I don't believe for a minute that this legislation will improve the collective bargaining process. I think this will embolden employers to hold out for not getting to a deal. We heard my friend Mark talk about the CEO of Air Canada admitting as much last summer during the Air Canada flight attendants' dispute.
Workers making a determination that they want to go out on strike is not an easy decision. Those are kitchen table conversations, and that comes after months and months at bargaining tables. That comes after many conversations within the workplace and with your families about whether you can afford to go out on strike and whether what's at stake is worth putting your livelihood at risk. The economic impact on workers is immediate. Their paycheques end when they start walking a picket line.
Not having the ability to hold employers accountable and force them to the bargaining table by withdrawing your labour upends the balance at the bargaining table. It is the only tool that workers and their unions have to enforce proper collective bargaining and force the employers to come in a meaningful way to negotiate.
I've spent many decades at bargaining tables. It comes down to how high that strike vote is 95% of the time. If the strike vote is high enough, then all of a sudden we see an employer's ability to come back with a better offer at the bargaining table. Without the ability to push the envelope and get the maximum leverage, we are going to have significantly more disputes.