Indeed, when it comes to defining essential services, the act may apply differently depending on the industry. If you're talking about a transportation company, I think that the notion of essential services does not apply the same way if I am talking about screeners or people who are in charge of security at the Toronto Airport. So each case is unique, and this how the two other pieces of legislation are applied.
As the Teamsters union, we indeed represent locomotive engineers throughout the country. Every train running in Canada today is run by members of the Teamsters. Seventy per cent of airport security personnel is with the Teamsters. We are involved in the fields of road transportation and postal services. Some of these industries compete with one another. It's not because one of them is on strike that another cannot function.
When it comes to industries on which Canadians depend for their well-being, and I mean all Canadians, we recognize that there must be some form of essential services. However, we don't need a 500-page manual to define them. There has to be some provision which obliges the parties to sit down together and to decide what essential services Canadians are entitled to make sure that the system works. However, at the same time, there has to be a balance between both sides; this is what is most important. Furthermore, Canadians who go on strike in a given situation must have a fair chance of reaching an agreement which satisfies everybody. I think that is what we are looking for. There must be essential services. But we now have to define what they are for each industry.