Mr. Speaker, in my riding, over 300 employees have been in a lock-out situation since January 14. Under federal legislation, their employer, a mining company, is allowed to hire strike replacements. This way, the company can avoid any form of bargaining with its employees despite the fact they want to bargain.
I wish to give the House notice that I will be tabling a bill similar to Bill C-201 presented by my colleague, the hon. member for Richelieu, a bill which was introduced in first reading on April 1989 and rejected by the Conservative government of the day. The Liberals, including several ministers from the present cabinet, voted for the bill at the time.
Let us hope that I will have the support of this House to pass this important bill to provide a "civilized" framework for labour relations and restore in many cases labour peace.