Donald Trump’s policies have sparked an increased discussion in Canada about the issue of sovereignty. But what does sovereignty mean for the working class, including within the labour movement? In this article, excerpted from a longer one at MLToday.com, long-time US union member and leader Chris Townsend discusses the question of “international unions” and what they mean for workers in Canada in the context of Trump’s actions.
Trade unionists sometimes daydream about cross border solidarity among unions. Once in a while, we can practice it. Corporations routinely operate in different countries, and the governments they control likewise promote their agendas across borders. It is one of the greatest aspirational goals of working people – the ability to confront bosses regardless of national borders. Marxists understand this cross-border goal reflexively, harkening back to the admonition: “Workers of all countries, unite!”
But too often it seems the best that trade unions can do is to offer rhetorical support to allied forces engaged in some battle or another with a common foe abroad. One key aspect of international labour solidarity seems however to be forgotten quite commonly in the US: the “international union” phenomenon.
This is the nearly unique situation in which huge numbers of workers in Canada belong to trade unions headquartered in the United States. Upwards of 25 percent of all union members in Canada today belonging to one of these “international” unions (IUs), which have their headquarters, most elected leaders and virtually all control centred in the United States. These unions are overwhelmingly older private sector unions, and are largely clustered in the building trades, manufacturing and a few other traditional sectors. With the more recent advent of all-Canadian unions and the large growth of public sector unions, the IU slice has shrunk but remains key in the overall labour movement in Canada.
“International” but not internationalist
It is key to grasp that the “international” label should never be confused with “internationalist,” as in practice virtually none of these US-based unions have ever seen their roles in some larger political context, and certainly not in a left or socialist one.
Notable exceptions would be the spread into Canada of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the early 1900’s, along with the later Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) union expansions into Canada in the 1930’s and 1940’s. And while the anti-communist purges of the 1940’s and 1950’s played out differently in Canada as opposed to the US, most international unions were eager partners in countless employer and government campaigns against left forces inside the Canadian labour movement.
The question of a union with members in Canada, but headquartered in the US, seems non-existent to most in the US labour movement today. The leadership of the dozens of international unions prefer it that way, taking quiet care to never encourage or inflame what they view as the “nationalist” feelings of their Canadian dues-payers. But the question of Canadian autonomy and possible independence is alive and well, never far below the surface – on the north side of the border, at least.
Given that the Canadian members in all of the IUs comprise only far-less-than-majority fragments of each union’s overall membership, there has developed an intrinsic understanding that while the Canadian members might exit the US parent union, by themselves they are incapable of winning control of the entire union. This has quietly condemned the Canadian sections of the IUs to perpetual second tier status in many ways.
In his autobiography, Hard Bargains, My Life on the Line, Bob White details the intolerable situation that developed as the Canadian section of the United Auto Workers (UAW) repeatedly caught the US-based auto union leadership undermining and selling out its Canadian members to favour US employers and members in the highly integrated cross-border auto industry. White led the Canadian Auto Workers’ secession from the UAW in 1985.
“Good enough” is a dangerous standard today
Some US-based unions have operated with respect and sensitivity to their Canadian membership, unevenly at times, but with select unions making significant efforts to bring them on more-or-less equal terms into the overall life of the union. But with completely different political situations, structures and cultures, not to mention completely different legal arrangements for the functioning of unions, real and sustained efforts are required for any US-based union to truly serve their Canadian membership in full and authentic ways.
Failed versions of international unions have commonly exhibited the tendency to impose unpopular edicts on unhappy members in Canada, by a US leadership primarily interested in collecting dues and maintaining control at any expense – and by any means. There are also incidents of IUs so utterly incompetent and nonfunctional that the Canadian section was compelled to seek autonomy or even separation merely to engage in ordinary trade union functions.
The second Trump term now ushers in a new and increasingly dangerous phase of malignant US imperialism. His sudden turn against Canada – and on other previously cooperative and subordinated regimes – launches the IU phenomenon into a new phase of importance. Canadian members of US-based unions face a new and gigantic question: are the US leaders of their unions doing something, or anything, to oppose the new Trump onslaught on Canada? On them? And for that matter, what are the Canadian leaders of these same international unions doing?
The Trump regime is openly declaring its intention to impose American hegemony on Canada – with or without the consent of people in Canada. This invigorated imperialist aggression and land-grab planning presents an expanded and urgent challenge for the Canadian members of the US-based unions. This includes unions that even recently might have been viewed as “good enough” by their members in Canada on general questions of autonomy and union functioning.
Canadian members of the IUs now face an exponentially critical new test. What might have been a satisfactory situation yesterday, with a US-based union functioning and delivering adequate results, is today woefully unprepared to resist the Trump assault. Or even to fully understand it.
Trump openly boasts of his desire to break-up Canada so it can be incorporated directly into the United States, on terms only benefiting the US. His Greenland territorial grab is merely a peripheral rehearsal for the real prize – Canada. He attacks Canada with a blizzard of political tariffs, damaging unilateral actions, slander and certain conniving with business tycoons, all aimed at eventually profiting from Canadian and resources and working people.
One can also be certain that Canadian allies of Trump – political, corporate, media and military – are well underway with their contemptible preparations to deliver Canada to him.
Trump has already placed the massive US military, intelligence, corporate and media apparatus unashamedly in the service of big business, as best evidenced by the Venezuelan oil grab. Working people on both sides of the Canada-US border dare not ignore this pivotal moment.
Where are the international union leaders?
Where are the leaders of the US-based international unions as this unfolds? Defending their Canadian members from these attacks automatically places these union leaders in opposition to Trump aggression, although the record will reflect that most of said unions have so far sought a “hideout” strategy. It is as if they hope that the Trumpzilla beast will strut by, engrossed with its own path of destruction, enabling the union to somehow escape notice or detection. While a contemptible and cowardly course, it at least offers a logic for the defense of the US membership.
But what of the Canadian members? Are they not in even greater danger across the board? Trump’s aggression is sure to escalate as his first year of performance can attest, with incorporation of Canada into the US as one of his stated goals. With no brake in evidence on his widening illegal conduct, good sense alone would dictate that Canada need take seriously the threat presented by Trump. Canada’s historic subordination to the massive US military and intelligence machinery makes this particularly worrisome.
The stakes for Canadian workers cannot be greater. The working class in Canada would be dragged backwards 100 years on all fronts should such a scheme succeed. US workers have already lived this experience, and the devastated and impoverished condition of the American working class offers a clear blueprint for what awaits its counterpart in Canada.
It seems apparent today that the US-based international union leaderships have presented only fragmented and scattered resistance to Trump and Trumpism, or none at all. There is scant evidence of any real planning for resistance, and what can be discerned is promulgated for the defense of the members in the US.
There is no evidence that the AFL-CIO intends to rally affiliates, or the IUs to ally with the labour movement in Canada in defence of all workers. There is also stark evidence that a number of IUs have accommodated Trump at times, been reluctant to denounce even his worst acts, and are seeking in some cases to curry favor with the malignant president for some hoped-for favour.
With this in mind, Canadian members of these unions should have little reason to hope that their US-based leaders will pursue much of a course opposing Trump’s attacks aimed at them.
Sounding the alarm
Knowledgeable observers of the international union reality are aware of their recent history at least, and some of their shortcomings and limitations as well. They are for now a fact of labour movement life, and have their impacts – good and bad – on the Canadian side of the border.
But the increasingly dangerous and deranged Trump era offers no possible benefit to the Canadian members of these unions. The risks in the IU realm are disproportionately borne by Canadians. As a longtime trade union leader from the US, I sound this alarm bell for unionists who are likely unaware of this historical oddity, and I raise the obligation to play our part in remedying the inadequate functioning of the IUs. Serious joint US-Canadian trade union opposition to Trump and his minions is long overdue.
The new situation might cement further the unity between the US and Canadian sections of an international union, or may dissolve it once and for all. Many disparate forces and histories are at play, and the course for each individual IU is likely to be left to them. At minimum, a discussion of this cross-border trade union reality is in order, with the left playing, as always, the informed and constructive role.
Our watchwords must be: “Workers of all countries, unite!” Working class unity and principled class struggle ideology is the way forward in this moment, and we must reject in the labour movement inaction, opportunism, self-serving scheming, accommodation with the aggression, and pandering to Trumpism and US imperialism – here and abroad.
Photo: Teamster leaders rally in support of Trump’s film tariffs
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