“Buy Canadian” and “Sell Here, Build Here”

If you want to sell here, then you better build here.

So far, the federal government has introduced extremely limited “Buy Canadian” procurement rules, but U.S. companies keep getting preferential treatment for government contracts, and jobs keep getting shipped south of the border.

We need “Buy Canadian” rules applied to major projects like the $3 billion VIA Rail renewal. These rules also need to be expanded to match every “Buy American” rule down south that’s keeping Canadian businesses out of U.S. procurement competitions. If the U.S. won’t work with Canadian companies, then why are we still letting American companies line up for Canadian government contracts?

Unifor calls on the federal government to:

• Make accommodations to apply Buy Canadian Policy requirements retroactively for strategic nation-building, and high value (i.e. more than $1 billion) procurements not yet awarded. This includes the massive $3 billion procurement for new Via Rail locomotives and rail carriages.
• Disqualify U.S. suppliers from preferential treatment in the forthcoming Policy for Reciprocal Procurement, regardless of FTA partner status, given non-preferential treatment afforded to Canadian suppliers in the United States.
• Consider all statutory powers (including invoking and expanding the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act) to protect jobs and disincentivize the offshoring of Canadian production and impose tariffs or other heavy penalties on firms that comply with unjust U.S. trade orders. This can include barring goods previously made in Canada from re-entering the country from the United States or elsewhere.

Worker-Centred Industrial Strategies

We need a plan, and workers are ready to contribute.

The impact of U.S. tariffs is being felt up and down supply chains and across industries, and the federal government is still playing catch-up when it comes to a response.

Canada’s industries need to come up with worker-centred strategies to continue to grow and support good jobs in our communities. The only way to get there is for government, workers, and employers to come together.

Unifor calls on the federal government to:

• Integrate the core dimensions of Worker-Centred Industrial Strategies into the terms of reference for Canada’s six identified Workforce Alliances. This means:
  • Engage in regular, ongoing dialogue between workers, employers and government;
  • Prioritize job quality and retention to grow good jobs;
  • Invest in worker-led transitional skills development;
  • Adopt a whole-of-supply-chain approach; and
  • Commit to sustained public investments to target supply chain gaps or weaknesses directly.
• Expand sector coverage of Worker-Centred Industrial Strategy tables to include additional key industries (e.g., aerospace, forestry, hospitality, telecommunications, etc.).
• Where established tripartite tables for social dialogue already exist (e.g., Quebec), avoid duplication of efforts by providing targeted transfers to those provinces and territories to adapt a WCIS approach.

Promote Good, Union Jobs

Union jobs are good jobs, and Canada needs good jobs right now.

The federal government is missing an opportunity to grow good jobs by letting companies take public investments without committing to support unionization.

Not only that, but the federal government changed the law so that it can order people back-to-work without even taking a vote of parliament.

When Air Canada flight attendants went on strike last year, Jobs Minister Hajdu ordered them back to work less than 12 hours into their job action (the workers said no). But what employer would bargain in good faith when they know the federal government is ready in the wings to force an end to a strike as soon as it begins?

Looking ahead, as we negotiate new trade deals with the US, Canada has to keep an eye on labour rights violations and unfair trading practices in states with so called “right-to-work" laws.

Unifor calls on the federal government to:

• Require firms sign “union neutrality” covenants, with strict oversight provisions, on condition of access to public funding through the Strategic Response Fund, Defence Investment Agency, and other public funding bodies.
• Defend free and fair collective bargaining and the right to strike in federally-regulated sectors, pushing back against employer efforts to undermine fundamental union rights.
• Negotiate an expansion of CUSMA’s special Rapid Response Labour Mechanism (RRLM) to include U.S. workplaces in “Right to Work” states as “Covered Facilities”, remedying labour rights violations and unfair trading practices.