HOW long will Canadian and American workers be pawns in Trump’s trade war? asks the IAM (Machinists) Canada union.
Just three days after threatening to start a trade war, US President Donald Trump agreed to pause tariffs on Canadian imports for at least 30 days, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier on his X account.
While this temporary delay may offer a brief delay, it begs the question: ‘How long will workers on both sides of the border continue to suffer as pawns in these political games,’ asks David Chartrand, IAM Union Canada, General Vice-President.
‘The reality is, for many families, the consequences of trade disruptions are not just theoretical. They are deeply personal.
Chartrand continued: ‘Workers in both the US and Canada, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet, face uncertainty and anxiety every time tariffs are threatened or imposed.
‘These decisions, made by politicians in negotiations over issues like fentanyl smuggling and border security, can lead to job losses, higher costs of goods, and economic instability.
‘And it’s these workers, the backbone of industries across both nations, who pay the price.
‘While the 30-day pause might seem like a win, it is ultimately a temporary solution that does little to address the ongoing strain that families face.
‘These workers have become pawns in a larger political game, caught between leaders making deals with little regard for the human cost.
‘They didn’t ask for this instability. They didn’t sign up to have their livelihoods threatened as part of negotiations,’ Chartrand emphasised.
‘How long can workers and their families endure this uncertainty? Every time Trump threatens tariffs, it is the people who rely on cross-border trade for their jobs that are left in uncertainty.
‘This temporary pause may offer a break for now, but what workers really need is long-term stability and assurance that they won’t continue to be treated as leverage in a game that doesn’t consider their daily struggles.
‘As this political and economical game plays out, it is essential that we ask: When will we stop using workers as bargaining chips?
‘They deserve more than a quick fix. They deserve security and a future that isn’t at the mercy of trade tensions.’
Chartrand concluded: ‘It’s time we demand more stability for those who depend on the trade that fuels their livelihoods.’
Meanwhile, the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), representing 12 million workers in construction, building materials, wood and forestry sectors affiliated to 351 trade unions across 117 countries, strongly condemns the escalating persecution, detentions, and inhumane deportations of migrant workers in the United States.
Under the current administration’s aggressive immigration policies, thousands of workers, especially those from Latin America and the Caribbean, are being criminalised, detained, and forcibly removed while facing extreme precarity in their workplaces.
These workers, many in construction and wood sectors, build the homes, roads, and cities that power the US economy.
Despite their essential contributions, they are being scapegoated under the pretence of irregular status or alleged criminal records.
Immigration authorities have unleashed a brutal crackdown, ramping up deportations, and militarising the borders.
Across the country, women, men, children, and elderly people from Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and beyond, are living in fear, hiding under the threat of persecution by US immigration authorities.
These attacks not only violate fundamental human rights but also weaken protections for all workers.
While States have the sovereign right to regulate their borders, there are no exceptions to the obligation to respect fundamental human rights.
Reports reveal degrading and inhumane treatment of deported migrants: shackled hand and foot, denied food, water, and medical care, and subjected to military-style detention.
These violations recall the darkest chapters of history, where human suffering was institutionalised, and people were stripped of their dignity.
Far-right leaders with authoritarian instincts are seizing power globally on anti-immigration platforms, spreading racial hatred in communities through anti-migrant rhetoric and promises of restrictive immigration policies.
Once again, they are following a familiar playbook: blaming the most vulnerable – the poor, the marginalised, and the displaced – for society’s problems while protecting the wealth of the rich and the power of the powerful.
They arrest and deport migrants as criminals, yet they do not touch the profits of exploitative corporations or the privileges of those who benefit from their labour.
They are weaponising fear and turning it into hate, division, and poisonous rhetoric.
They legislate on human beings being ‘illegal’ simply for existing, for being born on the ‘wrong’ side of a border. These policies are an outright assault on the dignity and rights of all workers.
BWI affiliates reject race-based persecutions and inhumane deportations, and call for immediate action to:
- Strengthen global labour solidarity: Expose these violations, mobilise against repression, and protect migrant workers from persecution.
- Halt deportations and raids: End inhumane enforcement actions, reinstate rights-based migration pathways, and provide reparations for affected workers.
- Ensure decent work and justice for all migrant workers: They are integral members of the workforce and must be treated with dignity.
- Uphold labour and human rights: Implement legal protections to prevent abuse and guarantee clear pathways for justice, allowing migrant communities to fully participate in society without fear.
BWI said: ‘We stand in unwavering solidarity with migrant workers in the United States, resolute in our commitment to defending their rights, safety, and dignity amid escalating repression.’
The union said: ‘In the face of this deepening crisis, we reaffirm our determination to fight together, knowing that justice will only be achieved when this dark chapter in history is decisively reversed by the collective strength of the global working class.
‘We fight together. We win together!’
- US graduate student unions are gearing up to protect gains under second Trump administration.
In his first term, Trump’s administration sought to restrict graduate students’ abilities to be recognised as employees.
That previous policy, combined with other legislation surrounding immigration and gender discrimination, poses a threat for unions.
With this in mind, graduate student unions are gearing up for the second Trump administration — and feel more confident than ever in their ability to fight back.
New protections won under some contracts also provide an extra layer of protection for graduate students against threats of deportation by the Trump administration, among other issues.
Since 2012, graduate student employee union representation has seen an increase of 133% nationwide according to a report by the National Centre for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.
Much of that uptick took place under the National Labour Relations Board with the administration of President Joe Biden.
‘People on the ground realise we’ve dealt with this before. We know how to navigate this’,’ said Gary Rhoades, a professor of higher education at the University of Arizona.
‘There are far more graduate student unions today than there were eight years ago and those unions themselves have gotten stronger.’
Two years ago the largest academic strike in US history took place.
It involved tens of thousands of academics across the University of California (UC) system’s 10 campuses and one national lab. Backed up by the United Automotive Workers union (UAW), the strike resulted in new five-year contracts that included pay rises of 20-23% and annual pay increases of at least 3.5% for postdocs, as well as salary increases of about 29% for typical academic researchers over their contracts.
This victory, which also delivered protections against abuse and bullying, as well as improved paid parental and family leave, emboldened academics at other universities across the country to mobilise and fight for similar gains.
This massive movement is still gaining momentum in the US, as postdocs at the University of Washington have been protesting this month for better contracts and Caltech postdocs and graduate students just secured better pay and conditions.
The UC system recognised the first UAW postdoctoral scholar bargaining unit in 2008, which ratified its first union contract in 2010, and then graduate researchers there formed a union in 2021.
Currently, academic workers make up more than a quarter of the UAW’s membership – the organisation represents more than 150,000 academic workers throughout the US and Canada. Almost 40% of graduate student workers in the US are unionised now.
Academic salaries have been stagnant for years while inflation has risen, and research funding has essentially remained flat.
This has created a crisis in which highly skilled graduate students and research scientists are underpaid and undervalued, explains Philip Creamer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle who is active in the university’s postdoc association.
The much-publicised wins by UC academics through UAW about two years ago further supercharged the movement at other universities.
When academic employees around the country were looking to unionise, there wasn’t a lot of support to be found at the bigger national and international unions, according to Creamer, but he says UAW’s leadership was more progressive and made a conscious decision to support academic workers.
Currently, UAW represents more than 100,000 academic workers, and the UC system alone now has 48,000 UAW members, which outnumbers its members who work for the multinational automotive manufacturing conglomerate Stellantis, which owns Chrysler and Fiat.
