Thank you.
I'm Deborah Bourque. I'm the national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. On behalf of our 54,000 members, I want to thank you for the opportunity to present our views on Bill C-257. For your information, the majority of our members work at Canada Post. We represent some private sector bargaining units, some under the federal legislation and some under provincial legislation, but the vast majority of our members work for Canada Post and they are federally regulated.
CUPW members have seen our major employer, Canada Post, use scabs during strikes in 1987 and 1991. So we know first-hand how the use of scabs can cause suffering, can divide communities, can make strikes longer, and can cause violence on picket lines. I know this committee has already heard example after example, from the Canadian Labour Congress and others, of similar experiences.
I want to say that the Canadian Union of Postal Workers wholeheartedly supports the submission made by the Canadian Labour Congress yesterday.
On the other hand, there are many clear examples of the benefits of anti-scab legislation, and I'm sure you've heard some of those as well. I will underscore some of those examples. Provincially, Quebec outlawed the use of scabs in 1977, and the average number of days of work lost to labour disputes dropped. British Columbia ended the use of scabs in 1993 and experienced a 50% drop in the amount of work time lost to strikes and lockouts the following year.
I think it is ironic that the major strikes in Quebec and British Columbia that most rankled workplaces were TELUS and Vidéotron, and both fell under the Canada Labour Code rather than the provincial code.
Internationally, we have examples of anti-scab legislation in Germany, France, and Italy, as well as in northern Europe. Research done by Labour Canada, Statistics Canada, and the Canada Industrial Relations Board shows that anti-scab regulation, where it exists in Canada, has not disrupted the workplace balance, led to increased work stoppages, or brought unrealistic pay demands from union negotiators.
I note that our own employer, Canada Post, was a signatory to the full-page spread in The Hill Times this Monday lobbying you to dismantle this bill. I shouldn't be surprised, given Canada Post's choice of confrontation over negotiation and their use of scabs during our 1987 and 1991 strikes. I am, however, shocked that Canada Post didn't learn from those bitter experiences, which included violence. Certainly, the mail was not delivered and processed during that time. It was simply a confrontation. It was simply an attempt to break the union and to undermine our collective bargaining. It resulted in mass firings of folks who were reinstated later at arbitration, and it also had a serious impact on the future of labour relations in the post office, not to mention the exploitation of unemployed and largely immigrant workers who were forced to work as scabs.
The executive vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Garth Whyte, says that this bill will make Canada less competitive and that it threatens the survival of small businesses that rely on federally regulated services like Canada Post.
I want to say that the CFIB has a history of exaggerating the impact of postal strikes on their members.
In 1981 the CFIB stated publicly that our strike caused 3,000 bankruptcies. Statistics provided by the Superintendent of Bankruptcy proved that statement to be completely false, and in fact, revealed that the strike had no significant impact on business bankruptcies. In 2002, Mr. Whyte told Direct Marketing News that they had a 15,000-member survey in which respondents claimed, with no back-up, that the postal strike directly or indirectly impacted their business, and concluded that the 1997 strike was costing small business $300 million a day. I note that in recent op-eds and open letters he's saying it cost them $200 million a day. In July 2003, even about a threatened strike that didn't happen, Mr. Whyte said, “This postal strike has the potential of being SARS and BSE combined to our membership.” This is an absolutely outrageous prediction.
This committee should seriously examine the record of the CFIB in terms of its statements concerning postal strikes.
I want to point out, as well, that Canada Post is not an essential service. I would argue that it's an incredibly important service to the population and communities and business all across Canada and Quebec, but it's not an essential service.
I just want to speak briefly about the notion of essential services. Unions negotiate essential services with their employers, because they understand the importance of the work they do. This legislation should not impact on that. There's a large difference between folks providing essential services and scabs. Members that provide essential services are not even close to scabs—so that can be rectified very easily. We support essential services.
CUPW also understands that postal strikes have an impact on postal users, and we've tried to minimize that impact on the most vulnerable groups, such as seniors and low-income people. Our members actually deliver cheques during our postal strikes. The union meets for months with Canada Post before potential strikes to ensure those cheques are processed and delivered by our members in spite of any labour dispute we have with our employer—and we've been doing that since 1981.
In closing, I'd like to say that CUPW members support this bill because we've had direct experience with replacement workers and because we know that the use of scabs seriously undermines free collective bargaining and any notion of balance of power within labour relations.
I also want to take the opportunity to thank the members of Parliament who have supported this legislation and fought for it for years, and the many activists, as well, who have worked so hard lobbying, gathering signatures, and mobilizing support for this legislation.
Thank you for the opportunity to make this brief statement. I'd be happy to answer any questions.