Absolutely. Over 22 months, almost 800 days, 800 sunrises and sunsets for 60 people, their spouses and their children. Obviously, I am not a politician. In every day life, I am a journalist in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, a region which, as you know, is still going through a major economic crisis.
I was listening to Mr. Kelly-Gagnon from the Conseil du patronat and I listen to the people from the Bloc Québebois and the Liberal Party. What I have been hearing since I got here this morning makes me think of a labour management dispute. Although I am the president of the union where I work, I do not want to refer to Bill C-257 as a bill that could be the object of a future labour management dispute. I want to refer to Bill C-257 as a way of harmonizing labour management relations, because for 800 days, my colleagues and I were on strike, and for 800 days, my managers had economic difficulties because of that labour dispute. Today, I have to tell you that federal replacement worker legislation would shorten labour disputes in Canada and at federally regulated companies. Let replacement workers replace people who want to settle a labour management dispute... The word “replacement” says it all. I lived through this situation for 800 days. Replacement workers are not skilled workers who have learned a trade day after day. Whether it is pilots, letter carriers, journalists or cameramen, replacement workers are people who show up without preparation to do a job that is usually done by people who know what they are doing.
So when you say replacement worker legislation will be harmful to the economy, let it be known that the disasters you anticipate, should conservatives, liberals, bloc and NDP vote in favour of this bill, won't come to pass, but the legislation will avoid the kind of tragedy we experienced in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Radio Nord Communications—and my managers are not here, but they admit this at our weekly labour relations meetings—lost, over the course of this dispute, $0.5 million. Had there been no replacement workers, we would have negotiated faster, settled faster and Radio Nord Communications would not have lost $0.5 million. And above all, two years after the dispute, my co-workers would not be asked to reduce their payroll by the equivalent of 300 hours per week to recover that $0.5 million.
So, the disaster the people from the Conseil du patronat and others anticipate, I have been through it, my 60 co-workers have been through it. So make sure it ends, because preventing management and labour from negotiating is silencing democracy. In my view, Canada, like all provinces of Canada, is a place where democracy rules. Let's make sure it continues to rule.