The latest edition of CUPE BC’s Public Employee, tells readers why the latest internal trade deals are bad for workers and public services.
“Deal us out” is subtitled “Why CUPE is leading the fight against bad trade deals” and offers readers a primer on the bad trade deals that have plagued Canada since the Mulroney Tories took power in the mid-1980s and stepped into free trade doodoo.
The secretly negotiated TILMA, or the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement, is “anti-democratic” and “dangerous”, the article says. It will “attack the rights of workers and undermine democracy”.
With all the ballyhoo about the good it will do, so far no TILMA booster “has been able to answer this basic question: exactly what “significant” inter-provincial trade barriers exist that would prevent free trade? The media has failed to ask this question as well.”
The article notes that “The most dangerous part of the TILMA is the investment section. This really is another bill of rights for corporations, which will be able to sue the provincial government for up to $5 million if any law or regulation restricts their profits or potential future profits. Free traders call this the ‘golden straightjacket’.”
You can read the full article now at www.cupe.bc.ca.