Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-20-Speech-2-261"
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"en.20100420.11.2-261"2
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"Mr President, there has not been any assessment of the social, environmental and economic effects of an economic agreement between the European Union and Canada.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, with 600 000 members in areas such as health care, education, local municipalities, public utilities and transport, is seriously concerned about the effects of such an agreement. The National Union of Public and General Employees, with 340 000 members in Canada in the public and private sectors, is equally concerned, as is the Public Service Alliance of Canada, with 165 000 members.
These workers are concerned because they understand that such an agreement will be implemented primarily in the economic interests of big business in both Canada and in the European Union and not primarily in the interests of working people or of social justice.
Now, both the European and Canadian transnational corporations want to break into the provision of public services in Canada – on a maximisation-of-profit basis, of course. They see an EU-Canada agreement as a vehicle to force extensive privatisation in areas like public transport, water provision and electricity. Such a development would be ominous for Canadian workers’ pay and conditions. It could be the beginning of a race to the bottom in exactly the same way as we have seen in Europe, where the EU Commission itself endorses the rights of private companies providing services to exploit workers, as proven when the Commission took the Luxembourg state to court for wanting migrant service workers to be given the same protection as Luxembourgish workers.
Now, Canadian water is a particular target of the water multinationals. Some EU-based multinationals previously wreaked havoc in countries such as Bolivia with water privatisation and their baleful influence is already being felt in Canada.
Happily, ordinary people in Canada are prepared to fight to protect their public water provision. They will need to be vigilant.
The European public sector workers’ trade unions are also concerned, and I call on both Canadian and EU-based unions to forge a real campaign to protect public ownership in public services with democratic control rather than maximisation of private profit, but not just a coming together at leadership level but a real involvement of the rank and file to protect their public services."@en1
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