Unifor national president Jerry Dias
So many manufacturing sectors, I am feeling a lot more comfortable today.
Last night Canada reached an agreement in principle with the United States and
Mexico on a modernized and updated North American Free Trade Agreement.
We made it very clear we needed a good deal not just any deal.
And the labour movement is having an influential role
in these negotiations. Over the weekend the Prime
Minister consulted with Jerry Dias head of Unifor,
Canada's largest private sector union.
Jerry made the decision very early on that to be involved and to
actually have some credibility you needed to be involved so from the very
first round of negotiations, very first day we were there and we never missed a round
of the negotiations. We were there from the get-go.
And Jerry said to us....
....know what guys union leaders are the best negotiators around. Negotiating is
what we do. So let me help you.
We were able to articulate
what a trade deal should look like.
We were able to talk about people, working class people.
We were able to raise issues that have never been raised in a trade deal. Trade deals
have never been about people they've always been about free movement of
capital. So this is the first trade deal, it's a huge trade deal, it is 24% of the
world's GDP and what did we talk about? People, we talked about jobs, we talked
about jobs in Canada, we talked about jobs in United States,
we talked about jobs in Mexico.
This deal has our fingerprints all over it.
and we should be proud of that.
So many things that were attained, I will argue,
would never have even been discussed if Unifor didn't participate.
If they wanted us to support the outcome, we had to be involved. That’s essential.
He was a really good adviser but also crucially
he had a lot of backbone and he gave me and the team some confidence to go in
there and take strong positions and to feel like the country was going to be with us.
Not just Auto but all of the issues: Telecommunications, Media, Forestry.
We were an expert on a number of different aspects of the negotiations.
And I really found I could rely on Jerry for his judgment and for
his support and I appreciate it and I felt you know I'm talking about one
person but I really felt that it was a whole union that we were working with
and it was really important. It was a really important part of our team Canada approach.
See that guy standing to the side there with a smile on his face
that's my next guest. Someone who's no stranger to the talks. He's an outside
insider. He really knows what's going on, Unifor President Jerry Dias.
Look we're not going to get bullying, we're not going to get pushed around. We're not going to
have Donald Trump threaten us every day that there's going to be a 25% tariff
imposed on autos. That doesn't sell well in Canada and frankly we're a small
nation we're not a stupid nation.
Yeah... well Jerry has he has a very unique way
about himself and who better to be the spokesperson for not just Unifor
but for working people in North America.
But now there's a clear message to the U.S. that
we're not going to get caught where we signed an agreement and then a week
later the Trump administration imposes tariffs on the auto sector.
Look you've got one tweak at the end of the day maybe two if you're lucky,
so the tweak has to be the auto industry. You got to make sure that we get 2.6
million. I was fascinated a few hours before the deadline Chrystia had
called and said guess what? I said it's the auto industry that's holding up the deal right?
and she said you're absolutely right you nailed it.
And we just sat down to have dinner and we got
a phone call from Jerry and he's like, look you
know they were going to announce this deal about 20 minutes ago
and one of the numbers they wanted to use on the auto
protections, how many vehicles could go to the US without hitting the tariff, he
says I'm not happy with it. So right now North America and the
world are watching and waiting and the only thing holding up this agreement
right now is Unifor.
There's always those things where you get down to you
know the 11th hour the deadlines at midnight it's and whatever it was it's
deadline was at 10:00 because we were having cabinet meetings like 9:30 there
phone and saying we can't get 2.6 we can only get 2.3.
We said listen don't call back until we got 2.6 million and the liberal
caucus was meeting at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday night two hours before the
deadline and sure as heck the phone call came at about five to ten from the PMO's
office saying you got your 2.6 million and so we celebrated because we knew
that we just protected the number one export industry in the country.
Well, in terms of the bargaining outcome, there’s no doubt that we made some major gains,
if we think about workers’ rights, the auto sector, the environment, protection of Article 19
But when it comes to bargaining, you don’t always get everything you want.
So, yes, there is still work to be done on the softwood lumber issue and we have to keep up the fight on the aluminum file.
I think in a large part thanks to us, thanks to the voice of Unifor, we've made changes to
the template on how trade agreements work.
For us it was exciting because it was the opportunity of a lifetime
and frankly we had the opportunity, we kicked the door open and we
walked right through it and it took some courage but also
it was just the right thing to do.