Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA): Scary Business
Trading Up: NUPGE Trade Backgrounder
Canada: The Land of Denied Opportunity? A Review of Canada's Temporary Foreign Workers Program
In recent years a lot of attention has been paid to Canada's tight labour market conditions and the recruitment of foreign workers. But rather than building a strong and diverse society through a compassionate and efficient immigration system, many employers and governments in Canada have instead been using Canada's Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) to exploit foreign workers and drive down wages and working conditions for workers in Canada. This research document explains how temporary foreign workers have limited rights and protections in Canada, and what rights they do hold are difficult to enforce. It outlines our concerns about the way our federal and provincial governments have designed and how they operate the TFWP, and how many employers are abusing the program. It also contains a series of policies recommendations to improve the program, to ensure temporary foreign workers have the same rights as all other workers in Canada, and to find long-term solutions for tight labour markets in Canada.
WTO in Hong Kong: 11 years of failure and counting
Since the world's trade ministers signed the founding document of the World Trade Organization, more than 11 years ago, international trade agreements have taken us towards more global inequality, more poverty, social and environmental destruction, and massive migration and global insecurity. The Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, held December 2005, could have provided an opportunity for the world's nations to change course. Instead, trade negotiators from the world's wealthiest nations attempted to coerce the planet's weakest countries to accept undemocratic policies that violate their own best interests.
Report of the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico
GATS: Restricting the Powers of Municipal Government (updated November 2003)
Canada is a signatory to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (the GATS), one of the many agreements falling under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO). One little known aspect of these international trade agreements is the manner in which it restricts the ability of sub-national governments (i.e. Provincial-Territorial, Municipal and First Nations) to enact policy. The powers of municipal governments are set out in legislation but, by signing onto the GATS, Canada commits to ensuring that all levels of government, including municipalities, comply with its terms. Find out more about this fundamental threat to democracy in Canada.
GATS: Eroding Provincial Authority (updated November 2003)
The federal government is engaged in negotiating an international trade agreement, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which could dramatically restrict provincial government authority over: education, health, social services, libraries, recreation and culture, architectural and engineering services, sewers and water, and construction and retail services. Learn more about the potential impacts of this wide-reaching trade agreement.
The General Agreement on Trade in Service: A Primer
The World Trade Organization (WTO) services agreement - the General Agreement on Trade in Services (the GATS) - is the next vehicle of choice for advocates of global deregulation, commercialization, privatization and restructuring of government. International negotiations to expand the GATS have now begun and their aims are broad, even sweeping, in range and depth. As yet virtually unknown to the public, the negotiations have the potential to affect our lives in profound ways, through establishing binding, global and irreversible rules relating to the provision of services. As this paper explains unless we act soon to lobby our governments (at all levels) to take strong action against the extension of the GATS, it could result in the virtual elimination of all our public programs and services.
GATS Attack on Public Services
Negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) are now underway in earnest. This WTO agreement has far-reaching implications on how Canadian governments deliver and regulate essential public services such as health care, education, transport, broadcasting and postal services. The US and other countries have made sweeping requests to transfer vital Canadian public services into the hands of foreign corporations. If accepted, this would mean that profits will take precedence over public policy goals, such as ensuring that quality public services are affordable and accessible for all. Read this pamphlet to learn more about the potentially staggering consequences of the GATS and what you can do to help stop the GATS attack on Canadian public services.
Solidarity in Quebec: No to the FTAA
On April 20, 2001 leaders and their staff, from 34 countries of the Americas met in Quebec City to discuss the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). At the same time thousands of trade union, environmental and social justice activists from across the hemisphere met to plan an alternative path forward. The Second People's Summit culminated in a massive rally on Saturday, April 21, 2001 when more than 60,000 marched through the streets of Quebec City. This publication provides a pictorial and textual account of the week and the FTAA process.
Colombia: Victim of Wars
Mention Colombia and most people conjure up images of war - civil war, drug wars, and the war on terrorism. But, under the cover of all these various wars, Colombia's government is fighting a war against its own people - it own civil society. On the front lines are workers, peasants, women, Afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples. Learn more about Colombia's invisible struggles and how you can help the Colombian people win a Just Peace.
We're All Affected: AIDS in Africa
The HIV/AIDS epidemic has been called a "catalyst for social justice". Not because there is anything just or fair about the disease but because HIV/AIDS has disproportionately occurred in marginalized communities - in particular among the poor. The struggle to fight this disease requires building an international movement for justice. Join the National Union's campaign in solidarity with the people of Africa.
AIDS: The Plight of Women and Children in Africa
Africa continues to dwarf the rest of the world on the AIDS balance sheet. However, events in Africa attract little attention unless thousands or tens of thousands of deaths are involved. Women and children face multiple layers of vulnerabilities - biological, cultural, social and economic. When a woman dies, the household will risk collapsing completely, leaving children to fend for themselves.
Making the Global Economy work for People
This pamphlet talks about giving workers more of a say in what happens in the global economy and ensuring that the world economy works for all of us, not just multinational corporations.
Economic Disarmament
Originally based on a letter sent to Prime Minister Chrétien, this publication proposes a more 'people-centered' approach to globalization, one that includes a prominent role for human and labour rights. Implementation of this agenda would ensure that the global economy worked for ordinary citizens, not just for huge multinational corporations, currency speculators and similar groups
