The horrendous give-backs engineered by Bieber in the years immediately prior to the 1984-85 split were temporarily opposed by the Canadian UAW/CAW leadership, not on the basis of opposition to the subordination of workers’ livelihoods to investor profit, but on the calculation that the automakers enjoyed a substantial labour cost advantage in Canada, due to the lower value of the Canadian dollar, state-funded health insurance (Medicare), and newer, more productive plants.