How you and your union can get involved

Get involved in a sweatshop campaign

WE MONITOR WHAT GOING ON

• The Canadian Labour Congress and other trade union centrals representing workers from countries all over the hemisphere belong to a labour confederation called the Interamerican Regional Workers Organization, known by its initials in Spanish, ORIT. Since 1994, ORIT has made the FTAA a priority area of concern, holding Labour Forums alongside FTAA meetings in an effort to ensure that social and labour concerns are on the negotiating table.

• Canadian unions have been active in building Common Frontiers, a multi-sectoral coalition including environmentalists, church, human rights and women's groups and have worked with similar coalitions in the US and Mexico on NAFTA.

We are fighting to have a voice.

• Workers have something to say about this free trade process but the governments don’t want to hear. They are too busy listening to business executives. Since 1996, the Business Forum has enjoyed official status within the FTAA but so far recognition of the Labour Forum has been denied.

• Canadian unions and Common Frontiers have participated actively in the broad-based "peoples" events organized in recent years parallel to the glitzy get-togethers of high level officials involved in FTAA negotiations.

Working in alliance with other sectors.

• Labour has joined an alliance with environmental and peasant movements, with human rights, women's groups and other organizations throughout the Americas called the ’Hemispheric Social Alliance".

• Workers should be entitled to form and join unions of their choice. That means no harassing, firing or blacklisting of union organizers.

• Once they have a union, workers must have the right to bargain collectively, negotiate their salaries, wages and working conditions.

• No country should be able to gain a trade advantage by depressing wages, by keeping unions out, by forcing young children or prisoners to work.

• Workers rights must be respected. These rights are clearly laid out in the conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Human Rights Charter, the Copenhagen Social Development Summit, the American Convention on Human Rights, the San Salvador Protocol, etc. We should only sign trade agreements with countries who have signed these agreements - and governments who have signed these agreements should start implementing them!

• The Labour Forum (set up by ORIT) must be recognized and an official working group on labour issues established in the FTAA negotiating process.

Get informed

• Log on to the Canadian Labour Congress home page or the home page of your own union.

• See Common Frontiers Link page for other organisation who can help you

Help inform others

• Distribute copies of this pamphlet at a union meeting.

• Suggest that your union order and distribute copies of the Free Trade Action Kit.

Develop solidarity links with other workers

• Find out where the company you work for has other locations, in Mexico, or further south.

• Find out what links your union has with workers in Latin America.

Give the Prime Minister a piece of your mind

• Send in the post card to the Prime Minister included in the Common Frontiers Free Trade Action Kit.

• Write him a letter telling him what labour wants in a trade deal. (You can use some of the points we discussed earlier).

Get involved in a sweatshop campaign

• Join current campaigns of the Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) to support sweatshop workers such as those in El Salvador.

• Find out about the campaign for codes of conduct for transnational corporations.

To find out more, contact MSN at:

606 Shaw street, Toronto, Ont. M6G 3L6;

416-532-8584 (phone)
416-532-7688 (fax)
perg@web.net (e-mail)

Check out their web-site at: http//www.web.net/-msn