El sindicalismo canadiense ante el Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte

Abstract

this article provides an overview of Canada’s largest labour organization,and observations on the positions it adopted in response to the free trade accords Canada entered into with the United States and Mexico. While unionists are critical of the way in which the enormous socioeconomic Canagap separating Mexico and Canada led to a downward harmonization of the working conditions of their members, known popularly as the “Mexican experience”, they aspire to a global free trade in which the benefits of economic growth are shared so that all citizens of the Americas enjoy prosperity and democracy. The Canadian Labour Congress warns that some key sectors of their country’s economy have become so integrated into that of the United States that a possible return to pre-free trade protectionist rules could produce grave breakdown effects. Although they consider it desirable to maintain good jobs in Canada, they recognize that international trade is important to the Canadian economy in that it provides economies of scale and scope. They aspire more to Canada regaining control over its economic development than to a reversion to the productive self-sufficiency practices of the past. However, we do not know what will happen to Nafta given the ultra nationalist policies of president Trump.