Thank you.
My name is Dave Coles. I am the president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. With me is my confrere, Gaetan Ménard, who is the secretary-treasurer of CEP.
I'd like to take a second to thank the panel for giving us the time to appear before you. It's a very serious matter. I would also like to apologize to the interpreter, because we have modified our presentation somewhat from the one we e-mailed.
For those of you who do not know, I'd like to spend just a few minutes telling you a bit about our union. We have 150,000 members from coast to coast to coast. While the majority of our members work in industries that fall under various provincial jurisdictions, some 45,000 of our members do work under the federal code: broadcasting, telecommunications, and trucking--those that fall under the federal code. Some gas and pipelines that cross interprovincial boundaries are also federally regulated. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, we have a very keen interest in the important work you are doing.
I am sure it will not surprise you to know that our union supports the enactment of Bill C-257 in its present form. We think it presents a balance of all the varying and various interests involved in labour relations and collective bargaining. I want to talk a bit about the balance and my own personal experience.
I am from the west. I come from British Columbia, and I spent a good deal of my working life in Alberta at a time when neither jurisdiction had legislation limiting the use of replacement workers. In my experience, the workers who paid the greatest price in that era were those who had the least power and control in their lives. There are a number of examples, but I'll keep it short because of the time delays.
At the Gainers food processing plant in Alberta and at Purdy's Chocolates in B.C., which we represented, it was largely women, new Canadians, and single parents on the picket line. Ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you first-hand that the Gainers strike lasted months longer than it should have and had excessive violence, while the Purdy's dispute was shorter, with no violence, because Alberta allowed the use of replacement workers while B.C. did not. With Bill C-257, those vulnerable workers in Alberta would not have fallen victim to the imbalance injected into the bargaining process by the importation of strikebreakers. The economic price paid by both sides during those disputes would have been equal, and those employers would have had a much greater incentive to settle.
In 1993, B.C. enacted legislation similar to Bill C-257, and since then, not only has the number of disputes declined by 50%, but so has the number of days lost to strikes and lockouts. Compare that, ladies and gentlemen, to some of the most recent disputes in the federal jurisdiction. Aliant telephone company, which we represent in Atlantic Canada, used replacement workers to extend our strike to more than five months. Telus, which paid people huge bonuses to cross the picket line last year, kept their workers on a lockout for more than four months. That is exactly what I mean when I say that Bill C-257 will inject balance into the bargaining.
At this time, I would like to turn the microphone over to my confrere, Gaetan Ménard, to give you his presentation of what is happening in Quebec.