Liberals must act to protect workers from Trump’s aluminum tariffs

OTTAWA – Canadian workers in the aluminum sector are worried about their livelihoods following Donald Trump’s announcement of new punitive tariffs on Canadian aluminum. Despite being warned that Trump would likely take this type of action, the Liberals have yet to announce a plan to provide security and peace of mind for workers in the sector.

“We’ve been saying for years that the Liberals should not have put so much trust into Donald Trump,” said NDP Critic for Labour, Scott Duvall. “From day one, we have been calling on the Liberals to strengthen Canada’s manufacturing sector here at home and implement legislation to protect workers. We’ve called for better planning for this type of attack from trading partners that the federal government has let have too much control here in Canada and to protect workers’ pensions from corporate theft in case of bankruptcy. Liberals are missing in action and workers are going to pay the price.”

Following the US President’s announcement of the tariffs last night, the Liberals announced today that they will launch consultations with different industries that depend on aluminum to learn about the impacts of their retaliatory tariffs. However, workers are left to wonder what this means for their jobs and their ability to pay their bills.

“Hoping for the best isn’t enough,” said NDP Critic for Export Promotion and International Trade, Daniel Blaikie. “Planning for the worst means acting now to put real pension protection in place for workers and committing to using the money raised through retaliatory tariffs to support the aluminum industry and its workers.”