Catherwood LibraryILR School

In the midst of talks surrounding the renegotiation and revamping of NAFTA, a main point of contention has been labor regulation within member countries. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada has called on the U.S. to abolish “right-to-work” states, claiming that these states, and the possibility of this legislation spreading to other U.S. states, hurts Canadian labor. Because right-to-work laws allow workers to bypass compulsory union dues and union membership as a condition of employment, employers are generally supportive of this legislation seeing as how it diminishes union membership and, therefore, union leverage at the bargaining table. The Canadian administration’s close relationship with large labor unions, such as Unifor, differs greatly from the relationship the Trump administration holds with labor, and U.S. officials have outright rejected Trudeau’s proposal. However, legislators within the U.S., such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are internally pushing for a weakening of right-to-work laws regardless of the administration’s anti-union leanings.