The USW represents about 850,000 working men and women in Canada and the United States in a wide variety of industries, ranging from glass making to mining, paper, steel, tire and rubber and other manufacturing environments, to the public sector, service and health care industries.
NGOs dispute Japan, EU challenge to Canadian renewable energy policy.
from the USW
Canadian NGOs and labour unions have sent an amicus curiae submission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the eve of a second hearing tomorrow into Japan's and the European Union's joint attack on the Ontario Green Energy Act. The groups address Canada's failure to properly defend Ontario's actions and call upon the WTO to respect the priority of Canada's international climate change obligations.
"These are the first international trade disputes which create the potential for conflict between a nation's commitments under the WTO and its obligations under the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. The dispute raises fundamental questions about whether the goals of trade liberalization can be reconciled with ecological imperatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and if not, which are to prevail," says the joint amicus curiae submission from Blue Green Canada, the Canadian Auto Workers, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union of Canada, the Council of Canadians and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
