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Toronto - The United Steelworkers today released a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking the Prime Minister “raise with the President-Elect Obama our concerns about the current NAFTA agreement.”

In the letter, United Steelworkers National Director Ken Neumann called on Harper to review the NAFTA agreement. “We believe it is the right time for Canada to make a case to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama about a revitalized Canada-U.S. relationship, but that relationship must be based on mutual respect for our workers and our environment, something that the current North American Free Trade Agreement simply does not provide for.”

The United Steelworkers is Canada’s most diverse union, representing 280,000 men and women working across Canada.

‘Barack Obama’s stunning election as president of the United States is cause for celebration around the world – and is a golden opportunity for Canada to take up Obama’s invitation to rewrite the NAFTA in a way that benefits Canadian, Mexican and American workers,” said Neumann.

During the campaign, Obama spoke out in favour of amending NAFTA, a stand that won him crucial support from Steelworkers and many others, especially in the hard-hit industrial heartland. The Democratic Party entrenched that position in its election platform, which commits to “work with Canada and Mexico to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement so that it works better for all three North American countries.”

Meaningful rules on labour rights and environmental protection are important, but the Steelworkers are seeking other changes too.

“It is equally important to eliminate NAFTA’s notorious Chapter 11, which allows corporations to launch private lawsuits to overturn government actions taken in the public interest.  Right now one corporation is trying to challenge Canada’s meager restrictions on raw log exports. Canadians must be able to process raw logs in here in Canada.

Another NAFTA provision forbids Canada from reducing shipments of oil and natural gas to the United States, even if supplies for Canadians are running short. Our union’s position – in both Canada and the United States – is that Canadians should have full control over our resource exports,” Neumann wrote.


The full text of letter is available on the Steelworkers web site www.usw.ca

/For further information: Ken Neumann, National Director for Canada,
(416) 487-1571 or (416) 558-2510, or Peter D. Birt, Communications Department,
(416) 544-5966