I'm going to testify in my capacity as a worker. I have been on the labour market for 40 years, 32 of which were spent at Canada Post Corporation. I've lived through several strikes, so I'm in a position to tell you a lot about my experience of the picket lines. Since I don't have much time, I'm going to try and give you a sense of what it means to be on strike and go on strike, with or without strikebreakers.
The decision to vote in favour of going on strike is a last recourse. No worker decides to go on strike with a great deal of delight. Being on strike leads to a high stress level since you don't know how long the strike will last or what sort of income you will have. Weekly allowances of $150 to $175 are certainly not enough to make an employee enjoy going on strike. You go on strike therefore as a last resort.
Let me take you back to the strike which took place at Canada Post Corporation in 1991. I worked at the Ville-Saint-Laurent mail sorting centre at the time and, as strikers, we were legally entitled to go on strike. Canada Post Corporation, which has a considerable amount of money, used strike breakers who were transported by helicopter over our heads to the facility. Furthermore, bodyguards with Doberman dogs patrolled the facility while we were stationed outside.
As if that wasn't enough, there was a convoy of about 10 bus loads full of strike breakers, which crossed the picket lines not only with the Montreal police but also with the anti-riot squad. I got three damaged ribs because of the anti-riot squad. I have to thank them for that and I often think about them.
I've known people who, throughout their career, were the types of people nobody ever talked about, model employees who, once on the picket line, changed altogether because they considered the use of replacement workers to be a legal form of theft. I believe our jobs are being stolen in such cases, even though we have the right to conduct a legal strike. Going on strike isn't something you consider doing initially, it is a last resort.
In my opinion, when you draft anti-scab legislation, you should think about the impact it may have on peoples' lives. Workers have seen their lives disrupted. Some people, including model employees, have lost their jobs because of strike breakers. Others have ended up with criminal records because of strikebreakers. Their lives are changed forever.
I don't know how many people around this table have experienced what I have just recounted, have been on the picket lines, been in confrontation with the police and not known whether they'd have a job when the strike ended. I don't know if many of you have had this experience, but I hope that you at least now get a sense of what such a dispute is like where, day after day, you have to go on the picket lines and watch strikebreakers cross over, sometimes with an air of arrogance, because they have police protection. I would not wish that on anyone.