Thank you, Chair.
The United Transportation Union is an international trade union with over 125,000 members throughout Canada and the United States. We represent employees in the railway, bus, and airline industries, with a preponderance of our membership working in federal juridiction in Canada. Our members contribute heavily to the economic and social fabric of Canadian society at every level and in almost every community. Our members work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, in one of the most dangerous and demanding industries in Canada.
Currently, we're in contract negotiations with CN Rail with a strike and lockout deadline of February 9, 2007, looming before us. The committee should be aware that in accordance with the provisions of part 1 of the code, we sought a maintenance of activities agreement with CN; however, CN determined that no such agreement was necessary. In addition to the written text of this brief, the committee should also be aware that we've twice reached out to CN rail for a maintenance of activities agreement to deal with the issue of commuter transit in Toronto and Montreal, and still today there has been no response from CN.
We're pleased to have the opportunity to address the committee on this most important issue. We believe Bill C-257 can improve part 1 of the code by building a measure of fairness into it that currently does not exist. We believe this bill to be in the public interest and in the interest of fairness between workplace parties as a whole.
Labour law in Canada has long recognized the right to strike. This right provides a union its strongest opportunity for economic sanction to be leveraged on an employer through collective withdrawal of their services by its members to support its position in collective bargaining. The right to fair and free collective bargaining has been a fundamental right within our society for a very long time and is consistent with the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, adopted in 1998. This right to strike is fundamental to the Canada Labour Code and is but one of the many rights and obligations that govern labour relations in the federal sector.
The code acts as the vehicle by which both workplace parties, through their collective agreement relationship, can assure labour peace and measurable costs and benefits for a specific amount of time. The requirements related to the duty of fair representation and the grievance and arbitration process make sure workplace differences are resolved. The only opportunity a union has to bring economic pressure to bear on the employer is through the bargaining process, by exercising their right to strike at the expiration of an agreement; this committee knows full well that only 3% of collective agreement disputes ever get to the point of a strike or lockout situation.
Economically speaking, the balance of power between an employer and a union at the beginning of a strike is influenced by things both are entitled to consider. The union has to decide whether it will withdraw its services by engaging in a strike, while the employer must decide if they should hang onto positions that might result in a strike. Both parties begin a process whereby they determine, on the one hand, their ability to withstand a strike, and on the other hand, their acceptance of economic pressure through a strike.
The right to strike, as with all aspects of a union's functions, is set out carefully in the code. It is this process that provides a balance between the rights and obligations of the workplace parties in their relationship.
Replacement workers, not being a part of the bargaining unit, are strangers to that bargaining relationship. They have no level of participation in the collective bargaining process, nor do they have a community of interest with the employer. Replacement workers do not vote in the democratic process that seeks a strike mandate, and bringing replacement workers into the workplace interferes with the balance of power that the workplace parties have established and measured at the beginning of a strike. Research has shown linkages between the introduction of replacement workers and numerous negative effects. These negative effects include greater picket-line violence and unnecessarily prolonged strike action.
When replacement workers are brought into a strike situation, they normally come into direct contact with picketers and other union members who may also support the strike. This type of contact is counterproductive, inflammatory, and disruptive. Picketers view replacement workers with contempt, because they are aliens to the historical relationship between the employer and the striking employees. The replacement workers are seen as a means to dilute the economic pressure being placed on the strike-bound employer.
Such circumstances and the emotions involved become a recipe for escalating picket line incidents and increased vigilance, if and when violence should unfortunately occur.
It's in no one's interest to see violence occur at any time; however, there are a few examples when an unscrupulous employer has relied on this type of provocation to intimidate striking workers. Violence on picket lines can only poison relationships for years to come, in the workplace and in the community.
The effects of these poisoned relationships remain long after the strike is ended. If a picketer engages in criminal conduct, he or she is disciplined for it. That discipline is then handled under the collective bargaining agreement, and it has a tendency to delay the duration and the resolution of strikes.
Additionally, when all is considered together, these dynamics are harmful and will likely damage and/or interfere in the re-establishment of the bargaining relationship over the term of the next agreement.
Members of this committee understand the obligations and responsibilities that unions have under the code, and we're equally confident you are also aware of the employer's obligations and rights under the code. In the interests of time, we won't reiterate them here.
Suffice it to say that there are ample checks and balances built into the code, including numerous prohibitive clauses. Without getting into the morass of statistics, we believe the issue that needs to be looked at is what labour relations are like when replacement workers are used and what they're like when they aren't.
If one believes there's a balance of power under the code during a strike when replacement workers are allowed, then how is that balance maintained when an employer locks out its employees?
With that, Mr. Chairman, in the interest of time I'll close and thank the members of the committee for their time, and certainly the members of Parliament who saw this bill through to this level—and beyond, I'm sure.