Mr. Speaker, the bill introduced by the hon. member for Lethbrige deals with grain tranportation from the point of production to the point of export.
If we go back a little, we find that this bill has its origin in a work stoppage which occurred last February at the port of Vancouver. To better understand the scope and the reasons of this bill, we must go back in time.
On January 27, in Vancouver, representatives of the Longshoremen's Union and management failed to come to an agreement. The union decided to go on legal strike at the port of Chemainus on Vancouver Island. Two days later, on January 29, management reacted by imposing a lock-out. On February 8, that is 10 or 11 days later, the Minister of Human Resources Development had this House pass Bill C-10 forcing longshoremen back to work. That bill imposed a settlement of the labour dispute. It provided for the appointment of an arbitrator to whom both parties where to submit their final offers. He would then choose one of the two which would be the new collective agreement.
This way of doing things is contrary to the bargaining process since it totally rejects one of the two offers. The object of bargaining is to find a compromise fair to both parties.
At the time, my colleague from Mercier had proposed an amendment which would have made the bill more in keeping with the spirit of collective bargaining. She was proposing to let the arbitrator choose parts of both offers to construct a final offer which would contain elements proposed by both parties. As I said, the essence of bargaining is finding the right compromise.
The amendment of my colleague from Mercier was rejected by the Liberals opposite who argued that their basic idea was the best, and rejected also by Reformers who considered that this bill did not go far enough. They will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the bill before us today espouses the same logic. They want to settle once and for all labour disputes affecting the export of grain.
To this end, the bill proposes two measures. The first one is to forbid employees to strike and employers to lock them out, if this strike or lock-out would cause cessation of work by any employee whose work is essential to any stage of the progress of grain from the premises of the producer of the grain to export. The second one is to make grain transportation an essential service.
This is the crux of the matter. Is grain transportation an essential service? You will understand that, for our part, we too are sticking to the same logic as last winter and spring by vigorously opposing this bill.
By removing the right to strike and to lock out, bargaining powers are reduced to nothing. We recognize that grain export constitutes a special case. Last winter, the strike was having devastating consequences for western producers: the grain shipped to port could not be loaded on the 25 foreign ships waiting for their cargo. Some even sailed to an American port to
get their cargo. Obviously, when Canada does not meet its grain export obligations, it has a serious impact on the industry. But we believe that this is not the way to solve the problem.
Many strikes in this industry have ended in ad hoc legislation by the governement. Earlier today, I learned, much to my surprise, that since 1966, in 28 years, no less than 13 ad hoc bills have been passed in order to settle disputes in the port of Vancouver. This is an average of a little more than one ad hoc piece of legislation every two years. Serious questions have to be asked. What is happening there? What is the matter?
Is management taking advantage of those employees? How come the federal government has had to intervene 13 times to settle directly a labour dispute? Mr. Speaker, this might make you smile, but I have a friend who is getting divorced for the sixth time. I told him: "Listen, there is a problem. It is either you or the women you choose. Either you do not know how to choose your girlfriends or you are the problem".
Thirteen bills in 30 years, that denotes a serious problem. I suggest to members of the Reform Party that labour relations should probably be looked at. There is probably a problem in that famous seaport, if not in all the west coast harbours, because it is not normal to have labour strikes every two years.
I have been on strike before, and I was proud of it. An employee on strike loses his salary. His ultimate goal when striking is to put an end to some injustice.
If an employee loses money, the employer should also lose money. I barely had time to say half of what I had in mind, but I will conclude by saying this: unfortunately, the Bloc Quebecois will vote with the government and against the Reform Party, because this bill does not agree with our policies.
In Quebec, we know about essential services, and we associate them with hospital workers, firemen, and policemen, but not with seaports. If we were to let longshoremen become essential services, tomorrow it would be the bulk milk carriers, the day after, workers in feed mills, because people would say: "Oh, those poor cows, sheep, pigs and hens will have nothing to eat!"
Mr. Speaker, obviously this does not make sense, members of the Bloc Quebecois will simply vote against this legislation and support the Liberal Party, in order to defeat the Private Members' bill presented by the hon. member for Lethbridge.