Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm extremely pleased to be here with you today to study this crucial bill. This is an extremely important bill for the rights of workers in federally regulated businesses.
By way of introduction, I'd like to remind you why we came up with a government bill today that proposes anti-scab measures and that's been long awaited by the labour movement and workers for decades.
After a minority government was elected in 2021, the Liberals and the NDP decided to enter into negotiations and reach a support agreement to ensure that Parliament could function and remain stable. One of the NDP's conditions was that anti-scab legislation be adopted. That would be a first, because the Conservatives and the Liberals had always rejected anti-scab legislation.
So we forced the Liberal minority government to agree to introduce anti-scab legislation. This bill may not be perfect and it needs improvement, but for the first time in the history of federal politics, we have the opportunity to protect workers' right in a labour dispute, be it a strike or a lockout.
We in the NDP are proud to have been able to force the Liberal government's hand and have this discussion today. We're proud to finally have the opportunity to avoid prolonged conflicts, to avoid conflicts with a great deal of tension, to avoid upsetting the balance of power between the union bargaining unit and an employer who, by using replacement workers, is preventing free collective bargaining and acceptable, constitutional pressure by workers.
Mr. Bolduc, we met a few years ago. You were president of the Journal de Québec union during a labour dispute. The situation was under provincial regulation and raised the important issue of remote work. In fact, the Quebec legislation included the concept of “establishment”, which made failing to report to the physical workplace a way to circumvent anti-scab provisions.
I'd like you to tell me how important it is, especially after the pandemic and given how many people work remotely, that this concept of establishment not be included in the current federal bill in order to protect workers who perform their duties remotely, online.