In response, trade union officials across the country, under the banner of protecting “Canadian jobs,” are waging a chauvinist campaign against the hiring of temporary workers from abroad, as well as the importation of products from semicolonial countries.

Last May, under the auspices of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), 500 construction workers rallied outside the annual meeting of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. to protest “unfair labor practices” at its Horizons oil sands project in response to moves by the company to employ workers from China.

In September, 200 members of Iron Workers Union Local 97 in British Columbia walked off the job to attend a protest against the application by the German construction company Bilfinger Berger Canada to hire 345 temporary workers from abroad for its Golden Ears Bridge project.

UNITE HERE officials in Quebec have been on a national campaign since April 2005 to demand that Ottawa protect “Canadian jobs” by putting up trade barriers to garment and textile imports from China.

“[China] is a machine,” said Canadian Auto Workers union president Buzz Hargrove, during a November 28 Toronto Star interview from Beijing, where he was visiting auto plants. “If we don’t stop it now, our industry will erode and we just won’t have one in 15 to 20 years.”

The “stand up for Canadian jobs” campaign was raised leading up to the November 13 municipal elections here. The incumbent mayor, David Miller, had been criticized for buying new subway cars from a Canadian company at a higher cost than from a Chinese manufacturer. In a letter published in the October 13 Scarborough Mirror, president of the Labour Council of Metropolitan Toronto and York Region John Cartwright praised Miller for “using our tax dollars to support Canadian jobs.”

In contrast, the Communist League candidates put forward a platform aimed at uniting working people irrespective of their nationality. The CL platform called for an end to all deportations and the immediate legalization of all immigrants, while supporting the struggles of workers worldwide to organize and strengthen trade unions to resist the bosses’ attacks.

“The call for amnesty for undocumented workers by the construction unions is a useful example of what unions can do to advance the fight for working-class unity,” said Joe Young, the CL’s mayoral candidate. “Another step in this direction is the fight in Vancouver for a first contract by 40 temporary construction workers, mostly from Costa Rica, who have been organized by Labourers Union Local 1611,” he said.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home