The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW-CANADA) recognizes that cars, as presently manufactured, pollute the environment, create ill health, contribute to climate change and create waste, all of which are not in society’s interest. Employers require workers to produce what they determine, and often counter proposed environmental regulatory requirements with the threat of job loss. The union, however, supports the use of environmental laws to drive change. 

Corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) laws, for example, have helped to make engines more fuel-efficient and have helped to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Clean fuels and clean vehicle regulations can help improve cars and the environment. As well, lighter cars should be produced. 

EPR requirements could result in the creation of more jobs in dismantling and re-use. Auto companies should be made to take back every piece of the car. We could introduce similar requirements as those of the European Directives and ban the use of certain heavy metals; allow no such materials into landfills; require manufacturers to pay for recycling and disposal of cars at the end of their life; and ensure that incineration is never considered as a form of or alternative to recycling. 

CAW members are committed to a clean environment in the context of the struggle for social justice, which is made more challenging by the current corporate agenda of globalization, de-regulation and free trade.