Perhaps I could respond.
The rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association are also human rights, as is the right to equal pay for work of equal value. We value, as employers, both of those rights, and we're compelled to deal with both of those rights simultaneously.
I should read to you something that was been prepared in 1998 by the CLC's Women's Symposium. It's from Restructuring Work and Labour in the New Economy, Equity Bargaining/Bargaining Equity. It says, and I quote:
The labour movement in Canada has come to realize that we cannot rely on legislation to achieve and protect equity equality issues. Collective bargaining is a much more effective mechanism for ensuring that these rights exist. Bargaining equity measures also means the resolution for complaints can be addressed to the grievance procedure, a quicker and less costly process. It is essential that equality issues become central to the collective bargaining objectives.
This is a position that has been adopted by the Canada Labour Congress, the Women's Symposium, November 1 to 3, 1998.