There may be a number of things. Consultation is a huge problem. I can name four or five examples in which the law technically makes it mandatory for an employer to consult with its employees or co-develop certain things.
The way we've been consulted in the past was essentially to be told here's the document, here's the plan. We're there to consult, but then they say, well, unfortunately, we can't really move on this, because we've already sent it to the board of directors; it's already approved by the board of directors, so really we're just letting you know what the plan is. That's considered a consultation. The issue with that is that creates labour relations issues, it creates grievances, it creates legal challenges.
The five-point action plan may be the perfect example of this. We were in bargaining, and the corporation's position was that they were offering a deal, which we really didn't want, and they told us essentially that if we didn't bring this to the membership, they would offer a worse deal; so, under threat. Right after we agreed to bring that final offer to our membership for a vote, they suddenly came out with the five-point action plan. They hadn't consulted with anyone prior to that. We filed some unfair labour practice complaints.
That was also part of their rationale to say that they would never get a special deal from the Government of Canada for the pension plan. Sure enough, right after that happened, with the five-point action plan, they released the temporary pension solvency relief. So we were blindsided by the five-point action plan and we were blindsided by the pension relief. I would say we were more than blindsided, actually; we were misled, because we were told that would never happen.
The public message is always that they work with the stakeholders, but my personal experience has been the complete opposite.