Don't take all of my time. If the committee wants to give me two more hours, I will let you have the floor.
I am surprised to hear you say that 6,000 grievances for 12,000 employees is not very much. I would like you to tell me what you would consider to be a lot of grievances, what would the threshold be? Would it start at 6,001, 6,002, 8,000, 12,000, 15,000 or 20,000? That is my first question. In a previous incarnation I worked in labour relations, for 16 years. I have discussed, settled, arbitrated grievances. I was not an arbitrator, but I did argue and defend some of them in the course of the 16 years I spent in the pulp and paper industry.
Could the three companies that are before us ask their human resources people or labour relations team to provide us with a breakdown of grievances by subject? I have a lawyer's training. When a lawyer asks a question, it is because he already knows the answer. This exists and I would like to have the breakdown of grievances by topic. In other words, of the 6,000 grievances from the 12,000 CP employees, how many deal with safety in the workplace? Some of the 6,000 grievances may concern the interpretation of call-back provisions, overtime, etc.
When I was director of personnel, we had a very militant union that had filed a grievance asking that we support a campaign to boycott California grapes and bananas from Angola. That was one grievance. I saw a certain number of grievances. My vice-president in Montreal used to climb the walls when I would come in and tell him that I had more grievances on that.
And so I do not agree with you when you say that 6,000 grievances is not very many. I would like the three companies to tell us how many health and safety grievances they have pending currently. I want to know whether we are talking about a real issue. If we are talking about 15 or 20 grievances for 12,000 or 15,000 employees, there is no health and safety issue.