Canada's largest private sector union calls for retaliatory tariffs against U.S.
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The U.S. just hit Canada with another tariff gut punch, and Canada's largest private sector union says it's time to hit back with the same force.
U.S. President Donald Trump has doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, starting Wednesday. Canada, which already has a 25 per cent retaliatory tariff on U.S. steel and aluminum, hasn't yet said how it will respond.
"We are in intensive negotiations with the Americans and in parallel preparing reprisals if those negotiations do not succeed," Prime Minister Mark Carney said in the House of Commons.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has urged the federal government to double its tariffs to match Trump, saying: "We can't sit back and let President Trump steamroll us."
Lana Payne agrees. She's the president of Unifor, a labour union representing 320,000 Canadian workers, including in the steel and aluminum industries, as well as other adjacent sectors.
Unifor is calling on Canada to enact tit-for-tat tariffs, temporarily halt exports of strategic metals to the U.S., build a national stockpile reserve of those metals, and strengthen laws that block companies from relocating Canadian jobs to the U.S.
Here is part of Payne's conversation with As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
Lana Payne, you are asking for immediate countermeasures against these tariffs from the U.S. What specifically would you like to see happen?
I agree with Premier Ford. This is a very serious situation that we have on our hands right now.
This is an outrageous size of a tariff that is risking Canadian jobs in the steel and aluminum industry, but also in industries that depend on steel and aluminum, like the auto industry, like aerospace. There's a lot at stake right now.
We basically agree that we should have retaliatory tariffs. Currently, we have some, and if the U.S. is looking at 50 per cent on us, which they are, then we need to look at 50 per cent back.
WATCH | Canadian Labour Congress calls for retaliatory tariffs:
Advocates call for immediate action as Trump doubles metals tariffs
10 hours ago
Duration 3:09
Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske says she wants to see counter-tariffs right away on U.S. imports, with tens of thousands of Canadian jobs are at risk due to President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war. She spoke on Parliament Hill alongside Federation of Canadian Municipalities CEO Carole Saab and Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO Candace Laing.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is so far today saying that we're going to hold off on retaliatory tariffs because Canada is in talks with the U.S. on this right now … What do you make of that rationale?
I don't envy the federal government in this moment, sitting and having negotiations back and forth with a partner that basically isn't playing by any rules whatsoever.
That's what we're dealing with, which is why we have to be firm. We have to be strong, and we have to protect Canadian jobs and Canadian industries in that process.
We can make sure that we're implementing new border measures that also look at preventing unfairly traded or dumped foreign steel and aluminum from entering Canada.
Because you can imagine, as these tariffs are increased on most of the world, the world is going to be looking at places where they can get rid of their steel and aluminum, and we have to make sure we're protecting our Canadian industries and Canadian jobs.
We can also look at things like temporarily halting exports of metals to the United States. If the United States is basically saying to us right now, "We're putting 50 per cent tariffs on you because we believe we don't need your steel and aluminum," then don't give it to them.
The U.S. needs our aluminum and our steel. They can't build things without it.
What would it mean, though, Lena, for your workers, if we didn't send it there? It has to go somewhere, right?
We're at a place right now where, with a 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum, you'd be hard pressed to think that we can export anything to the U.S. at this moment at that cost.
WATCH | PM Carney calls Trump's doubled tariffs 'illogical' and 'unjustified':
Carney responds to U.S. aluminum and steel tariffs doubling
13 hours ago
Duration 0:45
Ahead of a Liberal caucus meeting, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the government is in 'intensive discussions' with the United States after tariffs on steel and aluminum increased from 25 to 50 per cent.
Do you worry that retaliatory tariffs would inflame things even more and lead the U.S. to bring in even more punitive measures against Canada? I mean, [is] working towards a deal more beneficial?
If we don't do something, we risk losing these industries potentially forever. This is the problem we're in right now.
Yes, we are going to use more steel and aluminum in Canada, given the fact that we have the leaders of our country — the premiers, the prime minister — talking about nation-building projects. But they won't start overnight. And we have to deal and save these workers and these jobs today.
That means we may have to do things that cause pain south of the border. Because there is no way to avoid the fact that American workers, American industries are going to be impacted by this decision by Donald Trump.
The Conservatives, as you may have seen, say there needs to be an emergency debate on these 50 per cent tariffs from the U.S. to help protect workers, and they're pointing the finger at the Carney government saying that things are only getting worse. Do you agree with the Conservatives on this?
The reality is that Prime Minister Carney cannot control Donald Trump. Nobody can at this point.
What I think would be beneficial is that the Carney government is absolutely speaking and having a conversation with unions, with industry, around how we deal with this going forward.
This is stepping up the attack on Canada. There is no doubt about it that this is a major increase in aggression from the United States when, in fact, we have not been aggressive in the last number of weeks. We have actually been working to try to have negotiations, to get a deal. We're heading into the G7 in just a couple of weeks, and here we are with this kind of attack on Canada again.
So I do think it's important for the government to be speaking to stakeholders and to have a cohesive strategy going forward. And I believe some of the measures and some of the recommendations that we put forward are beneficial, and I'm sure there will be others in Canadian society who have other recommendations.
I would say the government's going to have to move fairly quickly here — within days, not weeks.
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