a lot of our workers as well and the fact of the matter is that this deal was signed, but what was left out was that we were abandoned on steel and aluminum. It was a commitment right from day one.

International Trade committee  In its entirety, it probably has some good provisions, but there are also some provisions we're concerned about, as I said in my submission. Through their acknowledgement, with regard to the national security threats, you can now impose clause on 232. I can tell you what's going

International Trade committee  Thank you. On behalf of the members in the steel and aluminum industry, I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak to the committee on the crisis that becomes more intense with each passing day the tariffs are in place. With me is Jamal Shaker from our national office r

International Trade committee  As I said earlier, for a lot of the companies that we deal with, there's no such thing as “Canadian”. They operate on both sides of the border, so there's no doubt there's going to be an effect. If you look at the auto industry, there are some parts that may be made here. They d

International Trade committee  First of all, our view is—and I think our membership are truly on the same page as we are, as, I'm sure, a lot of the employers are too—that the tariffs should have been imposed at midnight on the same day the U.S. imposed tariffs. There is no secret about that. We've always been

International Trade committee  The federal government made the announcement. We also represent the softwood lumber industry and the workers across the country, so it's the same kind of devastation for a lot of these communities that have been affected. In many cases there have been loan guarantees to the emplo

International Trade committee  No, there's been no reach out to us. We've submitted letters to the Prime Minister, Minister Freeland, and I believe also Minister Morneau in regard to our concerns. First of all, there are numerous other elements in regard to the transshipment. In that same letter, we also addre

International Trade committee  I think it's ridiculous. We've been on record for some time that that is the most ludicrous thing we have heard. Canada is not the threat. For decades that's been proven. Ivaca is an American company. In Canada there is no such thing as a Canadian steel industry. All the steel pr

International Trade committee  We've been preaching for a long time in regard to dumping by various countries, and not just China. Our union has been very proactive. We have the right, in the United States, to file complaints as the trade union representing the workers and the communities. We don't have that a

International Trade committee  Yes, I agree. We've been working at this, as I said a moment ago, for many, many years. This is not something new to us. Our union has done close to 100 trade cases in the United States and we've only lost six. This is on tire, rubber, glass, you name it—the whole gamut. Fortuna

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today. In Canada, United Steelworkers represents 225,000 active members. We are the primary union of the steel and aluminum sectors, representing tens of thousands of members in those sectors across the country. As an internatio

International Trade committee  There are numerous examples across the country of the steel industry's demise. We see it in Atlantic Canada. We've seen some of those places disappear. It has devastated those communities. These are engine drivers. I was in Saskatchewan where Ipsco is now Evraz, a Russian compan